Past
Grantees

Musician ANN HEYMANN and harp-maker DAVID KORTIER, Winthrop, were awarded a grant to travel to Dublin, Ireland, where they will examine, measure, and study surviving Irish harps housed at the National Museum of Ireland and Trinity College. Kortier plans to re-create a traditional Irish clairseach that Heymann will be able to use to perform her repertoire.

The SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for HIJACK, the team of Kristin Van Loon and Arwen Wilder, received a grant of $10,500 in support of the creation of new work. Hijack is an eleven-year choreographic collaboration that embraces juxtaposition with equal emphasis on process and product. Hijack will create two duets and two ensemble works. In each, Van Loon and Wilder will explore a different production elementsound, lighting, costume, and text.

The INTERGALACTIC CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $16,000 to support the creation and recording of new works by composer EDIE HILL . The ensemble is a flexible chamber orchestra dedicated to the performance of modern and new music. Hill, as composer-in-residence, will compose a 25-minute three-movement work for chamber orchestra, work closely with the musicians during the composition period, be present for and coach the musicians in rehearsals, record a debut CD of chamber and chamber orchestra music and then tour with the ensemble and the CD.

HARRIET HIRSHORN (previous recipient), received funding for Pote Mak Sonje: The Raboteau Trial, a documentary that chronicles the trial and eventual conviction of military and paramilitary leaders for their role in the 1994 massacre of civilians in the poor neighborhood of Raboteau in Goniaves, Haiti.

The GREAT AMERICAN HISTORY THEATRE, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $50,000 in support of the development of new works by emerging playwrights. The History Theatre creates and produces plays about Minnesota, the Midwest, and the diverse American experience. These funds will enable the History Theatre to continue its commissioning, development and production of new works.

A grant award of $10,000 was authorized to The CENTER FOR HMONG ARTS AND TALENT, St. Paul, Minnesota, an organization that nurtures and develops Hmong artists, provides opportunities and leadership training, educates the general public to better understand and appreciate Hmong arts and advocates for its community through the arts. Jerome dollars will support the publication of two issues of Paj Ntaub Voice, a literary arts journal focused on Hmong art and culture, containing original literary work, visual art and cultural criticism. Calls for submissions are issued twice a year. An advisory/editorial board and editor Mai Neng Moua read and select works for publication. Paj Ntaub Voice blends old with new, reflecting the artistic soul of the Hmong-American community. It helps Hmong writers and artists move forward an oral culture with little written literary identity. In addition to publication, the Jerome Foundation grant will support a writing workshop to assist Hmong writers with the craft of writing.

Funding was awarded to Alexandria based artist KEITH HOLMES to spend six weeks in Croatia and Bosnia where he will collect materials and continue his study of the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and its current, fragile peace. His interdisciplinary work incorporates photographs, bricks, found objects, field recordings and interviews, flowers, historical photographs, and sculptural forms based on Yugoslav culture and iconography.

INTAR HISPANIC AMERICAN ARTS CENTER, New York City, received a grant of $20,000 in support of its NewWorks Lab. INTARs mission is to identify, develop and present the work of Hispanic American theater and visual artists and to introduce outstanding new works by internationally respected Latin artists to American audiences. The NewWorks Lab is dedicated to the support and development of new writers, directors, actors and other artists from the Latino/a theater community. Artists are encouraged to experiment with new forms. Workshop productions of four works in development at the Lab are held each season. The Labs objective is to foster the writing process of the playwrights.

Digital media artist TARAH JACKSON, Deer River, received funding to spend 65 days traveling to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and various Ojibwe and Potowatomi areas in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Canada. Jackson will explore her Native American heritage and further her artistic pursuits. She will visit museums in Cambridge to see how Native people are portrayed, and she will experience the land from which her people migrated. Jackson will attend an Ojibwe language immersion camp and spend a month at the Potowatomi Gathering in Ontario, Canada.

The JAMAICA CENTER FOR ARTS & LEARNING, Jamaica, New York, received $15,000 in support of the Visual Arts Program for emerging visual artists. JCAL serves more than 65,000 adults and children each year in its efforts to make the arts accessible to the entire community. The Center strives to provide a venue for cutting-edge art and the resources necessary to help artists nurture their talents and promote their work. JCAL acts as an advocacy organization providing artists with career resources, exhibition opportunities, and support. The Visual Arts Program mounts four to six exhibitions per year showcasing the work of emerging artists from New York City. The Program focuses on culturally specific art treated in new ways, new media, and creating opportunities for underrepresented artists and audiences in Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.

