Past
Grantees

THE SOAP FACTORY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $22,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists from Minnesota and New York City in the 2006 Exhibition Program. The Soap Factory, a nonprofit alternative space, is dedicated to the production, presentation and promotion of emerging contemporary practice across the visual arts, media installation and performance. Dedicated to experimentation and risk taking, The Soap Factory is committed to a curatorial process that engages a variety of viewpoints and an open application procedure.

SOCRATES SCULPTURE PARK, Long Island City, New York, received a two-year grant of $40,000 in support of the Emerging Artist Fellowship Program. Sited on what was once an abandoned riverside landfill and illegal dumpsite, Socrates Sculpture Park provides artists with opportunities to create and exhibit large-scale sculpture and multimedia installations in an outdoor environment that encourages interaction among the artists, the art works and the public. Occupying four and a half acres on the East River waterfront overlooking the Manhattan skyline, the Park is open free of charge year-round and makes both the creative process and finished art work accessible to broad and diverse audiences. The Emerging Artist Fellowship Program provides to competitively selected artists financial support and access to materials, equipment and technical assistance as they create new public works that are sited at the Park. The program encourages young artists to experiment and take risks with their work, in order to realize innovative and ambitious projects.

THE SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $60,000 in support of artists' commissions for ELECTRIC EYES: NEW MUSIC & MEDIA FESTIVAL. The Southern Theater's mission is to build and sustain a vibrant artistic community by supporting creative independent performing artists and presenting them to an audience in an intimate environment that encourages artistic exploration. The Southern will launch a two-year pilot encompassing ten commissions and productions of original works performed by their creators. The focus is collaborative work that pairs new music with multimedia. Artists will receive commissioning fees, performance fees, subsidy for equipment rental, and creative consulting. The Southern will provide a range of services designed to add value to each artist's work including lighting design, technical consultation, marketing and front-of-house services and a facilitated feedback/peer review process.

THE FIELD, New York City, acting as fiscal sponsor for ROSEANNE SPRADLIN DANCE, received $10,000 in support of the development and production of new work. RoseAnne Spradlin Dance was founded in 1995. Jerome funding will be directed to the creation and production of Survive Cycle, an evening-length dance work investigating destructive processes, natural and unnatural, as a means to explore dancing with the blows of life. The theme will be followed through several levels of meaning, exploring the personal, cultural and global reverberations of cycles of excess and decline, accumulation and decay.

SPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $62,000 in support of services to artists and its new Diversity and Accessibility Initiative. Serving numerous artists and nonprofit arts organizations each year through a range of services and programs, Springboard is skilled at offering consultations and professional development opportunities to individual artists. It maintains a loan fund for artistic and business development, an Emergency Relief Fund, and computer workspace and meeting spaces for artists. A new translation and training program will expand the ways Springboard serves immigrant artists.

THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM, New York City, received $11,000 in support of the Artists-in-Residence Program. The Studio Museum, a collecting and exhibiting institution, is a nexus for Black artists locally, nationally and internationally and for work that is inspired and influenced by Black culture. The Artists-in-Residence Program offers studio spaces in the Museum, stipends, materials, professional mentoring and a culminating exhibition in the Museum's gallery, with a catalog, to three competitively selected emerging artists each year. Studio spaces are generous in size and accessible to the artists 24-hours a day, seven days a week. The Program provides opportunities for emerging artists of African descent to create new work and benefit from a number of professional development initiatives. It has fostered the careers of over 100 artists.

THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM, New York City, is a collecting and exhibiting institution that is a nexus for black artists locally, nationally and internationally, and for work that is inspired and influenced by black culture. In addition to exhibitions, the Museum offers an educational program for young people, literary readings and performing arts events, and an active critical dialogues program focusing on the intersection of black art and contemporary culture. The Artists-in-Residence program supports the creation of new works by emerging artists of African descent, competitively selected from applications for year-long residencies at the Museum. Artists are given studios at the Museum, financial assistance and professional development. The artists are coupled with Critical Dialogues partners, usually curators or critics, enabling them to cultivate ongoing relationships with arts professionals in New York. The program concludes with an exhibition that introduces the work of three emerging artists to the broader public. Jerome Foundation provided a grant of $11,000.

A grant was awarded to MARK TANG and LU LIPPOLD for Open Season, a one-hour documentary about a still festering multiple shooting incident for which a Hmong immigrant hunter is convicted of killing six white hunters in northern Wisconsin. Part courtroom drama, part intimate portrait, this documentary brings into high relief the simmering tensions-racial, cultural, economic-that lurk in America's heartland.

Rochester, Minnesota poet YUKO TANIGUCHI, will travel to Hiroshima City, Japan, to study the landscape of the city, visit the peace memorial park, visit museums and libraries, and conduct interviews with Hibakusha (victims of the atom bomb) in order to enhance and complete a poetry manuscript, Story of Rivers. Many Hibakusha have died or are dying. Saving their memories is a real concern. This trip will make it possible for Taniguchi to discover her own voice to tell the stories that need to be told.

AMANDA TAYLOR, St. Paul, Minnesota, will spend time at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, investigating Professor Paul Vasey's research on homosexual behavior among female Japanese macaque monkeys. The research will inform Taylor's documentary, Freak of Nature, which explores the state of science on animal homosexuality, exposes the suppression of this research from the general public, and considers how American culture influences how we think about sex.

