Past
Grantees

Directors authorized a two-year grant of $40,000 to MEET THE COMPOSER, New York City, in support of the participation of emerging composers from Minnesota and New York City in the Meet The Composer Fund. Meet the Composer fosters the creation, performance and recording of music by American composers, and develops new audiences for their work. In four cycles per year, sponsoring nonprofit organizations apply for funds to engage composers in the performances of their work. The Fund enables composers to participate in performances of their own work, build relationships between composers and artistic decision makers, supports the creation of new work, and helps composers interpret their work for audiences.

The NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, New York City, as fiscal agent for YIN MEI DANCE, received $10,000 in support of the development and production of Nomad: The River. Yin Mei Dance supports the aesthetic vision of choreographer and director Yin Mei in the research, creation and presentation of new performance works. Her choreography blends training in traditional Chinese dance, Western modern dance, Tai Chi and Chinese contemplative practice, to explore themes of artistic and spiritual significance. Nomad: The River draws its context from the Yellow River in China and the Ganges in India. The duality represented in these two fabled riversthe sacred and the profanedrives the choreography and visual environment for the work. The piece will be developed through creative residencies in 2004, and will be premiered in 2005.

MOVEMENT RESEARCH, New York City, acting as fiscal agent for choreographer SARAH MICHELSON, received $9,000 in support of the creation and development of new work. Michelson works as a site-specific choreographer, temporarily manipulating performance spaces for each work. Jerome support will assist her in making the first three of five separate evening-length group works over a two-year period. The working title is Gold Parts 1 through 5. In this project, the social implications of the implicit direction of vision of an audience in relationship to theatrical experience is central. Gold will become a moveable module in sequential city sites. The dance will be based on the structure of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice.

Since 1976, the Jerome Foundation has offered support for the participation of emerging artists in the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program at THE MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS, a comprehensive fine arts museum dedicated to bringing art and people together to discover, enjoy and understand the world's diverse artistic heritage. A two-year grant commitment of $39,000 was authorized for a program that was conceived 29 years ago by Minnesota artists who advocated for a professional exhibition program. Today, 154 exhibitions later, the MAEP continues to represent the Institute's commitment to the artists of this time and place. The objectives of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program are to exhibit Minnesota artists' work on a regular basis; foster the exchange of ideas among artists; stimulate interaction among artists, the museum and the public; and facilitate the creation and production of work in a context that is not inhibited by aesthetic fashion or commercial demand. The MAEP is a program conceived and operated by artists, using a democratically elected artist panel and a program staff employed by the Institute.

The MINNESOTA CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $25,000 in support of the participation of emerging photographers in its 2004 exhibitions. The Center's mission is to develop compelling programming to build and engage an informed community that supports excellence in photography and creative imaging. It accomplishes this through exhibitions, an artist development program, education and community outreach, and informational materials. The Center has presented over 120 exhibitions by 1,350 artists to over 100,000 participants and gallery visitors since its founding in 1990. Jerome Foundation support is restricted to emerging artists. In 2004, those artists include Justin Newhall, Tema Stauffer, Richard Copley, Vincent Cianni, Kermit Graber, Laura Hoyt, Dona Schwartz and Simon Martinez.

The mission of the Minnesota Council on Foundations, Minneapolis, Minnesota, is to strengthen and increase participation in organized philanthropy. It provides services to its members, requires all to ascribe to high standards in philanthropic practices and strives to increase awareness, understanding and support for the role of philanthropy in society. A membership and general support grant of $7,250 was authorized.

MIXED BLOOD THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $30,000 in support of commissions and fees for emerging Minnesota and New York City playwrights within its New Plays Initiative. Mixed Blood is a professional, multiracial theater dedicated to encouraging cultural pluralism, individual equality, and artistic excellence. Its five programs include mainstage productions, a new plays initiative, school tours, customized theater for the work place, and a summer theater training program. Its New Plays Initiative is production focused. It casts a broad net to find new plays and new playwrights. Commissions for new works as well as fees paid to writers for works that are produced on the mainstage are the focus of Jerome Foundation funding.

