Past
Grantees

NICOLE ERICKSON, gamelan musician and composer, will travel to Java and Bali, Indonesia, for twelve months to study traditional and new music repertoire for the gamelan. Erickson will focus her studies on the gender barung, an instrument used in the wayang kulit (traditional Javanese shadow puppet theater). Ericksons goals are to improve her playing technique, expand her repertoire, be exposed to new musical ideas, network with gamelan composers, and study the gender barung in-depth.

EYE OF THE STORM THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $17,500 to support its work with emerging playwrights during the 2002-03 season. Founded in 1991, Eye of the Storm dedicates itself to bringing audiences the best in contemporary playwriting, produced with freshness, flair and a high caliber of acting talent. Funding from the Jerome Foundation primarily supports Seed the Storm, an innovative festival of new works, which has been a successful addition to the theaters playwright development program. Four emerging playwrights are commissioned to create seeds of new plays, which may grow into future mainstage productions.

A two-year grant of $63,000 was made to FilmNorth (formerly Independent Filmmaker Project Minnesota), Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of MNTV. MNTV, a collaboration among IFP Minneapolis, Intermedia Arts, Twin Cities Public Television, and the Walker Art Center, provides a television broadcast venue for short works by film/video artists and nurtures an audience for these works. MNTV is structured as four, hour long episodes, which highlight new works made by Minnesotans within 18 months of the open call for entries. Grant funds are used to pay license fees to Minnesota film and video artists, and to administer, air, and promote the series.

FilmNorth (formerly Independent Filmmaker Project Minnesota), Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $40,000 in support of services to film and video artists and photographers. IFP Minneapolis is the combination of Independent Feature Project/North and Media Artists Resource Center and brings together programs from both organizations. Its vision is to create a dynamic organization that promotes and supports the creation of diverse and high quality media works by independent artists. The new organization will provide comprehensive training, equipment, funding, information, consultations, and exhibition opportunities to artists.

Musician MILO FINE will travel to England (London and the surrounding area) to study and collaborate with English improvisers in their native milieu during a four to five week intensive cultural immersion. In addition to presenting his work and collaborating, he will exchange aesthetic, practical, and cultural attitudes with his English counterparts. These activities will provide vital impetus for his work

FORECAST PUBLIC ARTWORKS, Saint Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $65,000 in support of the Public Art Affairs Program. The mission of FORECAST is to support the development and appreciation of public art by creating opportunities for artists and communities to explore the public realm, and by producing educational materials to enhance the understanding and growth of public art. The Public Art Affairs Program awards funds to emerging Minnesota artists in all disciplines to consider public venues for creative exploration. Public Art Affairs not only makes project grants to create and install works but also awards research and development grants to artists.

THE FOUNDATION CENTER, New York City, received a two-year grant of $3,000 in support of programs that provide grantseekers with information resources and education about the field of philanthropy. The Foundation Center is the nations leading authority on institutional grantmaking. Its strategic priorities are to help grantseekers succeed, chart the philanthropic landscape, share knowledge of philanthropy, build the gateway to philanthropy on the Web, and provide a communications conduit for the field.

A Jerome grant of $23,000 was authorized for THE FOUNDRY THEATRE, New York City, in support of its developmental work with emerging playwrights in the 2002-03 season. The Foundry commissions, develops, produces, and tours plays that provoke new questions for contemporary times and compel audiences to reconsider the impact of theater on the larger society. Playwrights receive support through commissions, readings, workshops, and productions. Jerome support will further the developmental work, primarily through workshops, of pieces by such playwrights as Alice Twan, Ralph Pea, and Kirk Wood Bromley.

FRANKLIN ARTWORKS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $19,000 in support of solo shows of works by emerging artists in its 2002-03 exhibition program. The mission of Franklin ArtWorks is to enrich the Phillips Neighborhood and the Twin Cities with dynamic programming in the visual arts, performance, film and video, and arts education. The visual arts program is dedicated to exhibiting new and experimental work by emerging artists.

