Past
Grantees

A grant was awarded to LORRAINE NORRGARD, a producer/director from Cloquet, Minnesota, to spend one month in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, exploring the similarity of the meaning of the birch tree between the Mongol people and the Anishinabeg, for whom the birch is the tree of life and legend. Shell focus on traditional healing practices in rural Mongolia.

The mission of the NORTHERN CLAY CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, is to advance the ceramic arts. Its goals are to promote excellence in the work of clay artists, to provide educational opportunities for artists in the community, and to encourage the publics appreciation and understanding of the ceramic arts. A Jerome Foundation grant of $50,000 over two years will support the Project Grants Program, which annually awards $6,000 grants to three emerging artists working primarily in clay.

THE FIELD, New York City, is a service organization that supports the work of independent artists and frequently acts as fiscal agent for those artists. One of those is TERE OCONNOR DANCE. OConnor challenges the boundaries of dance through a dense eclectic movement style filled with reference and nuance, and a fierce commitment to encountering stark emotional territory. His persistent themes include the unveiling of an inner emotional dialogue and the frailty and nobility of an individual life accented by a frequently hilarious sense of humor. Jerome Foundation support of $32,000 was authorized over two years. Portions of that funding will go toward the development of a new evening-length piece with the working title The New and Improved Earth, continuing OConnors practice of intermingling dance and text.

The O'NEILL THEATER CENTER, New York City, received a grant of $22,000 in support of the participation of emerging New York City and Minnesota playwrights in the National Playwrights Conference. The O'Neill is a collection of allied programs that foster theater through exploration, development, training, promotion, conservation and utilization of all aspects of the art form. Its been a creative laboratory for thousands of playwrights, composers, librettists, lyricists, directors, critics, designers, actors, dramaturgs, scholars and students for the past 35 years. Preparation for the annual Playwrights Conference begins in the fall with a widely disseminated invitation to playwrights to submit works for review. A reading process culminates in the selection of 10 to 15 writers to participate in the summer conference. Each play receives four or five days of rehearsal, during which playwrights are encouraged to rewrite based on observing the actors, directors and dramaturgs working with their scripts. Each play is given two staged readings before the public, visiting theater professionals and conference personnel. The day after the second performance, the participants gather for an intensive critique. Playwrights remain in residence for the duration of the conference, free to digest the experience, discuss the work, rewrite and contribute to other playwrights' development.

A grant was awarded to MARIE OLOFSDOTTER, a visual artist and teacher, to spend one month in India to study the Ganges River as it is portrayed artistically in temples and shrines and to explore the artistic elements of ritual performance associated with the river. She will create a series of artist books that reflect in poetry, prose, paintings and relief, the similarities and differences between the Mississippi and the Ganges.

W. SCOTT OLSEN, a writer in Moorhead, Minnesota, received funding to travel the northernmost sections of Canada and Alaska. Olsen will conduct research for his forthcoming travel/nonfiction book regarding a road trip to the Arctic Ocean. Olsen plans to drive as far north as possible on public roads.

Soprano JULIE OLSON received a grant to travel to Milano, Italy, to study singing with Rita Patane and Leonardo Marzagaglia.

A grant of $12,000 was made to THEATRE DE LA JEUNE LUNE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal agent for independent artist MICHAEL SOMMERS, to continue development on A Prelude to Faust for a New York City run. Sommers is an artist who has worked in the many disciplines that constitute multidisciplinary performance. With a Jerome commission awarded through the Walker Art Center in 1998, A Prelude to Faust was premiered as part of a New Adventures in Puppetry Series. Further development on that work will enable Sommers to bring Faust to New York City in September and present it as part of the Henson Foundations International Festival of Puppetry. To give this work more prominence on national and international levels, Jerome funding was authorized.

INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, a multidisciplinary organization that has a long tradition of supporting individual artists, acted as fiscal agent for composer, guitarist and songwriter SHANE OSLUND. A grant of $12,000 was authorized for the creation of new work, including a recording of new pieces and a subsequent tour. His music has been described as "avant-rock". He works with the band Liars Club, a group that is all about blurring boundaries and experimentation. While maintaining the avant-garde spirit of his previous work, Oslunds new music will embody a more focused and developed aesthetic.

P.S. 1 CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER, Long Island City, New York, received a grant of $14,000 in support of artist stipends within the Special Projects Program. P.S. 1 was founded in 1971 as the Institute for Art and Urban Resources, then dedicated to the transformation of abandoned and under-utilized buildings in New York City and to exhibition, performance and studio spaces for artists. The Center now operates two internationally acclaimed spaces for contemporary art at P.S. 1 in Long Island City and the Clocktower in Tribeca. P.S. 1 is known for its cutting edge approach to exhibitions and the direct involvement of artists. The Special Projects Program was launched in 1999. It provides artists with studio spaces within P.S. 1s galleries, in which they develop and present their projects in a visible and public atmosphere. Over four three-month cycles, 12 artists will participate. They will be engaged in public and educational programming, open studio talks, lectures, tours and forums. A good portion of Jerome Foundation funding is dedicated to the stipends the artists receive.