A two-year grant of $32,000 was awarded to S.A.S.E.: THE WRITE PLACE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal agent for Mizna, in support of the publication of four volumes of the Mizna Journal.  Mizna is a forum promoting Arab American culture, committed to giving voice to Arab Americans on local, national and international levels through literature, multidisciplinary arts programming, speakers and community events.  Jerome support will assist in continuing the publication of the Mizna Literary Journal and pay fees to the writers and artists published within it.  Any writer and artist may submit work to Mizna's open application process.  Mizna hopes to focus more resources on promotion in order to increase subscriptions and visibility.  It will also strengthen its editorial process; continue the achievements it's made in design; and explore more thematic issues to unify writing in the Journal and illustrate the diversity of views, opinions and creative expressions on select topics.  Jerome support is directed toward the publication of works by emerging literary and visual artists living in Minnesota and New York City.

MOMENTA ART, Brooklyn, New York, received a two-year grant of $28,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists in the exhibition program. Momenta Art is dedicated to increasing the awareness of emerging and under represented artists and fostering dialogue among artists and audiences. It presents two-person exhibitions in which each artist is given a separate project room to present her/his work, artists' performances and screenings, and annual group shows. The current season opened with the exhibition The Aesthetics of Disappearance: Recent Art from Thailand, followed by a show of works by The EoTeam, a large show of video art, and a two-person show featuring works by Francisco Lopez and Abi Lazkoz. Momenta provides space, artists' fees, publicity, equipment, technical support and other services to the emerging artists whose works are shown. The program represents a wide range of artistic approaches and media.

A concluding grant of $15,000 was awarded to MOVIN' SPIRITS DANCE THEATER, New York City, in support of the development and production of new work by Artistic Director Marlies Yearby and her collaborators. The focus of Movin' Spirits is to expand the public's experience of dance theater through the development, creation and production of interdisciplinary work addressing cultural and social constructs such as love, death, longing, intimacy and race. The company operates through performances, residencies, workshops, lecture demonstrations, audience talk-backs and roundtable discussions. The Jerome grant will support the development of (Woom'?n)n (working title) and the development of The Beautiful (working title). The first is an evening-length multimedia work constructed of stories gathered from women through videotaped interviews and community workshops. It's informed by a series of questions including how a woman's life experiences shape who she is in the world and how identity shifts according to the voices doing the defining. The Beautiful is a new piece examining the impact of mainstream media on the individual, as explored within the context of a family. Her collaborative team will explore the complexity and contradictions ingrained in our politically driven, profit-obsessed consumer culture.

A two-year concluding grant of $24,000 was awarded to the FOUNDATION FOR INDEPENDENT ARTISTS, New York City, as fiscal agent for choreographer BEN MUNISTERI, in support of the creation and development of new work over the next two seasons. Funding will underwrite the creation of a new work, Thunderblood, for five to six dancers, set to a commissioned score. It will premiere in the summer of 2005 at Jacob's Pillow and be presented in the fall of 2005 at Dance Theater Workshop. In Thunderblood, Munisteri will continue to explore his formalist methodology of dance making. He will work with movement phrases he's made over the years, adding new ones, reordering them and layering them, playing with patterns, tempos and musical accompaniment. In the second year, he'll work on a new piece with the working title of Remixes. In this, Munisteri will mix and remix someone else's movement phrases, utilizing his particular skills as an editor.

NEW DRAMATISTS, New York City, received a two-year grant of $80,000 in support of its New Works Process and the Composer Librettist Studio. For over 50 years, New Dramatists has dedicated itself to one mission: to find gifted playwrights and give them the time, space and tools to develop their craft so that they may fulfill their potential and make lasting contributions to the theater. Resident playwrights are competitively selected for seven-year terms. Its core New Works Process includes a range of writer-driven readings and workshops structured to provide opportunities to playwrights to work on their plays and musicals at any stage of incubation. The Composer Librettist Studio is a collaboration between New Dramatists and Nautilus Music-Theater of Minnesota. This two-week studio focuses on music theater development and the principles of collaboration. It's structured to work with five writers, five composers and five singers, who participate in a series of creative exercises. At the end, each playwright has worked with each composer and 25 new music theater pieces have been created by the group.

Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a two-year grant of $30,000 to NEW GEORGES, New York City, in support of new plays developed and produced in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons. New Georges was founded to confront the scarcity of substantive roles for women and the production of plays by women. It creates opportunities and heralds new perspectives. The Room is a multi-use work space that is home to readings, small-scale workshop presentations, rehearsals and community gatherings. The primary play development process is encapsulated in the mini-workshop, comprised of three to five rehearsals and one presentation. Playwrights are given time in a space with directors and actors so that they can explore and make revisions in their plays. New Georges also presents a reading series and a Perform-a-Thon Festival of New Works.

The NEW YORK MILLS ARTS RETREAT AND REGIONAL CULTURAL CENTER, New York Mills, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $32,000 in support of its Artists in Residence program. The Cultural Center expands the cultural and creative opportunities of rural citizens of the New York Mills area. The Residency Program brings artists working in all disciplines to New York Mills to make new work while sharing their creative energy with the community. Two to four-week residencies are given to a competitively selected group of emerging artists, the majority of whom are residents of Minnesota and/or New York City.

NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP, New York City, received a two-year grant of $36,000 in support of the participation of emerging playwrights in the Play Development Program. New York Theatre Workshop provides a place for theater artists to experiment and grow in their craft. It fosters artistic growth through a comprehensive approach that includes residencies and fellowships, a reading series showcasing more than 150 new works-in-progress each year, workshops, studio productions, a community of associated theater artists, and mainstage productions.

JILA NIKPAY, Minneapolis, received a grant for Keepers of the Garden, an eight-minute black and white film focused on the life of an Iranian youth and how he copes with lack of freedom. The films objective is to examine the ominous presence of the Iranian government in the private lives of its youth. The films principal character, a young man named Payam who lives in the northern part of Iran, has been in constant communication with Nikpay and has supplied rich material for the film. Nikpay will use a number of metaphorical elements in exploring the daily routines of Payams life.

MARY ANNE NOEL and JOB ETHAN CHRISTENSON, dancers and teachers in Crookston, will travel to Hebron, New Hampshire, for eight days to attend Swing Out New Hampshire 2004. The Dance Camp will consist of classes and dancing in Swing, Lindy Hop, Jazz, Blues and Tap.

A two-year grant of $52,000 was authorized for the NORTHERN CLAY CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the Jerome Artists Project Grants Program. The Center's mission is the advancement of the ceramic arts. Programs include classes and workshops for children and adults at all levels of proficiency; exhibitions of work by regional, national, and international artists; studio space and grants for artists; and a sales gallery representing many of the top ceramic artists from the Midwest and elsewhere. The Artists Project Grants Program is restricted to emerging clay artists competitively selected from an open call by an independent panel of three clay experts. The program is structured to facilitate and support individually designed programs of professional development and work creation for three artists each year. The year culminates in a group exhibition in the Center's galleries. The substance of what the artists undertake is personally determined by each artist. The program is frequently used to investigate new techniques, try materials and start new bodies of work.

A grant was awarded to KRISTEN NUTILE for Loss, an experimental documentary that explores faded memories and conventional notions of long-term grief. The film addresses the unspoken pressure in society to "move on" and "let go" after losing someone. The story unravels through a personal narrative, which centers on Nutiles loss of her father to a brain tumor over 15 years ago.

Through the fiscal agent services of INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, independent choreographer MARGO ABDO O'DELL received $8,000 in support of the creation and production of new work. Funding will support a dance, music, and multimedia concert titled Evolutions for which O'Dell will create a new work inspired by dance and music from Persia, Turkey, and Lebanon, demonstrating how cultures influence each other and how cultural arts evolve as a result of globalization. In a second new work, O'Dell will explore media images of danse orientale and contrast images to reality. She will illuminate the perpetuation of myths and misconceptions about Arab women. The concert will be presented at Intermedia Arts, a multidisciplinary art center whose mission is to build understanding among people through art. It offers presentations in visual arts, media arts, performance and interdisciplinary forms.