A two-year grant of $74,000 was awarded to FRANKLIN FURNACE ARCHIVE, New York City, in support of the participation of emerging artists in the Fund for Performance Art and The Future of the Present. Franklin Furnace is committed to making the world safe for avant-garde art. The Fund for Performance Art sustains Franklin Furnaces connection with its rootsthe community of avant-garde artists, while fostering discourse and evolution of ideas that will impact the culture at large. It provides grants to competitively selected and emerging performance artists who are creating new work. In The Future of the Present, grants are awarded to emerging new media artists to support the creation of new work.

Anthony Gatto, Minneapolis, Minnesota, director of Headwaters Music, received funding to travel to the Netherlands to obtain counsel and gather information that will assist in the development of a strategic plan for a new performing arts venue. Gatto will investigate similar existing spaces to research the costs and benefits of a multifunction venue. This future Headwaters Music venue will be a musical foundry for creating new works by emerging and established composers. It will provide rehearsal space, technical support, and sound and audio engineering. In Amsterdam, Gatto will consult several new music composers, producers, musicians, and organizations.

Poet TED GENOWAYS will travel to Eagle and Fairbanks, Alaska, for ten days to conduct archival research and oral history interviews about Anna and Abe Malm for a collection of poems. The Malms were a Finnish couple who sought to make their fortune during the Alaska gold rush by opening a laundry service. While traveling in Alaska in 1996, Genoways heard a story about the couple and began writing sonnets about them.

ERIK GESCHKE, sculptor and professor, will spend one month in China as a visiting artist in the Sculpture Department at LuXun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang, where he expects to investigate ideas and make new work. Geschke will also visit the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and pursue interactions with Chinese artists and educators. He hopes to build the foundations of an exchange program between the LuXun Academy and the University of Minnesotas Art Department as a result of this residency.

Filmmaker MELODY GILBERT will spend three weeks traveling to Milwaukee, North Carolina, New York, Holland, and Scotland to conduct research and interview people with apotemnophilia, an extreme form of body dysmorphia that causes individuals to become obsessed with amputating their limbs. Gilbert plans to produce a documentary. She will interview apotemnophiles, doctors familiar with the disorder, wannabes who pretend to have this condition, and devotees who are attracted to amputees.

BILLY GOLFUS, Minneapolis, MN, received support for Sex & the Single Gimp, a romantic comedy about a paraplegic who tries to learn to swing dance in his wheel chair in order to meet women.

Musician ERIC GRAHAM, Red Wing, will spend four weeks in San Rafael, California, attending the Ali Akbar Khan College of Music. Graham will study Hindustani music at the college. He will focus on melody and rhythm theories in order to transform his composition techniques and broaden his improvisation skills. Graham has spent years as an active jazz string bassist and composer who writes and plays a variety of musical styles. By studying Hindustani music, he hopes to push his musical ideas beyond the limits of traditional jazz.

Two grants of $10,000 each were made to GRANTMAKERS IN THE ARTS, Seattle, Washington, in support of programs and services and Jerome Foundations 2002 and 2003 organizational membership. Grantmakers in the Arts was established in 1985 as the national affinity organization for private, corporate, community, and family foundations that make arts and culture grants. The organization provides publications, research, information services, and meetings to strengthen the field of private sector arts grantmaking with the aim of promoting more meaningful support of arts and culture.

JONATHAN HAMILTON, Visual Arts Program Director, Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, will spend six weeks in central Scotland expanding his knowledge of programs that serve artists with disabilities. Hamilton will observe model programs and create collaborative partnerships with several well-established arts organizations in Glasgow. He shares a personal and professional dedication with the organizations he will visit, all of which focus on creative strengths rather than disabilities. He will research programs at Project Ability, Trongate Studios, and ArtLink Central.

A grant was awarded to TANA HARGEST in support of New Negrotopia, an interactive new media project that will examine the theme of utopian space and the hegemony of race.

AARON DAVIS HALL, Harlem, New York, received $20,000 in support of the Fund for New Work, and specifically for commissions to emerging creative artists to develop new work. Aaron Davis Hall has provided over 22 years of service to Harlem as its principal center for the performing arts, responsible for the management and programming of a three-theater complex. Jerome dollars are directed to artists who are at the beginnings of creating work and have shown initial promise; artists who are under-recognized because their opportunities have been limited, particularly in major venues; and artists who are moving into new forms. Performances of works created via these commissions are often seen at Aaron Davis in such series as E-Moves.