Past
Grantees

ROBYNN CARTER, an arts administrator for the White Earth Land Recovery Project, from Vergas, Minnesota, received a grant for a three-part program of professional development. She will work under the mentorship of Juanita Espinosa, Executive Director of the Native Arts Circle and Director of the Two Rivers Gallery; she will attend an arts administration training program at Boston University; and she will also attend an Indian Basketmakers Alliance gathering in Maine.

A grant of $25,000 was authorized for CAVE CANEM, New York City, in support of various programs serving emerging African American poets. Cave Canem was founded in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady to address the need for a safe and fertile environment in which African American poets would find excellent literary instruction and supportive criticism with renowned poets as teachers. Cave Canem's first program offering was a week-long summer workshop/retreat, which has continued each year. The organization offers New York City-based workshops engaging 10-15 emerging poets per session. Subsidy was authorized for a Twin Cities-based master class and workshop. Jerome Foundation funding is directed toward the participation of emerging New York City and Minnesota poets in these four programs.

The NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, New York City, served as fiscal agent for a request submitted by the CHAMECKILERNER DANCE COMPANY. A grant of $8,000 was made for the development and production of Poor Reality. How can the recollection of an event not be inevitably distorted by the attitudes and needs of the one who remembers? ChameckiLerner will create a world in which the observer is guided by a very definite and clear image that gradually begins to evolve. The deconstruction unfolds into altered images that grow more and more ambiguous as details become complex. Each observer is left with nothing but his or her own personal perception of what is happening on stage, and a confused search for a truth that may or may not exist.

RESOURCES AND COUNSELING FOR THE ARTS, St. Paul, Minnesota, provides affordable management information, consulting and training services designed to improve the business competence and confidence of independent artists and cultural organizations. It served as fiscal agent for composer and vocalist LILA KANE, a composer, chanter and vocalist who has forged the genres of music, myth and theater. Her interests lie in mystical and sacred traditions. Studies and practice in chant from ancient traditions are a strong influence in her compositions and performance. Jerome Foundation funding of $8,000 was authorized toward the development of Communion, a new evening-length oratorio to be performed by the Minnesota Womens Chorus, a portion of the Minnesota Chorale, African Drummers, Didjereedoo players, a Tibetan singing bowl orchestra and Javad Alizadeh, an elder chanter. Kane acts as composer, performance, artistic director and director of the choir.

Since 1994, the Jerome Foundation has provided funding to H. T. CHEN DANCE, New York City, in support of its Ear to the Ground series. Housed in the Mulberry Street Theater, this residency-based dance series features choreographic commissions of talented emerging choreographers, particularly Asian American artists, who explore their cultural heritage through contemporary dance forms. Ear to the Ground supports emerging artists who are creating original, exciting work, yet who are in need of increased recognition and exposure. Funding was also awarded for Moving Word choreography that finds inspiration in poetry. Jerome funding of $20,000, over two years, will support four choreographers who will receive Ear to the Ground commissions and four Moving Word commissions.

The CHERRY LANE ALTERNATIVE THEATRE, New York City, received $30,000 to continue its Mentor Project. Cherry Lane is committed to the development of emerging playwrights by giving them opportunities to work with some of the best theater artists of our time. The Mentor Project pairs five emerging playwrights with five mentor playwrights. They work together over several months to develop a script for workshop production. The intensity and the amount of access emerging writers are given to experienced professionals who are fully committed to mentoring were primary factors in the Foundations decision to authorize continued support.

The CHILDRENS THEATRE COMPANY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, produces significant theater experiences created especially for young people and their families, by sustaining a creative ensemble of the highest professional quality. CTC is the largest professional theater company for young people in North America. Jerome Foundation support of $30,000 provides partial funding for Playground, an artist residency program at Childrens Theatre for New Dramatists members, largely New York City-based writers. Five emerging playwrights will attend a three-day introductory program at CTC, reconvening for a ten-day laboratory several months later. The project culminates with workshop presentations at Childrens Theatre Company and New Dramatists. Playwrights will be given dramaturgical support, access to the Childrens Theatre Company acting company and the opportunity to offer readings for target audiences.

COFFEE HOUSE PRESS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, has received Jerome subsidy since 1987 for the publication of books by emerging Minnesota and New York City writers. The mission of the Press is to delight and inspire readers, to increase appreciation for the traditional book arts, to contribute to the cultural life of its community and to enrich our collective literary heritage. Jerome funding of $27,000 will support the publication of volumes by Mary Sharratt, Danielle Sosin, Emily Carter, Tenaya Darlington, Mark Nowak and Eleni Sikelianos.

COLLAPSABLE GIRAFFE, New York City, is an experimental theater company that integrates all forms of contemporary technology in its work, including video, film, digitally generated arts, live amplified sound and music, as well as borrowed vocabularies from different forms of dance and film. A grant of $8,000 was authorized for the development of the Bend Your Mind Off and Witch Mountain/Black Tarantula.

