Past
Grantees

A grant was awarded to CATHERINE GRAY, Edina, for Grace on a Stick, a narrative short film about awakening to beauty in the world. It is a response to Grays own queries into religion, purpose and interdependence. It poses the question "what if?" and suggests hope where many, including Gray, fear. The films protagonist, Grace, is forced to confront her inner demons and preconceived notions through an unexpected (and not altogether welcome) relationship with a Muslim woman named Faiza.

NOR HALL, a writer who resides in Minneapolis, will travel to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in four separate trips. Hall will develop ideas, share research, study actors in process, and write text collaboratively in the creation of a new work for the theatre company Archipelago. She will conduct research on myth, poetry, dreams, literature, film and media, for a new project, The Woman in the Attic.

AARON DAVIS HALL, New York City, received $20,000 in support of commissions for emerging artists through the Fund for New Work. Aaron Davis Hall is Harlem's principal center for the performing arts, a multidisciplinary performing arts presenter providing programs in dance, theater, music, art, and film. Through the Fund for New Work, Aaron Davis provides direct support to artists, encompassing commissions, subsidized rehearsal space, workshop presentations, long and short-term residencies, and other services. One component of the Fund for New Work focuses on emerging artists exploring new directions in their field and provides both the time and space required for the development of new work. Jerome Foundation subsidy allows the Hall to provide emerging artists with commissions, rehearsal space, and technical support to create new work.

HEADWATERS MUSIC, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $17,000 in support of emerging composers' commissions for the 2005 Festival Dancing in Your Head. The mission of Headwaters Music is to produce exciting concerts featuring contemporary world and Western performance practices. The Festival presents exceptional but rarely-heard music by emerging composers and ensembles alongside more established artists. The Festival is also an opportunity to present the creative work of new immigrant artists. Jerome dollars will support commissions to emerging composers Nachito Herrera, Todd Reynolds, and the composers of Happy Apple in collaboration with The Bad Plus. The Festival will feature several premieres in addition to those supported by Jerome Foundation. The 2005 Festival will celebrate a living legend of American music, Ornette Coleman, in celebration of his 75th Birthday.

Funding for The Great Journal of Hmong History in China was awarded to XINXAI HER, Brooklyn Park. This feature-length video documents the great journey of the Hmong people over hundreds of years from China to Southeast Asia. The work will contain interviews with Hmong elders and include information on migration patterns, agriculture, cultural ceremonies, artistic performances, Hmong life and the natural environment. This work will be presented in two versions, one in the Hmong language and one with English subtitles and will serve as one of few historical records of the Hmong Diaspora.

ALLISON HERRERA, Minneapolis, received a grant for Prayer of the Sorrowful Mystery, a personal story about Herreras grandmother, a Salinan Indian from the mountainous region of California known as the Santa Lucias . This personal account is framed by the larger context of the social conflict that birthed California.

No Name Exhibitions @ The Soap Factory arts administrators BEN HEYWOOD, KAREN KASEL, and DAVID PITMAN will travel as a team to research how other visual arts organizations have successfully developed their physical properties. They'll travel to New York City, New York State and other locations on the East Coast. They will cultivate curatorial and artistic relationships that may lead to exhibition exchange, artist residency exchange and audience development. Their questions will focus on how arts organizations work with architects and contractors in relevant, yet respectful conversions of historic buildings; how organizations work effectively with city officials and on such civic concerns as parking and historic designation; and how arts organizations work with diverse funders on financing as well as commercial partners on investment. They will investigate what roles artists have played in these various development processes, especially in spaces that began as artist-run collectives.

THE SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal agent for HIJACK, received a two-year grant of $21,000 in support of the creation and production of new work by the choreographic team of Kristin Van Loon and Arwen Wilder. Their process for making dance is always evolving to address knowledge gained and changes in the choreographers' bodies and the world around them. Hijack is the confluence and clash of independent compositional/kinesthetic impulses. The choreographers use subtlety and wit as tools to provide an avenue into an exploration of serious subjects. Hijack employs a site-specific approach to every performance, and sustains a commitment to movement research. Jerome Foundations subsidy will result in the creation of at least four new works.

