Past
Grantees

CRAIG EDWARDS, a potter from New London, will spend three weeks in South Korea and Japan to learn more about the forms, kilns and glazes of folk pottery. He's interested in the hand building and wood firing techniques used by the Onggi potters of Korea and the Mengei of Japan. He'll visit kiln sites in five different provinces in Korea, looking at design, construction materials, firing processes, firing materials, and the rhythm and routine of the annual production and firing cycles. He'll visit museums, and the leading proponent of the Mengei Movement in Mashiko, Japan.

A grant was awarded to ANGIE ENG in support of Memobile, a new media performance installation that explores the transition of ones perception from a static life to a nomadic one. Using interactive video and sound, Eng will recreate the poetics of movement and ones relation to space through symbols. The title Memobile combines the concept of memory and mobiles. Marcel Duchamp coined the name mobile in French, a pun that suggests both motion and motive for Alexandre Calders kinetic sculpture. Together, memory, motion and motive are concepts the Eng addresses in order to explain how one wanders from place to place to make sense of the world.

JAN ESTEP, an artist based in Minneapolis, will spend three weeks in Norway doing research leading to the creation of a new body of art work related to the ideas of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Estep will visit the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen and spend some time in Skjolden, Norway. Estep is planning a series of multimedia art works based on the life and philosophy of Wittgenstein. The project is not strictly documentary or biographical but rather an exploration of the relationship between language and meaning, the search for knowledge, and the desire to articulate things that resist articulation. While the trip is research oriented, it is also a form of retreat.

ETHEL'S FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, Sunnyside, New York City, received $8,000 to commission two new compositions. Ethel is emerging as a 21st Century incarnation of the classical string quartet model, using the tastes, talents and experiences of its four classically trained musicians to explore new possibilities in string quartet performance, and to forge a repertoire unencumbered by convention, genre or style. Ethel's philosophy and aesthetic encompass the improvisational and theatrical. The repertoire comes from three sources: self-compositions, commissioned works, and group selected pieces. Jerome dollars will support a group composition and a new work by composer John King. Ethel's collaborative compositional process will produce a double quartet involving a second four-member ensemble. EG(o) will be developed and premiered with gutbucket. John King will use cutting-edge technology and improvisation to build a relationship between how the music is played and how computer processing reacts and responds to a performance. The work will be rhythmically driven and sonically experimental.

EYEBEAM, INC., Brooklyn, New York, received $15,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists in its Artist in Residence Program. Eyebeam supports the creation and presentation of art works produced with digital technologies, expands the public's appreciation of new media art through education programs and exhibitions, and researches and develops new technologies that catalyze the creation of tools and art works. The Artist in Residence Program is a multidisciplinary initiative that supports the creation, development and presentation of new works made with digital tools by emerging artists. Twice a year, a Selection Committee chooses artists for five-month residencies. Artists receive stipends; access to cutting-edge tools; technical support from Eyebeam staff; production help from apprentices; and options to participate in group exhibitions, open studios and other public presentations. Residents are empowered to develop multidisciplinary work that ranges from moving image, sound and physical computing works to technical prototypes, performances and workshops.

Arts writer, critic and editor MICHAEL FALLON, St. Paul, will spend three weeks in Denver, Atlanta and Pittsburgh to study the phenomenon of the neglected artist by focusing upon three unrecognized but skilled artists in these locations. These are talented visual artists who've worked for decades without attaining success. He will study the causes and effects of the situation. He intends to write about what he discovers in a series of critical essays/profiles, and to explore what the social phenomenon of neglected artists may mean to the future of cultural production in this country. He believes that these artists efforts to continue producing despite their inability to make money to survive from their art reveals a glimpse of the creative soul of humanity, something he ever seeks to understand as a writer on art.

FilmNorth (formerly Independent Filmmaker Project Minnesota), Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $40,000 in support of programs and services for emerging media artists and photographers. This arts service organization supports emerging, intermediate and advanced independent media artists and photographers. Services and programs encompass screenings, education, free or discounted film stock and processing, consultations, facilities, equipment access, exhibitions, events, regrant programs for independent media artists, a fiscal sponsorship program, and an annual film festival focusing on the work of regional media artists.

FilmNorth (formerly Independent Filmmaker Project Minnesota), Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $64,000 in support of MNTV. IFP Minneapolis/St. Paul supports and promotes the work of artists who create screenplays, film, video and photography. MNTV provides a television broadcast venue for makers of short film and video work, and nurtures audiences for that work. This program is undertaken collaboratively by IFP Minneapolis/St. Paul, Intermedia Arts, Twin Cities Public Television, and the Walker Art Center's Film/Video Program. MNTV is broadcast on Twin Cities Public Television in hour-long episodes highlighting new and creative short works made by Minnesota film and video artists within the previous 18 months. The curated program is surrounded by interstitial materials that include interviews with the makers and profiles of individuals, activities and organizations, which contribute to a vibrant media arts community.

LISA FIRST, a Minneapolis-based arts administrator and dance presenter, will travel to Hungary, Slovak and Czech Republics, and Berlin, Germany, to increase her expertise in Central and Eastern European modern/contemporary dance forms. First will meet with several Central European dance professionals. This investigation will inform Firsts role as an international dance organizer preparing a Central European/Minneapolis Dance Exchange Project.

FORECAST PUBLIC ARTWORKS, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $65,000 in continued support of the Public Art Affairs Program. FORECAST's mission is to strengthen and advance the field of public art locally, regionally and nationally by expanding participation, supporting artists, informing audiences, and assisting communities. The Public Art Affairs Program, in operation since 1989, awards funds to emerging Minnesota artists and encourages them to consider public venues for creative exploration, offering them increased public recognition and access to expertise to ensure successful projects. FORECAST believes that the resulting projects enrich neighborhoods and excite audiences with an immediate impact that traditional art venues have a hard time duplicating. Funding is available in three categories: research and development of projects, public project grants, and a partner public project grant. An open application process with panel review results in the selection of artists and projects.