The Jerome Foundation made a two-year grant of $30,000 to CORNING DANCES & COMPANY, Cottage Grove, Minnesota, in support of the development of new works in the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons. The Company creates provocative and accessible dance works that address compelling issues; and it works with communities to deepen the impact of those messages. Support will be used to develop four new works. One is a continuation of the Glue Factory Project, premiered in early 2000. Another is titled IsadoraThe Rearview Mirror, a solo dance play in which Corning will embody Isadora as she might appear on the cusp of the 21st Century, in a nonlinear, creative nonfiction work.

The Jerome Foundation renewed its general support of and membership in the COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS, Washington, D.C.

Painter SANTIAGO CUCULLU received a grant to spend five days in the Badlands of South Dakota to gather material for a wall piece. A previous trip to the Badlands yielded photographic source material that was incorporated into a suite of screen prints and a site-specific wall painting by the artist.

The CIRCUM-ARTS FOUNDATION, New York City, is a multipurpose arts service organization that frequently acts as fiscal agent for independent artists. Composer NATHAN CURRIER, an established mid-career composer, received through the fiscal agent sponsorship of Circum-Arts Foundation, a grant of $15,000 toward the development of a new work titled Gaian Variations. The work is an expression through music, text, some projections and limited staging of the Gaia hypothesis, a scientific theory that is based on the idea that the Earth itself is a living organism. British scientist James Lovelock will provide the text, expounding upon his theory. Currier made the case that this work represented a significant risk for him, and that it had the potential to define his career long after the premiere.

Funding was awarded to documentary photographer STEPHEN DAHL to travel to Washington, D.C., in order to show his photographic portfolio on Labor in Contemporary Industries to curators at the National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress where he hopes to sell his work and to secure exhibitions

DANCE SPACE CENTER, New York City, received a two-year commitment of $40,000 in support of choreographic commissions and performances. Funding is directed toward the annual concert In the Company of Men, which showcases the resources and strengths of today's male choreographers. It also pays homage to male choreographers no longer living and inspires the next generation to enter the dance force. These shared concerts feature a mix of established and emerging choreographers, with broad cultural and stylistic diversity. Jerome funding is directed toward emerging choreographers' commissions.

The MINNESOTA DANCE ALLIANCE, Minneapolis, Minneapolis, received a grant of $30,000 in support of Dancer Pool. The Alliance's mission is to support and foster dance arts in the state. Jerome Foundation has been supporting Dancer Pool since 1981. This program provides funds to pay rehearsal fees for dancers working with emerging independent choreographers. Monies may be used to experiment with dancers in new areas of movement, to develop and create new pieces, and to reconstruct past choreographic work to be used in upcoming performances. Dancer Pool grant recipients were Jelena Petrovic, Gerry Girouard, Matthew Jenson, Cynthia Gutierrez-Garner, Sarah Hauss, Morris Johnson and Brad Garner. An enhancement to the program was also supported, the production of the work of Dancer Pool grant recipients Gutierrez-Garner and Jenson.

DANSPACE PROJECT, New York City, was founded in 1974 to provide an affordable performance venue for independent experimental choreographers. It encourages choreographers to take risks and realize their artistic visions in a professional setting, and have their work viewed by an educated and receptive public. Danspace has presented a number of pioneering artists at early stages of their careers. For the past five years, the Jerome Foundation has supported commissions to independent emerging choreographers through Danspace Projects commissioning program. A two-year commitment of $55,000 was authorized toward emerging choreographers commissions.

A grant was awarded to LISA DiLILLO for Tongues Don't Have Bones, a 30-minute experimental documentary journey into Burma (Myanmar), that will look behind the faade of censorship and iron control put into place by the current military regime.

OPEN CHANNELS/DIXON PLACE, New York City, received a two-year grant of $50,000 to support commissioning and development fees for emerging artists. Dixon Place is a laboratory that provides artists with an opportunity and a place to test new ideas and new performance techniques. A portion of the Jerome grant will be paid to artists in the form of fees for the presentation of works-in-progress. A large part of Dixon Places mission is carried out through monthly curated series in performance, theater, dance and literature. Dixon Place also received support for a program that brings emerging and under-recognized artists to the attention of the public through extended runs and targeted publicity efforts. Commissions will be awarded to eight artists or groups to create new works for this extended run series.

HALEAKALA, INC., also known as THE KITCHEN, New York City, received a grant of $12,000 to support the development and production of a new work titled Wind, created by DD Dorvillier. The Kitchen is a multidisciplinary presenting organization that has long been known as an incubator for artists work. It served as fiscal agent for Dorvillier, a dance and performance artist whos been creating works that are an eclectic mix of set and improvised dance states, using music, strange and absurd characters, and cartoon-like scenography with an affinity for the extreme and bizarre. Wind is the story of brothers facing mortality and weather, two invisible forces, which engrave their textures onto the human spirit.