Past
Grantees

Directors authorized a grant of $10,000 to the CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT ARTISTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the production of Indian Cowboy at the Asia Society, New York City. The Center for Independent Artists is a service and presenting organization that assists artists in the development and presentation of new work. It frequently acts as fiscal sponsor for independent artists' proposals. Playwright, director and performer Zaraawar Mistry's work Indian Cowboy was commissioned and produced by Mixed Blood Theatre in early 2006. It chronicles the misadventures of a young man in India and America. It's performed on a bare stage, lit entirely by candlelight, without any props or costume changes. Mistry portrays over a dozen characters based on the tale of a young man who comes to America after being found as an infant, by the side of the road, by three brothers from the minority Parsi community of India. The piece is extrapolated from Mistry's personal history with the aim of being a universal tale of an individual looking for a place in the world. The presentation of this work at the Asia Society is strategically designed to advance Mistry's work on a national level and enlarge his audience.

MIXED BLOOD THEATRE COMPANY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $11,700 in support of commissions of new works by emerging playwrights and the development and production of those works. Founded in 1976, Mixed Blood is a professional, multiracial theatre promoting cultural pluralism and individual equality through artistic excellence. It is committed to producing plays that use culture-conscious casting, providing a forum for theatre artists of color to practice their craft, taking artistic risks in the selection and production of plays, reaching non-traditional theatre audiences and providing educational programs on racial and cultural themes. Jerome support covers commissions, development, production and dramaturgical services. Works include single-playwright scripts as well as productions built from short commissioned plays by several playwrights addressing particular subjects or themes.

MIZNA, Minneapolis, Minnesota, is an Arab-American organization devoted to promoting Arabic culture, giving voice to Arabs through literature, art and community events.  A two-year grant of $32,000 will support the Mizna literary journal, which publishes new work by emerging and established artists, Arabs and non-Arabs.  In January of 2006, Mizna proudly released the 17th issue of Mizna: Prose, Poetry, and Art Exploring Arab America.  The selection process for writers begins with a call for submissions, which are then reviewed by a journal selection committee.  Jerome funding of the journal supports artists' fees and publication expenses, with the requirement that a majority of the artists published be residents of Minnesota and/or New York City.

MOMENTA ART, Brooklyn, New York, received $14,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists from New York City and Minnesota in the 2006-07 exhibition season. Momenta presents six exhibitions each year, culled from a review of submissions from artists and visits to artists' studios. Exhibitions feature a wide range of media, and evidence a commitment to ethnic and racial diversity as well as to a broad range of conceptual and aesthetic concerns. Founded and operated by artists, Momenta recently relocated to a larger and more prominently located space, which is already drawing increased attention to exhibitions featuring works by emerging artists.

CHRISTOPHER MORGAN, a New York City-based choreographer, received funds to travel to Molokai, Hilo, and Maui, Hawaii studying the most ancient forms of Hula and chants of his native ancestors with master teacher (Kumu Hula) John Kaimikaua. When missionaries first arrived in Hawaii in the 1800s, a suppression of culture ensued and a modern version of hula was created. Morgan will study the true root of the form, which is Kahiko.

MU PERFORMING ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $35,000 in support of the New Performance Program. Mu Performing Arts is a Pan-Asian entity that creates theater and Taiko from the heart of the Asian American experience. It blends Asian and Western theatrical forms in telling Asian American stories. The New Performance Program will commission new works from seven emerging artists, develop those works, and produce a select number in the mainstage season. Attention will focus on experimental and interdisciplinary theatrical performance, encompassing spoken word and nontraditional performance. The Program will unfold in several phases.

As part of a multi-year commitment to conducting necessary preservation work on Jerome Hill's films, the Foundation approved a grant of $100,000 to the MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, New York City, to continue this work. The Foundation's first grant supported intake, assessment and preservation work on Jerome Hill's autobiographical Film Portrait. Preservation work was initiated on Jerome Hill and Erica Anderson's 1957 Academy Award winning film Albert Schweitzer. Restored prints of both were shown at the Museum of Modern Art during the Jerome Hill Centennial. This second commitment will enable the Museum's Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Center to complete work on Albert Schweitzer, and undertake preservation work on Jerome Hill's short films, including the documentary on Grandma Moses.

NEW GEORGES, New York City, received a two-year grant of $30,000 in support of the development and production of new works. New Georges is an innovative producer of ambitious new plays and a supportive, productive home for promising and accomplished women theater artists. Jerome funding is directed toward play development activities and new works production. In The Room program, New Georges supports development through the provision of affordable, accessible work space for workshops, rehearsals, readings and staged readings. Women and Monsters, a process oriented workshop, serves teams of artists engaged in long-term collaborations.

DANCE THEATER WORKSHOP, New York City, received $35,000 in support of the Bessie Schnberg/First Light Commissioning Program. Dance Theater Workshop, one of the country's preeminent service, producing and presenting organizations, is dedicated to identifying and nurturing talented emerging and mid-career artists working in diverse cultural contexts, stimulating a broader audience and public context for these artists and their works, and offering opportunities via an interactive community laboratory for the imagination and its essential, practical application to the surrounding world. Jerome funding will support commissions to emerging choreographers for the development of new work for presentation in the 2006-07 season. These commissions supplement guaranteed performance fees, production services, and promotional support provided to artists as part of the ongoing sponsorship program. It is anticipated that 11 emerging choreographers or pairs of collaborators will be commissioned.

