Past
Grantees

PANGEA WORLD THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for the experimental theater ensemble MAMA MOSAIC, received $9,000 to support the development of BRIDEPRICE. The mission of this theater collective is to evoke positive social change through female-centered theater that is empowering and entertaining. BRIDEPRICE is being developed by the core members of MaMa mOsAiC in dialogue with collaborating artists and members of the broader community. MaMa mOsAiC will explore institutionalized misogyny, and how we collectively take responsibility for our roles in its practices. BRIDEPRICE will incorporate text (poetry and prose), movement, music, and multimedia.

A grant was awarded to STEPHEN MARSHALL AND JOSH SHORE, in support of True Lies, a documentary that seeks to inform people about the way in which media is used to obscure the true intent of its disseminationnamely to target people with coercive techniques to make better consumers out of them.

Poet and editor MICHELLE MATHEES, Duluth, will travel for four months in three areas of Poland to continue research on the historical, geographic, and social settings of the communities her grandmother's people left shortly after the turn of the century. She'll travel to Gadansk, Sejny, Bialystok and several small hamlets fishing villages. She will examine how the formation of national identities are made, broken and made once again, and how that may affect the interpersonal dynamics between people including nuclear familial relationships. From this experience, she will write new poems. Matthees's poetry reflects an ongoing examination of these concerns through the lens of her relationship to her grandmother, and her grandmother's unease in America.

A grant of $20,000 was authorized for MEET THE COMPOSER, New York City, in support of the participation of New York City and Minnesota emerging composers in the Meet The Composer Fund. Founded in 1974, Meet The Composer fosters the creation, performance and recording of music by American composers and develops new audiences for their work. There are many program activities at Meet The Composer, of which Jerome Foundation has supported, since 1984, the Meet The Composer Fund. Through small grants, it enables composers to rehearse and coach performers, participate in and attend performances of their works, build their relationships with artistic decision makers, and interpret their works for audiences. Jerome dollars are earmarked for New York City and Minnesota emerging composers. This Fund has made grants totaling over $6.3 million to over 40,000 composers, who write in all styles of music. Awards range from $250 to $1,000 based on the scale of the project and availability of funds.

LISELLE MEI was awarded a grant for Lower East Side Stories, a dramatic short presented in a series of four sequential portraits of women living in the Lower East Side of New York City. This film is designed to be a cultural homage to evoke color, culture and history of the neighborhood.

MIDWAY CONTEMPORARY ART, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a grant of $5,000 for the participation of emerging Minnesota and New York City artists in the 2003-04 exhibition program. The mission of the gallery is to present the work of emerging artists and create a dialogue between Twin Cities and national artists. Operating for three years, the gallery mounts exhibitions from the early fall through mid-summer, ranging from two-person shows to larger group thematic shows. They cover a wide range of ideas and concepts, from explorations into the relationship of abstraction and representation to the influence of technology on architecture. The intent is to provide an open forum for the public to encounter new ideas and ways of working in the visual arts.

The MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $146,000 in support of the MCAD/Jerome Fellowship Program. The Colleges mission is to educate individuals to be professional artists and designers, effective leaders, and active citizens. In 1981, the Foundation and the College crafted a fellowship program for emerging Twin Cities visual artists. The purpose of the program is to advance significantly the work of those artists. The College issues an open call for applications and convenes an independent panel to select fellows. Eligible artists are those working in painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, photography and multimedia. Artists receive stipends of $9,000 each. Three visiting critics/curators are invited to meet with the fellows to respond to their work and provide information on professional opportunities. There is an exhibition at the conclusion of the fellowship year, with a catalog containing a critical essay and biographical information on the artists.

Finally, the Foundation made a grant of up to $1,500 to the MINNESOTA COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, to support scholarships for individual artists and small arts organizations to attend the first annual joint conference of the Minnesota Council on Foundations and the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits in October of 2003. There is a multi-part conference track for the arts within this conference, which will allow the arts community to convene to address important critical issues it now faces.

Jerome Foundation renewed its annual membership in and general support for the MINNESOTA COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1969, the council is a regional association of grantmakers whose mission is to strengthen and increase participation in organized philanthropy.

Jerome Foundation Directors made a grant of $21,000 to the MINNESOTA DANCE THEATRE (MDT), Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the commissioning of new work by emerging choreographers in the 2003-04 season. In addition to maintaining a highly reputable school, MDT employs a company of eight dancers and four company apprentices. MDT has commissioned new works from choreographers for over 40 years. Since 1998, this commitment has resulted in 16 new works by emerging choreographers, underwritten by grants from the Jerome Foundation. Jerome subsidy this season will support the development and production of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, created by New York City-based choreographer Scott Rink. Based on the classic poem by Goethe, the work features a music montage by Scott Marshall and costumes by Tracy Christensen. MDT resident choreographer Stphane Andr will create a work, based on Eugene Ionesco's play The Chairs, about an elderly couple and their futile, ironic attempt to pass on their life experience to humankind.

