Past
Grantees

THE PLAYWRIGHTS' CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, is in the midst of a capital campaign to renovate its building, including a 120-seat theater, lobby area, rehearsal hall, playwright work areas and improved office space. The Jerome Foundation does not make grants to capital campaigns, but it has developed an interest in projects that provide opportunities for individual artists to create and install their works as part of the renovation, construction and enhancement of a nonprofit arts facility. The Playwrights' Center identified three areas within the capital campaign for artists' projects: an exterior sign and rail, a lobby mural and the entrance tower. FORECAST will manage the application and selection process. Jerome Foundation made a commitment of $35,000 to the Center for one or more projects.

THE PLAYWRIGHTS CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $70,000 to support the Many Voices Program and services to playwrights. The Center is a nonprofit resource for script development. It provides a range of services for playwrights at all stages of their careers, including readings, workshops, classes, conferences, roundtables, residencies and fellowships. Many Voices increases awareness of and access to Center programs among Minnesota playwrights of color, who receive residencies and collaboration grants. The residencies provide stipends, play development support, opportunities for study, mentors and participation in the Many Voices Roundtable. Cultural collaboration grants are seed monies that support playwrights of color as they collaborate with producing organizations to premiere new plays.

PRIMARY STAGES, New York City, was founded by Artistic Director Casey Childs in 1983 to present the best new plays by new American playwrights. It is celebrating its 15th anniversary season. In 1997, six playwrights and three directors began to meet to encourage the writing of new plays. Each participating writer brings in 10 new pages of script to be read aloud at each session. The program consists of regular meetings, two annual reading series, and an annual workshop series. Funding of $15,000 was authorized for the New American Writers Group.

The PUBLIC ART FUND, New York, presents the work of contemporary artists in the City's public spaces, providing alternative venues in which to create and view art. Jerome Foundation funding of $12,000 was authorized for In the Public Realm, an initiative designed to encourage innovative, experimental public projects by emerging artists. An open call produces an initial group of applications, from which seven finalists are selected and invited to develop formal proposals. From these seven, three artists are selected to create and install their pieces. Jerome Foundation funding was authorized for the participation of emerging New York City-based artists in the fiscal 2001 In the Public Realm program.

Painter DAVID RATHMAN, was awarded funding to spend six months at the Montana Artist Refuge in Basin, Montana, whose purpose is to create residencies for artists by providing studio/living space and promoting arts education and outreach programs in the community.

ARCADIAN ARTS, New York City, is an arts and education service organization dedicated to encouraging and enabling artists of all disciplines to make new works, and to developing socially relevant projects that strengthen the connection between artists and social service organizations. It acted as fiscal agent for jazz composer ROB REDDY who sought funds to support an ambitious new work, a three-movement suite performed by a 19-piece ensemble comprised of five winds, five brass, six strings, two percussionists and a pianist. The work will draw heavily from 20th Century American music including gospel, marches, Appalachian folk music, blues and jazz. A Jerome grant of $10,000 was authorized.

ARNA RENNAN, resident of Duluth, is a traditional Norwegian folk singer who received funding to travel in Telemark, Norway for ten months to study traditional singing, or kveding, with Anne Gravir.

Pianist DANIEL RIEPPEL of Marshall, was awarded a grant to travel to Vienna, Austria and Leeds, England. Rieppel will research and study the original manuscripts of Franz Schuberts early piano sonatas and specifically his Adagio and Rondo Concertante D. 487 for which Rieppel uncovered a lost section in earlier research. He will travel to Leeds to present a lecture/recital on the subject at the International Schubert Conference and Festival.

ANN RINKENBERGER, the Executive Director of Harvest Moon, received a grant to visit six organizations that have successful artist-in-residence and community arts education programs, including the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in Oregon; Herb Farm in Falls City, Washington; the Summers Past Farm in California; the Peaceable Kingdom School in Texas; and the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center in Minnesota.

ALEX RIVERA received a grant for Death of a Cybracero, an experimental sci-fi narrative about Mexican farm laborers who live in Tijuana but work in the United States via the internet. They are, in effect, virtual laborers. As the principal character, Jorge, grows closer to achieving his dream of living in the United States in reality, he is forced to choose between continuing to pursue his dream or saving his sister. His sister, Victoria, has been seized by a violent group of vigilantes that patrol futuristic networks looking for illegals, or Netbacks. Will Jorge save his sister from these villains?

DANI ROACH, a painter, received a grant to spend six days in Providence, Rhode Island, to attend the Arts in Universal Environments Pre-Conference Intensive and to see related exhibitions in the area, which are apart of Designing for the 21st Century: An International Conference on Universal Design.

DARREN ROARK, Minneapolis, MN. Roark received support for Tilt!, a feature-length film that follows the adventures of four rough and tumble women. After one of them loses a botched beauty pageant, they hit the road to get rich playing pinball. This film will be a loud and obnoxious blend of action and comedy, with a few thrills thrown in for good measure.