The NEW YORK MILLS ARTS RETREAT AND REGIONAL CULTURAL CENTER, New York Mills, Minnesota, received $16,000 in support of the 2006-07 Artist-in-Residence Program. The Arts Retreat provides opportunities for artists of all disciplines to make new works while sharing their creative energies with the community. The Center includes a gallery, performance space and large studio on the second floor for use by visiting artists. There is an Arts Retreat house for the resident artists. Applications are competitively reviewed for residency opportunities of two to four weeks. The primary purpose of these residencies is to support the creation of new work. A majority of the residency artists are emerging artists from New York City and/or Minnesota.

NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP, New York City, received a two-year grant of $38,000 in support of activities that encourage and support emerging playwrights. From readings and small-scale studio productions to fellowships intended to advance the skills of promising minority theater artists, the Workshop provides a wide range of creative learning opportunities crucial to the Workshop's mission of artistic growth among theater artists. The Workshop maintains a primary commitment to a community of directors, playwrights, actors and designers known as the Usual Suspects, a group of more than 300 theater artists. Founded in 1979, New York Theatre Workshop is committed to the development of innovative and unpredictable theater by supporting theater artists at all stages of their careers.

CHRIS NEWBERRY received support for Medicine Box: Health Care and the New Americans, an hour-long documentary that uncovers the struggles facing immigrants and refugees as they navigate the American health care system. Every week, at least 50 new immigrants arrive in Minnesota-Mexican, Somali, Hmong and Russian, many of them refugees. The differing social and medical needs of these diverse immigrant groups are often minimized or misunderstood. The result? Poor healthcare for immigrants and more expenses for our health care system.

SACHIKO NISHIUCHI, a flamenco choreographer in Minneapolis, will travel to Seville, Spain, to attend the Bienal de Flamenco Festival and take flamenco dance classses with various master instructors. She will focus mostly on flamenco theater shows, which involve themes or stories and use media beyond singing, guitar and dancing. The Bienal will take place in September and October of 2006. In addition to dance classes, Nishiuchi will also take instruction in flamenco singing.

The NORTHERN CLAY CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $53,000 in support of the Jerome Ceramic Artists Project and Residency Grants Program. The Center's mission is the advancement of the ceramic arts. Programs include classes, workshops, exhibitions, studio space and grants for artists, and a sales gallery. The Ceramic Artists Project and Residency Grants Program annually solicits applications from emerging artists, reviews them with the assistance of an independent selection panel and nominators, and awards two $6,000 project grants and either two $3,000 or one $6,000 residency grant. The project and residency grants may be used to experiment with new techniques and materials, work or study with a mentor, seek a critique from a respected figure, purchase equipment to facilitate investigation, subsidize working time in the studio, purchase supplies, contract for technical support, collaborate with other artists, and pursue exhibition opportunities.

OBSIDIAN ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $10,000 in support of its Exhibition Program. Obsidian Arts aims to increase the awareness and appreciation of black visual art and artists. Jerome support will be directed toward five exhibitions including a major summer installation and public art project titled Exploding Language: The Black Arts Movement 2007. Other exhibitions include a photographic survey of hands in tension-filled moments; a show of works exploring the emotional, creative and intellectual differences among people of various social, ethnic and cultural backgrounds; works by Cuban and Afro-Cuban artists as contemporary and historical sources for black cultural identity, and works inspired by respected quilter, teacher and storyteller Wilma Gairy.

New York City-based film animator TOMOKO OGUCHI received funding to travel to Mino City, Japan, to participate in a washi papermaking class. Oguchi will study the process of making the paper, as well as the history of washi paper. Washi is used to create lanterns, clothing and toys in Japan. Oguchi uses washi as an essential material in her animation films and intends to make her own paper for future films.

LANRE OLABISI received support for August the First, a feature narrative whose story begins on a promising day. Preparations are wrapping up for a graduation party celebrating a principal character's educational achievement. Friends and family have agreed to reunite on the one day in his honor. As people arrive and the party begins, a dark history begins to unfold with the return of a surprise guest. Unfortunately, the reunion brings turmoil as secrets are revealed, old wounds are reopened, and bad habits are revived. Actions or inactions in the face of life's hardships etch a family dynamic, which is captured in the history of this African-American family.

P.S. 1 CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER, Long Island City, New York, received $10,000 in support of the 2005-06 Special Projects program. P.S. 1's programs foster uninhibited artistic exploration and stimulate discourse on the complex and dynamic art of our time. The Special Projects program gives to emerging artists spaces in which to work for extended periods on projects that develop and flourish within those spaces. A Special Project may be an installation, a film or video project, a presentation of paintings or drawings-anything is possible, and the results usually defy categorization. At the root of the Special Projects program is a generative energy arising from the presence of artist and curator together in a space, and the inspiration and growth fostered by the interaction of the P.S. 1 community. Selection is based on a rolling review and submission policy, which gives the curatorial staff of P.S. 1 the opportunity to respond quickly to imaginative and vibrant new work.

Writer ISHLE YI PARK, Queens, New York, will spend a month in South Korea to better visualize the city where her aunt was raised, conduct interviews, and undertake research on women who married American soldiers. This will inform the writing of a novel about a young Korean woman emigrating to America in the 1960s, titled Kunemo, a fictionalized account of Park's aunt, a former bar girl and army bride. Park will spend three weeks in Daegu to take extensive sensory notes on the place her aunt was born. She will then travel to Seoul to learn more about women who reside in the camptowns that surround US.military bases. Park will also investigate nonprofit organizations that provide services for camptown women.

PATRICK'S CABARET, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $40,000 in support of its Core Program, which presents an eclectic mix of emerging artists testing audience reaction to new works. The Cabaret is a crucible for the development of new work rather than a production house; it also empowers artists to market their performances and provides opportunities for independent curators to construct programs.