PANGEA WORLD THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $15,000 toward the developmental and production work it does with emerging playwrights. Pangea is committed to international works, styles and traditions that illuminate the human condition, end divisiveness and celebrate differences. Its objectives include the creation of new literature for theater with stories from different ethnic communities, changing the methods of casting to include more diverse performers and creating new possibilities for a more diverse audience. Jerome funding will be directed to a new program called Voices of Exile, which will develop and present plays written by emerging writers from Minnesota and New York, based on the exile experience and composed in their original languages. Funding will also be directed toward Imagining Worlds, scheduled for the 2000-2001 season and to be developed through workshop in the summer of 2000. It is expected to be a tapestry of poetry, painting, acting and choreography. Jerome monies will also be used for Rashomon, written by Luu Pham and Meena Natarajan, and based on a short story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa.

PATRICK'S CABARET, Minneapolis, Minnesota, supports multidisciplinary artists in their growth and development by providing an informal, supportive environment in which to present their work. The Cabaret encourages artists to take risks and experiment. Jerome funding is directed toward the Core Program, which includes shows of six or more unrelated acts, a mix of disciplines, and at least one artist who has never performed at the Cabaret before. In a one-year period, the Cabaret presents 24 Core shows, featuring over 140 artists. The Core Program structure, recruiting and selection methods have made the Cabaret a safe and supportive place for performers to show works in progress. Jerome funding of $40,000 over two years is directed toward emerging artists.

PENUMBRA THEATRE, St. Paul, Minnesota, received $50,000 in support of two programs, Cornerstone and Late Nite. Penumbra presents artistically excellent productions that depict emotional, relevant and valuable experiences from an African American perspective. The Cornerstone dramaturgy and development program commissions, develops and supports new works by African American playwrights. The level and type of support available is tailored to the needs of each playwright and the demands of each script. The Late Nite series opens possibilities of what theatrical performances can be. This cutting-edge work becomes the wellspring of creativity that will inform mainstage works in the years to come. Jerome support was authorized for the participation of emerging creative artists in both programs.

PERFORMANCE SPACE 122, New York City, received a two-year grant of $90,000 in support of emerging artists commissions. P.S. 122 is a performance laboratory that supports the development of works by individual artists with authentic visions, from a diversity of cultures and points of view. The organizations primary concern is supporting the individual creative process. Since 1986, the Jerome Foundation has provided funding to P.S. 122 in order to support commissions for emerging artists who are making new work for presentation at the space. Executive Director Mark Russell selects those emerging artists in consultation with his staff and a group of experienced advisors. These commissions are upfront monies that pass through P.S. 122 to the creative artists who use them for expenses associated with the development of new work, such as rehearsal fees, rental of space for rehearsals, costumes and music.

ANDREW PETERSON, a filmmaker and writer, received funding to spend four weeks in Los Angeles, California. Hell continue a collaboration with performance artists John Cantwell and Terrance Michael and will complete a script for a solo show titled The Daft Dances and shape part of the show into a short screenplay.

Funding was awarded to arts administrator GARY PETERSON to travel to various cities in Kansas combining personal investigation and reflection with an investigation into the long-term touring interests of James Sewell Ballet, for which he is Executive Director.

TIM PETERSON, a curator and Director of New Franklin Artworks, received a grant to spend eight days in New York City and Los Angeles to meet with arts administrators, curators and gallery directors in order to gain insight into the workings of established alternative spaces and open a dialogue that will enrich his work.

PILLSBURY NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES, Minneapolis, Minnesota, a multipurpose social service agency, houses the PILLSBURY HOUSE THEATRE, an accredited Equity house. Pillsbury House Theatre's mission is to create challenging theatre to inspire choice, change and community. the theatre produces daring, high quality work that deals forthrightly with difficult societal issues such as racism, sexism, homophobia and alienation. Jerome Foundation funding of $7,500 was awarded to support the production of Djola Branner's play The House That Crack Built, scheduled to open this fall; and to underwrite the participation of emerging New York City and Minnesota playwrights in the Summer 2000 Play Reading Series.

A grant was awarded to THOMAS PIPER for Can You Get to That: The Welfare to Work Trip, a documentary that tells the uncelebrated stories of lives in transition - stories that can fundamentally change the discussions about poverty and welfare in America, and, in a time of unprecedented wealth, wake people up to the need for a little more compassion.

MARK PITSCH, Minneapolis, MN. Pitsch received support for Uneasy Peace: Ten Years After the Contra War, a 55-minute documentary that asks the question, "Are the lives of ethnic minorities of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua better off now than they were ten years ago?" The lives of the Nicaraguan people, particularly the multiethnic, multilingual residents of the Atlantic Coast region suggests a much bleaker portrait of living conditions than most Nicaraguan or American officials will admit. This film looks at the plight of the Nicaraguans.