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MIXED BLOOD THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $15,000 in support of the commissioning, development and full production of new plays by emerging playwrights. Mixed Blood is a professional, multi-racial theater dedicated to encouraging cultural pluralism, individual equality and artistic excellence. Jerome dollars will be directed toward the emerging artists who are participating in the Bill of (W)Rights Project, the development of a new play by Zaraawar Mistry, further work on a new piece by Victor Zupanc, and other projects.

S.A.S.E.: THE WRITE PLACE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for the organization MIZNA, received a grant of $14,000 in support of the publication of the Mizna journal.  Mizna, a nonprofit forum promoting Arab American culture, is committed to giving voice to Arab American artists through literature, film and performance.  Jerome financing focuses on the literary journal Mizna, which, since 1999, has published the writing and artwork of over 150 Arab American writers and artists.  As one of the only such journals of its type in the country, it has published 11 issues for a subscriber base of 455 and for distribution to libraries, universities and community centers.  One of the purposes of the journal, issued twice each year, is to identify and publish the work of emerging writers.  While the journal predominantly includes writing by Arab American authors, it is also open to writing by other authors dealing with Arab American subjects.

The WALKER ART CENTER, in cooperation with the Southern Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota, produced the pilot program Momentum: New Dance Works in the 2000-01 season. Jerome Foundation supported that pilot, and authorized a two-year grant of $38,000 to continue the program with some revisions. Momentum will commission, develop, and present new contemporary dance works by ten emerging Minnesota choreographers. Eight of those will be presented in a Momentum series, and two will take the form of solo choreographer evenings. Momentum focuses attention on the areas most innovative, under-recognized choreographers. Each week, the series will feature the work of two choreographers performing a three-performance run, with post performance discussions and a critical feedback session. There will be an open call for proposals, with final selection made by the curators of both organizations and an independent panelist.

The WALKER ART CENTER, in cooperation with the Southern Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota, produced the pilot program Momentum: New Dance Works in the 2000-01 season. Jerome Foundation supported that pilot, and authorized a two-year grant of $38,000 to continue the program with some revisions. Momentum will commission, develop, and present new contemporary dance works by ten emerging Minnesota choreographers. Eight of those will be presented in a Momentum series, and two will take the form of solo choreographer evenings. Momentum focuses attention on the areas most innovative, under-recognized choreographers. Each week, the series will feature the work of two choreographers performing a three-performance run, with post performance discussions and a critical feedback session. There will be an open call for proposals, with final selection made by the curators of both organizations and an independent panelist.

NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, New York City, acting as fiscal agent for choreographer JENNIFER MONSON, received a grant of $11,000 in support of the Ducks and Geese Migration, a new work under the umbrella of the multi-year navigational dance project BIRD BRAIN. This project investigates migratory patterns and habits of birds and other animals and their biophysical and metaphorical relationship to humans as fellow travelers. The project encompasses five components: site-specific public dance presentations, panel discussions with artists and scientists, dance workshops for the general public, a website that tracks the migrating birds and dancers, and an educational resource guide currently in development. The Ducks and Geese Migration will navigate north from Texas along the Mississippi flyway through Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Southern Canada. In the spring of 2004, four dancers will present 30 site-specific events along the migration route, as well as conduct workshops and organize panel discussions.

Writer, editor and public policy coordinator MAI NENG MOUA will spend four weeks in Laos and Thailand doing ethnographic research and conducting interviews with family members and others to inform her memoir. Moua is the founder and editor of Paj Ntaub Voice, a Hmong literary journal, and the editor of the first Hmong American anthology, Bamboo Among the Oaks. Moua will visit Laos in order to better understand the place her mother calls home and which Moua left when she was three years old. She will also visit the monastery in Tak Province in Thailand to interview her grandfather and uncle about her father, who died when she was three. She will visit museums, Hmong villages, the Mekong River and major cities.

MICHELLE MEHRI MOUSAVI, Minneapolis, MN, received support for My Life As A Terrorist, an experimental documentary that recounts the filmmakers experience growing up Iranian in the aftermath of the Iran Hostage Crisis. It explores two vastly different but historically intertwined narratives: the story of American hostage Robert C. Ode, who was held in the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran, for 444 days; and the filmmakers experience as an Iranian-American child enrolled in American educational institutions for 10 years.

THEATER MU, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $38,000 in support of the development and production of new works by emerging playwrights and composers. Created in 1992, Theater Mu strives to be the premier artistic company creating theater and Taiko from the heart of the Asian American experience. Its various programs include a mainstage season, Taiko concerts featuring resident company Mu Daiko, educational outreach programs, and a New Eyes developmental series. Jerome support will be directed toward the development and production of new work by emerging creative artists who are contributing pieces for Mu Daiko, New Eyes and the mainstage. The 2003-04 season includes the world premieres of Interior Design by Kiseung Rhee and From Shadows to Light by Ka Vang. Jerome dollars will also support the development of new drum works by Mu Daiko company members Iris Shiraishi, Jennifer Weir, Rachel Gorton and Angie Ahlgren.

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