Past
Grantees

Painter CHAMINDIKA WANDURAGALA received funding to spend two months in Sri Lanka to attend the opening of her solo exhibition at Barefoot Gallery in Colombo; research traditional art forms; and connect with other artists, activists, and arts organizations. Shes particularly interested in studying masks, puppetry, and folklore. This trip will also contribute to the development of Diaspora Flow, a new nonprofit dedicated to bringing visibility to the cultural work of Sri Lankans in the United States.

A grant of $33,000 was made to the DALE WARLAND SINGERS, St. Paul, Minnesota, in support of Choral Ventures. This professional choral ensemble performs music from five centuries, and is known for its extensive commissioning program and commitment to contemporary music. Choral Ventures conducts an annual open call to composers, which results in approximately 175 applications from composers who wish to create works for a choral music reading session and compete for a commission to write a full-length work for the Dale Warland Singers. Selected composers receive stipends to create short works for the reading session, and participate in a career development workshop while in Minnesota for the reading. The one composer selected for the full commission works closely with Warland to prepare the piece for performance.

ANTHONY WHITE, shadow puppet artist and designer, was awarded funding to spend one month in San Francisco, northern California, and southern Oregon to study with Shadow Light Productions. He expects to build his knowledge of shadow craft and work with a mentor, the Artistic Director of Shadow Light Productions.

Artist and educator KAREN WIRTH was awarded a grant to spend six weeks in Rome and Florence where she will examine specific constructed spaces and how they affect the viewer. Being in and studying the spaces designed by master artists and architects will have a direct affect on her installation work and her collaborations with architects.

The Directors authorized a grant of $25,000 to the WOMENS PROJECT & PRODUCTIONS, New York City, in support of the participation of emerging playwrights in the Developmental Theatre Program. The Womens Project is dedicated to the development and production of new plays written by women. The Developmental Theatre Program encompasses the Playwrights Lab, The Directors Forum, First Looks readings, and workshops. Twenty playwrights are members of the Lab, which meets every two weeks to develop scripts. The Tandem Acts Festival pairs Lab playwrights with Forum directors to present staged readings. The First Looks reading series presents 10 to 20 rehearsed readings of new plays.

FREE RANGE ARTS, New York City, acting as fiscal agent for WOOD DANCE, received $10,000 for the production of two works, Feeling Lilaand Funktionlust. Free Range Arts serves the performing arts community by making available low cost rehearsal space, facilitating the work of emerging performing artists and producing performance art events. Choreographer Ellis Wood has been based in New York City since 1989. Funding from the Jerome Foundation will enable Wood to create two new pieces, the first of four pieces of a suite of dances that will take a deeper and riskier approach than past endeavors, and bring her work to a new level of intensity. Feeling Lilais a trio about discovering the many layers that have grown over pure being, and stripping away the obstacles firmly planted in the way of reaching the purer states of lives. Funktionlustis a solo work for Wood, based on the German word meaning the pleasure of doing. It will deal with the concept of women and pleasure, as well as the successes and failures involved in attempting to move from an authentic place of joy.

A two-year grant of $30,000 was awarded to THE WRITERS ROOM, New York City, in support of programs and services for emerging writers. The mission of The Writers Room is to provide writers with unlimited access to professional, affordable workspace. It serves more than 300 writers of all literary genres each year. Part-time members rotate every three months to ensure access for new writers. The Writers Room houses a large resource library and holds seminars, members readings, book parties, and staged readings for playwrights.

Writer KEEGAN XAVI received funding to spend seven weeks traveling by train through Europe where she will research and write 21 Down Lake. She chose to travel to Europe because everything there is foreign to her and, consequently, exciting. Xavi also intends to visit her disconnected father and other relatives. Her experiences on this trip will contribute to the development of her book and provide her with a better understanding of her identity.

Carpenter and furniture maker MARK YODER, Blackduck, received a grant to spend 17 days in the Ukraine where he will travel from the Black Sea up the river to Kiev to learn the history, surroundings, and living conditions of the migrating Mennonites. His purpose is to further his understanding of Mennonite furniture, investigate materials, become familiar with the hardware construction of dowry chests, meet present-day craftspeople, and view furniture in museums and private homes.

The NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, New York City, acted as fiscal agent for a proposal from performance artist YASUKO YOKOSHI. The Jerome Foundation Directors authorized $10,000 to enable Yokoshi to develop Royal Madness, a dance/theater piece performed, conceived and choreographed in collaboration with Dutch choreographer/dancer Gonnie Heggen. The work explores character and its creation in an improvisational environment in which dancers reveal the magic of transformation, of changing personality, emotions and behaviors. Its constructed in six scenes with eight characters, using performance masks within the context of Japanese and Dutch monarchies.

ZEITGEIST, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $36,000 in support of the Composer Workshop and the commissioning, development and production of a new music theater work by BRENT MICHAEL DAVIDS. For 24 years, Zeitgeist has been carrying out its mission to enliven todays music and expand its public with performances that absorb, stimulate and hearten. It is dedicated to contemporary music, and has commissioned and performed compositions by emerging and established composers. The Composer Workshop is designed to give emerging composers opportunities to develop their creative ideas and stretch artistic boundaries in an environment that celebrates exploration and experimentation. Composers bring sketches of material they would like to develop and use Zeitgeist as a compositional laboratory. Composer Brent Michael Davids participated in the 2000 Composer Workshop. Zeitgeist is commissioning a new full-length music theater piece from him, to be premiered in the spring of 2002. Jerome funding of $8,000 is dedicated to this piece, and a two-year commitment of $28,000 will support the Composer Workshop.