The Jerome Foundation made a two-year commitment of $3,000 to THE FOUNDATION CENTER, New York City, in general support of its programs and services. The Foundation Center is the nation's leading authority on philanthropy. It is dedicated to serving grantseekers, grantmakers, researchers, policy makers, the media and the general public. Its mission is to strengthen the nonprofit sector by advancing knowledge about philanthropy in the United States.

THE FOUNDRY THEATRE, New York City, received $23,000 in support of commissions and developmental work with emerging playwrights/directors. The Foundry commissions, develops, produces and tours theater works. It also produces dialogues that bring artists together with professionals from other disciplines to examine provocative ideas. The developmental process is tailored to the needs of each individual artist and piece. Jerome support during the 2004-05 season will enable the Foundry to do further creative work on five projects in development and offer three commissions. Commissions this season will go to Steve Cuiffo, Kirk Lynn, and Michael Friedman. Creative support will be given to four works currently in development by Juliana Francis, Steven Cosson and Michael Friedman, Steve Cuiffo and Kirk Lynn, and Ralph Pea.

DIANE FRAHER received support for The Reawakening, a character-driven dramatic feature film on contemporary Native American tradition and culture, based on the themes of personal redemption and the power of love. The Reawakening is a contemporary story set in the corporate legal world. It is an action story depicting prison life in a very racially corrupt prison bureaucracy. It is also a story of personal redemption. How can an "urban" Indian balance an affluent life style with the traditional ways of his Native background? The Reawakening portrays the struggle for personal redemption through a return to traditional Native American spiritual values, the love of family, childhood friends and the elders of the Nation.

FRANCONIA SCULPTURE PARK, Shafer, Minnesota, received $34,000 in support of emerging artists' residencies. Franconia is a work/residence, outdoor sculpture park, occupying 16 acres. Franconia's mission is to support artists and their careers, conduct workshops, and offer residency programs. Artists are invited to create work on site for the Park. They are given physical space, technical assistance, materials, and financial support to produce their work. Artists are selected via an open call and jury review.

FRANKLIN ART WORKS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $20,000 in support of exhibitions of works by emerging artists in the 2004-05 season. Franklin Art Works is a visual and performing arts center that presents cutting-edge contemporary works by emerging artists from Minnesota and New York City through a mix of exhibitions, performing arts, film and arts education. The visual arts program, the focus of Jerome subsidy, includes an annual series of five one-person exhibitions in a main gallery featuring new work by emerging local and national artists. It also includes an annual series of five one-person exhibitions of new work in video installation and projection as well as smaller-scale exhibitions mounted in a project space.

FRANKLIN FURNACE ARCHIVE, New York City, received a two-year grant of $77,000 in support of the Fund for Performance Art and The Future of the Present, two programs serving emerging creative artists. Franklin Furnace's mission is to present, preserve, interpret, proselytize and advocate on behalf of avant-garde art, especially forms that may be vulnerable due to institutional neglect, their ephemeral nature, or their politically unpopular content. It serves emerging artists and their ideas, assuming an aggressive stance with regard to the value of avant-garde art to contemporary cultural life. Jerome Foundation has supported the Fund for Performance Art, a regrant program, for 20 years. Through a highly competitive open application process and panel review, grants of $5,000 are given to emerging performance artists to create new works and to perform them. The majority of artists selected are from New York City. In 1998, Franklin Furnace launched the inaugural season of the virtual program The Future of the Present. It supports artists who use the Internet as an artistic medium and public venue. An open application and panel review results in the selection of emerging artists who receive commissions.

A grant was awarded to LOUIS GALDIERI and KEN ROSS for 1913 Massacre, a lyrical and intimate musical documentary in digital video and 16mm film about an American folk song (Woody Guthries "1913 Massacre") and the story it tells. The film is about how the past lives in the present, about the redemptive power of music, about work and union, and about hope and survival.

ZEITGEIST, Saint Paul, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for composer ANTHONY GATTO, received $9,000 in support of the development and production of The Making of America. Zeitgeist, a new music ensemble, is an advocate and catalyst forging new links between contemporary composers and music lovers. Composer Anthony Gatto and the Walker Art Center will co-produce The Making of America. This evening length work will integrate live music with text by Gertrude Stein, a sound design, new digital films, and early American archival footage of silent movies. As a meditation on American history, the work will be presented in four sections, featuring the commissioned work of four filmmakers. The performing ensembles will be Zeitgeist and the New York City-based string quartet Ethel.

Photographer VANCE GELLERT, Minneapolis, will spend ten to eleven weeks in Bolivia to continue research and make photographs on Shaman rituals and medicinal plant use by the indigenous cultures of Bolivia. The photographs from this research trip will be used to develop long-term project strategies. His goal is to convey through photographs the art of ritual as an integral part of effective medicinal treatments in various cultures worldwide. The images gathered will be presented in a book and exhibition. In addition to traveling to various indigenous communities to meet with shamans, he will observe rituals of plant collection, preparation and curative treatment. He'll explore the philosophy, mysticism and training of Shamans and their relationship to the environment.

The Jerome Foundation made a grant of $10,000 to Grantmakers in the Arts, Seattle, Washington, in general support of its program. Grantmakers in the Arts is a national affinity organization for private, corporate, community and family foundations that make arts and culture grants. The goals of the organization are to increase and improve support for arts and culture by strengthening the position of the arts within philanthropy, to expand electronic communication with members and others, to expand membership and involvement in GIA, and to enhance GIA's organizational capacity and effectiveness.