COLETTE ILLARDE, a Flamenco dancer in Minneapolis, will travel to Madrid, Spain, for one month to take part in an invitational workshop directed by Master Flamenco artist Manuel Reyes, who will be creating an original Flamenco work. The workshop will include the study of Siguiriyas, which epitomizes flamenco jondo, or deep flamenco. This involves difficult rhythmic patterns and profound themes requiring enormous emotional involvement.

ILLUSION THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $20,000 in support of the development and production of new work by emerging playwrights. The mission of Illusion is to create theater that illuminates the myths and realities of our time and catalyzes personal and social change. Since inception, Illusion has commissioned and developed over 300 mainstage plays. The Artistic Associates program is an affiliation that develops ongoing relationships with artists who have considerable vision and expertise to contribute to Illusion. Jerome dollars are also directed to the Fresh Ink series, which gives theater creators a place to develop material in front of small audiences specifically recruited for their interest in examining new works. Fresh Ink is a mechanism for introducing new artists to Illusion. Illusion also conducts readings and workshops; and it commissions new works for the stage.

DAIN INGEBRETSON, Minneapolis, was awarded support for August 22, a short narrative film about a young man on the day of his fathers death. The film endeavors to explore the idea of witnessing the passing of a loved one and the subtle catharsis that such an experience entails.

LADDAVANH CHANTHRAPHONE, an artist and dance instructor, based in Brooklyn Park, will spend six weeks in Laos to expand and deepen her skills in the art of Laotian traditional fruit and vegetable carving. She'll investigate the different shapes and styles of traditional carved bowls and platters; animals such as birds, peacocks and butterflies; flowers such as the lotus and the hibiscus; and unique leaf designs. Vegetable and fruit carving is a venerable Laotian tradition that has been passed down from ancient times. Chanthraphone will study with Mrs. Sengphet Viratham, a master of the form. She will have one-on-one training sessions in which she will receive Professor Viratham's personal attention six hours per day over a period of six weeks. She expects the experience to not only improve her technique but to help her build a strong individual and creative voice, which she will develop and share when she returns to Minnesota.

INTAR HISPANIC AMERICAN ARTS CENTER/INTAR THEATRE, New York City, received $20,000 in support of the NewWorks Lab. INTAR's mission is to develop and produce the best new work for theater in English by U.S. Latino/a theatre artists for American audiences. It's committed to preserving the richness of Latino/a culture in all of its diversity, as a vital component of the American tradition. The NewWorks Lab fosters new works by emerging playwrights, directors, actors and other artists of promise. The Lab annually features over 50 nascent artists in a reading series and public workshop.

INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-part grant of $45,000 in support of Naked Stages and a pilot Graffiti Arts Program. Intermedia Arts, a community-based arts center, strives to be a catalyst that builds understanding among people through art. It fosters excellence in the creative process and product by presenting diverse cultural perspectives. Through an independent panel review of applications solicited via an open call, Intermedia selects emerging performance artists each year for its Naked Stages program. This initiative is distinguished by the comprehensive nature of its support, which includes training, mentoring, career-building skills, subsidy for the creation of new work, critical feedback, peer group support, and production. Intermedia Arts has always made its doors and walls available to graffiti artists. A new Graffiti Arts Program will be launched as a collaborative and educational initiative to facilitate the artistic growth of emerging graffiti artists in the Twin Cities. This program will provide outdoor exhibition and training space, materials, mentorships, technical assistance, and community education through screenings, dialogues and presentations.

INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-part grant of $45,000 in support of Naked Stages and a pilot Graffiti Arts Program. Intermedia Arts, a community-based arts center, strives to be a catalyst that builds understanding among people through art. It fosters excellence in the creative process and product by presenting diverse cultural perspectives. Through an independent panel review of applications solicited via an open call, Intermedia selects emerging performance artists each year for its Naked Stages program. This initiative is distinguished by the comprehensive nature of its support, which includes training, mentoring, career-building skills, subsidy for the creation of new work, critical feedback, peer group support, and production. Intermedia Arts has always made its doors and walls available to graffiti artists. A new Graffiti Arts Program will be launched as a collaborative and educational initiative to facilitate the artistic growth of emerging graffiti artists in the Twin Cities. This program will provide outdoor exhibition and training space, materials, mentorships, technical assistance, and community education through screenings, dialogues and presentations.

Funding was awarded to DENISE IRIS for A Year of Minimentals, 52 short digital videos (one every week for a year), a web site to host them and a DVD featuring 20 of the pieces. The minimentals will be simple observations, or evocations of a mental state, rooted in everyday life and distilled to their purest forms in audiovisual terms.

The JAMAICA CENTER FOR ARTS & LEARNING, Jamaica, New York, received a two-year grant of $30,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists in its Visual Arts Program. The Center is dedicated to supporting the creation of work by artists, especially those who are working from cultural traditions and artistic disciplines under-represented in the artistic community as a whole. From a residency program for artists to workshops, seminars and teaching opportunities, the Center provides not only a venue for cutting-edge art but also the resources to help artists nurture their talents and promote their work. Its Visual Arts Program mounts exhibitions featuring the work of emerging artists from New York City, culturally-specific art treated in fresh ways, and work that explores new media. Jerome support is also directed toward the Workspace Artist Program, a year-long residency.

Jerome Foundation Directors approved a grant of $16,000 to JAZZ IS NOW!, Minneapolis, Minnesota, to initiate a composers' commissioning program. Jazz Is NOW! strives to build the culture and community of jazz through performance and education. The Jazz Is NOW! orchestra is a nine-piece ensemble, of which seven performers are composers. Jerome support will allow Jazz Is NOW! to initiate a composers' commissioning program, resulting in major works for the orchestra to perform in 2005. The composers will also receive subsidized rehearsal time.

SPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS, St. Paul, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for CATALYST, DANCES BY EMILY JOHNSON, received a two-year grant of $24,000 in support of the creation and development of new work. Catalyst is a seven-member contemporary dance company under the direction of Emily Johnson. Heat and Life, a new work, will use the sweeping scientific phenomena of global climate change to reveal the emotional and psychological connection between the ways people choose to live and the environments to which they adapt. It will investigate the coercion that comes from power and profit, which often has little regard for sustainability. In the second year, Johnson will develop four of the dancers' roles in Heat and Life into solo performance pieces. Funds from the Foundation will allow Johnson to work with dancer and choreographer Ossie Kairaiuak to learn the elements of Yup'ik dancing, which Johnson expects will enhance her movement-based storytelling and the ways in which her dances connect to culture, community and tradition.

VOLCANO LOVE, Brooklyn, New York, received a two-year concluding grant of $24,000 in support of the development and production of new work by choreographer Sarah East Johnson for her company LAVA, a troupe of strong women performing physical feats of power, strength, stamina and daring. Johnson's movement vocabulary encompasses dance, wrestling, circus acrobatics, aerials, contact improvisation and more. One new work under development is (w)H.O.L.E. (Whole History of Life), which draws inspiration from two distinct sources-natural phenomena/science and the female body/psyche. The structure of the piece will mirror scientific and mathematical processes that describe earths evolutionary cycles, iterations, compressions and loops, through movement, music, visuals, text and lighting. The piece will be configured in three one-hour cycles, that vary slightly with each repetition. The audience will enter the show already in progress and be allowed to come and go at any point within the cycle, mirroring the essential elements of evolution, geologic change and the behavior of living systems.