ZEITGEIST, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $36,000 in support of the Composer Workshop and the commissioning, development and production of a new music theater work by BRENT MICHAEL DAVIDS. For 24 years, Zeitgeist has been carrying out its mission to enliven todays music and expand its public with performances that absorb, stimulate and hearten. It is dedicated to contemporary music, and has commissioned and performed compositions by emerging and established composers. The Composer Workshop is designed to give emerging composers opportunities to develop their creative ideas and stretch artistic boundaries in an environment that celebrates exploration and experimentation. Composers bring sketches of material they would like to develop and use Zeitgeist as a compositional laboratory. Composer Brent Michael Davids participated in the 2000 Composer Workshop. Zeitgeist is commissioning a new full-length music theater piece from him, to be premiered in the spring of 2002. Jerome funding of $8,000 is dedicated to this piece, and a two-year commitment of $28,000 will support the Composer Workshop.

The ZENON DANCE COMPANY AND SCHOOL, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $50,000 to support the residencies of six emerging choreographers and the new works they will create. The mission of Zenon is to sustain an artistically excellent professional dance company. It presents the commissioned works of emerging and recognized modern and jazz choreographers to the broadest and most diverse audiences and communities possible. It accomplishes this through performance, education and outreach. Artistic Director Linda Andrews seeks emerging choreographers from Minnesota and New York City, and commissions new works from them using Jerome Foundation subsidies. Three emerging choreographers per year are supported in this program.

The Directors authorized a grant of $20,000 to 15 HEAD-A THEATRE LAB, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of two new works in the 2000-2001 season. 15 HEAD - a theatre lab is a nonprofit, professional, experimental theatre lab. 15 HEAD uses a highly structured, collaborative rehearsal process to create original works, or adaptations of existing works. All of 15 HEAD's productions are marked by outstanding physical performances, sophisticated and challenging visuals and innovative interpretations of universal or operatic themes. we are especially drawn to experimentation with the integration of text, dance, music and the visual arts, believing that a dynamic interplay of vocabularies provides a richer and more striking experience than any medium alone. Jerome funding will be directed toward the development of two new works in the coming season. The first, Coco, is an original one-woman show inspired by the life of fashion and perfume designer Coco Channel. A variety of written sources, along with improvised material will be developed by company members under the guidance of artistic director Julia Fischer. The second work, based on the novel by Colette, titled Cherie, recasts Colettes characters in a timeless space that could be anywhere and everywhere that people create civilization. The story examines aging and its impact on love.

3 LEGGED RACE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, creates opportunities that propel artists self-directed growth, striving to provide emerging creators with support and venues best suited to their progress. Support comes through commissions, production agreements, educational workshops and creative laboratories. The organization works in theater, dance and performance art. Its vision is noncommercial, experimental, eclectic and often unconventional in taste. A Jerome grant of $18,000 will underwrite emerging artist commissions in the 2000-01 fiscal year for three programs: Number 7, a performance installation created by Jacqueline Hayes, Heidi Eckwall and Judith Howard; Blizzard 2001, featuring work-in-progress by several artists; and Bones, an evening-length dance event co-choreographed by Judith Howard, Sally Rousse, Erin Thompson and Cathy Young.

3-LEGGED DOG, New York City, has received Jerome Foundation subsidy since 1996 for the development and production of new works. Founded in 1993, its operating premise is versatility across disciplines. Projects include video installations, experimental theater works, multimedia theater, radio plays, films, video, hyper media objects and web sites. A two-year grant of $30,000 was authorized for the development of Jill Szuchmachers Wonton Destruction Trilogy, which is an exploration of work, technology and alienation at the end of the 20th Century. Other new works will be developed by founding company member Kevin Cunningham.

A GATHERING OF THE TRIBES, New York City, was founded in 1991 as a venue for underexposed literary artists, a networking center, and a locus for the development of new talent. Jerome funding of $15,000 will be allocated toward a writers-in-residence program and writers' fees for the publication of A Gathering of the Tribes magazine, an exciting combination of poetry, fiction, reviews, essays, interviews and visual arts. The writers-in-residence program is a natural outgrowth of Tribes' relationship with two small presses. There will be eight writers' residencies featuring four writers each from Hanging Loose and Coffee House Presses. Each residency consists of a public reading, a visit to a school in Bronx District 10 and a taped radio and/or television interview.

ME K. AHN is a memoir writer and filmmaker who was awarded a grant to travel for three months in Seoul, Korea, the place of her birth. As a baby, Ahn was adopted by a Minnesota family. She will interview her Korean biological family for the purpose of constructing an autobiographical novel.

Through a bequest from George and Gisela Amberg, the Jerome Foundation provides funding to the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University in the form of a dissertation fellowship named after the Ambergs. A grant of $5,850 was made to NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, New York City, to support the AMBERG FELLOWSHIP AWARD, for Bruce Brasell, whose dissertation is titled Imagining the American South in Documentary Film and Video. It is an exploration of the South as a site of ethnographic and documentary filmmaking. It is Brasell's contention that the history of filmmaking about the South in the 20th century is one of "salvage ethnography" that seeks to capture and preserve on film a disappearing culture, and to redeem, in an evangelical tone specific to the region, the value and salience of Southern culture to American life.

Novelist DALE GREGORY ANDERSON received funding to spend a week at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center in Massachusetts to attend Michael Cunninghams writing workshop in order to further develop the craft of characterization.