The TEXTILE CENTER OF MINNESOTA, Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a national center for fiber art. Its mission is to honor textile traditions and promote excellence and innovation in fiber art. It represents and supports fiber artists working in all forms including weaving, quilting, knitting, sewing, needlework, lace making, basketry and beading. A critical part of its mission is to bring validation and visibility to the textile arts, which arise from all cultures. A Jerome grant of $16,000 will support programs and services for emerging fiber artists in the 2006-07 program year. Primary among those activities supported are the exhibition program, seminars, workshops designed to develop skill levels, the dye lab and a Mentor Program.

Minneapolis-based choreographer DEBORAH JINZA THAYER will spend three weeks at The Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, in a working residency. Thayer, along with other choreographers, will investigate current pieces they are developing. Interactions will center around critical response to the works and shared investigations.

THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP (TCG), New York City, received a two-year grant of $38,000 in support of the National Theatre Criticism/Affiliated Writers Program for American Theatre magazine. TCG's mission is to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional nonprofit American theater. This vital network for professionals pursuing theater as an art form has a membership of more than 430 nonprofit theaters and over 17,000 individuals. American Theatre, published ten times a year with a readership of more than 75,000, serves the field as a critical source of news, information and analysis. The Affiliated Writers Program is a means to expand coverage of the national theater scene while simultaneously encouraging a new generation of cultural reporters and critics. Emerging critics from New York City and Minnesota apply for Affiliated Writers fellowships. Three are selected. They receive stipends in exchange for the submission of three to four articles; attend meetings, roundtables and symposia; and receive travel support that enables them to cover national stories.

THIRTEEN/WNET, New York City, a PBS station dedicated to providing a public forum for the many and varied voices in its community, received a two-year grant of $50,000 in support of Reel New York, a film and video series for television. It features a curated selection of independent work by emerging media artists based in New York City over an eight-week prime time schedule between June and August. The series features new and experimental films and videos made by a diverse selection of New York City artists. The series has broadcast over 239 independent productions. There is a companion web site that provides interviews and taped introductions to the works by the film and video artists as well as a festival calendar, photos and list of resources for artists.

MATTHEW FRANK THOMAS was awarded a grant for The Kindness of Strangers, a 30-minute narrative about Lenny Barnes, a young stubborn locksmith who copes with feelings of depression, loneliness and love by stalking an older ex-lover named Brenda. After paying her an unannounced visit, Lenny must face the terrible consequences of his obsession when he discovers just how little he knows about his femme fatale. Lenny finds himself entangled in a web of deceit, murder, and a serious case of wrong place, wrong time. This work explores the emotional complexity and internal experiences of African-American men through a modern day film noir.

THE SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal sponsor for MORGAN THORSON & COMPANY, received $10,000 in support of the production of new work in New York City. The mission of The Southern Theater is to build and sustain a vibrant artistic community by supporting the Twin Cities' most creative independent performing artists and presenting them to audiences in an intimate environment that encourages artistic exploration. It frequently acts as fiscal sponsor for independent artists' requests. Choreographer Morgan Thorson has created dance and movement-based works since 1996. Her choreography is based on rigorous physical methodology. She's interested in the tension between the physical limitations of the body and the expansive nature of the imagination. Thorson and her company will produce the evening-length Faker in January 2007 at P.S. 122, and No Feeling for Harmony in March at the Joyce Soho. Her objectives are to gain visibility in New York and initiate a touring program for the company.

TROIKA RANCH, New York City, began in 1993 as a collaborative project between choreographer Dawn Stoppiello and composer Mark Coniglio. The mission of this digital dance theater company is to create live performances that hybridize dance, theater and interactive digital media and to share information about their techniques with others. A grant of $10,000 was authorized to assist Troika Ranch in creating and producing new work.

Founded in 1988, THE SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, presents alternative performances by artists working at the grassroots of the Twin Cities' varied cultural, political and economic communities. In 2003, Uri Sands and Toni Pierce-Sands created TU DANCE, which presents original choreography, expands audiences for dance by interweaving dance genres, and employs trained dancers from diverse backgrounds. A grant of $12,000 was authorized as the fourth year of subsidy for the company. An upcoming June 2006 concert will include the Minnesota premiere of Tearing by Uri Sands and a new work for Toni Pierce-Sands choreographed by Ron K. Brown of Evidence Dance Company. Jerome support will also seed the development of three new works by Uri Sands, the first of which will draw inspiration from the nomadic Bedouin people, and the second from urban hymns and personal experience. Sands will develop a third work for a future season, a series of male solo dances accompanied by live solo cello, set to the preludes for each of Bach's cello suites.

KA VANG, a writer in St. Paul, Minnesota, will travel to Australia to study the lives, language and folklores of Hmong communities so that she can write creatively and accurately about the Hmong Diaspora. Vang will visit the cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra where there are about 2,000 Hmong people. She will meet with Hmong writers and elders in those cities. Vang plans to use her research in Australia to develop complex and real characters, and to write authentically about identity and heritage interwoven with the magic realism of her own writing style.

VSA ARTS OF MINNESOTA, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $35,000 in support of the Artist Recognition Grant Program and services for emerging professional artists with disabilities. Minnesota artists apply for $1,000 Recognition Grants to create new work in the literary, visual and performing arts. An independent jury reviews proposals and awards grants. VSA arts of Minnesota presents culminating exhibitions, readings and performances to showcase the results of the artists' work. Services and smaller subsidies, including a new Art Professional Opportunity Grant Program, will be available to artists with disabilities.