The Directors authorized a $12,500 grant to THIN MAN DANCE/JOHN JASPERSE COMPANY, New York City, in support of the development of a new evening length work. Jerome funding will help with the costs of creating which takes place, a work for four dancers, which will be performed in the Next Wave Festival 2001 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Jasperse is interested in exploring the internal physical and psychic space of the body as it relates to the bodys external shell as a container, and how this relation is reflected and paralleled in the space that contains humans and their actions. Hes interested in the disconnect between meanings projected by an assumed understanding of a given space and the meanings established through the actions that occur in the space.

A grant of $10,500 was awarded to RESOURCES AND COUNSELING FOR THE ARTS, St. Paul, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for CATALYST: DANCES BY EMILY JOHNSON. Johnson formed Catalyst in 1998 as a seven-member contemporary dance company. She magnifies the accustomed routine of daily life, paying particular attention to things that go unnoticed or taken for granted as one moves through the day. A grant of $10,500 will enable Johnson to develop several new dance works. Face Control is a duet for two women, which deals with how we carry ourselves through encounters in life that are fearful, demeaning or stressful in order to protect dignity and some semblance of security. Unrefined/Unfinished, a solo to be created with visual artist Krista Walsh and playwright Lisa DAmour, will look at the individual experience of self-construction in a society excited by obsessions and destructive behavior. If I Shut My Eyes, You Cant See Me is a quartet in which each dancer has control of the illumination of two light bulbs. As the piece is danced, moments of what one would not want seen, or what is embarrassing to be seen, are seen. The dancers disguise what they have revealed. A fourth dance, yet to be titled, originated from a Travel and Study Grant Johnson received to study Yupik dance.

NATE JOHNSON, Sound Unseen Festival Director, received a grant to spend 15 days investigating film festivals in Seattle, Chicago, and New York. Johnson will travel to festivals that specialize in underground and experimental film. He will research current festival trends, sponsorship opportunities, and potential festival venues.

JUXTAPOSITION ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $15,000 in support of its 2001 Aerosol Arts Series. Juxtaposition offers fine arts programs to youth, provides opportunities for professional artists to develop work and presents public art events for community audiences. Its mission is to nurture creativity and build self-confidence. It provides hands-on opportunities for young artists to learn skills and grow as creative individuals. Jerome funding was authorized for a series of events showcasing emerging Twin Cities and New York City aerosol artists. Three visiting artists, well known within the urban art genre, will visit the Twin Cities to participate in a live mural painting, an exhibition with local emerging artists, a workshop series for local artists and a public slide show and discussion of the art form in association with the Weisman Museum.

KATHA DANCE THEATRE, Crystal, Minnesota, received a two-year concluding grant of $24,000 in support of the creation of new works by choreographer Rita Mustaphi. The mission of Katha Dance Theatre is to present, promote and strengthen the art of Indian classical dance through creation, preservation and sponsorship of artistic and cultural endeavors. Jerome funding will be directed toward the development and production of new works. Mustaphi creates pieces that push beyond the Kathak tradition yet are firmly rooted within that tradition. In 2001, Mustaphi will stage the epic Ramayana, using the dance, music, storytelling and puppet theater traditions of India, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Laos.

Skewed Visions Performance Company Co-Artistic Directors Gülgün Kayim and Charles Campbell, Minneapolis, Minnesota, were awarded a grant to attend three organizational development workshops at Springboard for the Arts (formerly Resources and Counseling for the Arts). The co-artistic directors will learn about measuring and evaluating Skewed Vision’s strategic plan, recruiting and orienting board members, and writing grant proposals.

Novelist NICOLE MARY KELBY received a grant to spend three weeks conducting research in Paris, France, and Dakar, Africa, for her novel Le Thatre Des Estoiles. Kelby will investigate her family history and retrace her mothers emigration route to America. The novel is a literary mystery that explores the nature of creation while solving the mystery of one womans past.

Media artist Steven J. Kelly, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant to travel to China to work with a mentor/consultant at the Beijing Film Academy. Kelly will study the administrative and technical expectations of film production in China with the aim of producing films there. He will focus on the Chinese Film and Television Ministry, identifying and addressing concerns of the Chinese government regarding film production, learning the cultural protocols for visiting government ministries in China, and studying and translating Chinese film production forms and documents.

Media artist STEVEN J. KELLY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant to travel to China to work with a mentor/consultant at the Beijing Film Academy. Kelly will study the administrative and technical expectations of film production in China with the aim of producing films there. He will focus on the Chinese Film and Television Ministry, identifying and addressing concerns of the Chinese government regarding film production, learning the cultural protocols for visiting government ministries in China, and studying and translating Chinese film production forms and documents.

Musician GERARD KOSAK was awarded a grant to spend four days attending the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, where he will participate in teaching and performance workshops. Kosak will also compete in the National Finger Picking Championship at the Festival. These experiences will expand his performance skills, enhance his knowledge of music and guitar playing, increase his network of professional contacts, and advance his audience beyond the local/regional level.