Visual artist NANCY ROBINSON received a grant to spend a week in Chicago during the time that she has a show of her work scheduled at the Artemisia Gallery, a cooperative artist-run space in downtown Chicago. She also has a plan of contacting art dealers, critics, curators and other artists to see her work and to find a gallery to represent her.

THE ROSE ENSEMBLE, St. Paul, Minnesota, is a vocal chamber music ensemble dedicated to strengthening the cultural life of the community through historically informed, educational, dramatic performances of ancient music in striking acoustical settings. The group principally focuses on music composed before 1750, but also regularly commissions new works reminiscent of early music through its Composer-in-Residence Program. A Jerome Foundation grant of $15,000 was authorized for the 2000-01 composer residency of William Beckstrand. He will write two works for Ensemble performances.

Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a two-year grant of $48,000 to ROULETTE INTERMEDIUM, New York City, a leader in new music, offering over 50 concerts each year; paying fees to artists; commissioning new work; providing publicity, production and recording facilities; and initiating recording and distribution programs. Its concert series of experimental and adventurous music provides significant opportunities for composers to perform their work for live audiences and for audiences to learn about new directions in music. A large percentage of the Roulette schedule is given to the work of emerging composers; and it is for their participation that Jerome support was authorized.

ROULETTE, New York City, received a two-year grant of $60,000 in support of 12 commissions to emerging artists. Roulette's concert series of experimental and adventurous music provides performing opportunities for composers to present their works to live audiences, and for audiences to learn about new directions in music. The series supports and reflects adventurous activity. Jerome has been supporting this concert series, since 1983. In 1997, a Roulette pilot commissioning program, with Jerome funding, was launched. It focuses on an eclectic range of emerging composers by providing what are often first-time commissions. They are recommended by other composers, independent curators and presenters. Eligible artists must live in New York City and be at an early stage of their career. It was the objective of the pilot program to uncover some new trends that young composers are following or creating, and to take some of the work accomplished in clubs and underground venues to a broader arena. Due to the success of this pilot, Jerome continued its funding support.

S.A.S.E.: THE WRITE PLACE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $40,650 in support of the S.A.S.E./Jerome Fellowships and the Writer-to-Writer Mentorship Program. S.A.S.E.'s mission is to provide affordable, quality programming, developed and administered by a diverse group of people for writers of all backgrounds to develop their craft and present or publish their works. Its innovative approach involves going out into the community, utilizing neighborhood venues and contracting with working writers to coordinate programs. The S.A.S.E./Jerome Fellowships were inaugurated in 1997 to support emerging writers of fiction, poetry and nonfiction. The funds provide writers with tools to enhance their careers including the purchase of equipment, paying for mentorships, attending writing conferences or retreats, promoting a book or simply buying the time to write. Funding was also authorized for the Writer-to-Writer Mentorship Program, a flexibly designed initiative that allows writers to advance to the next level of development through highly individualized assistance from established writers. This is a small group learning model that extends for a semester.

SAINT JOHNS UNIVERSITY, Collegeville, Minnesota, has received Jerome Foundation subsidy since 1984 for the residencies of emerging artists in the Pottery Program, under the direction of artist Richard Bresnahan. It is based upon Japanese techniques and incorporates indigenous materials. A one-time grant of $20,000 was authorized for an exhibition of approximately 80 clay works, drawn from the pieces created by Bresnahan, Jerome emerging artists in residence and Grotto Foundation undergraduate apprentices. The exhibition will be guest curated by Dr. Matthew Welch, a curator in the Asian Art Department at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, who is writing a book on the Saint Johns Pottery. In conjunction with the publication of that volume, Saint Johns will mount an exhibition in its gallery and then tour it to venues in the Upper Midwest. The Jerome Foundations commitment is conditioned upon full funding being raised for the exhibition and tour.

The Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a grant of up to $18,000 to ST. PAUL ACADEMY AND SUMMIT SCHOOL, St. Paul, Minnesota, to restore and preserve the Jerome Hill mural. The Foundations founder, Jerome Hill, was a student at St. Paul Academy. In the years 1921 and 1922, he painted a mural in what was then the chemistry and physics. The mural, executed largely in impermanent materials, is in critical need of restoration. Included in the imagery Hill painted are Archimedes making his discovery of the laws of specific gravity; Gallileo demonstrating the laws of falling bodies from the Tower of Pisa; Torrichelli, working on the principle of the barometer; Isaac Newton in his orchard discovering the law of gravity; Benjamin Franklin experimenting with electrical power by means of a kite in a thunderstorm; the Magdeburg Hemisphere experiment and Einstein in his study. In 2005, the Foundation will celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Jerome Hill's birth. A number of programs will be undertaken in conjunction with this Centennial.

FRANK SANDER, an installation artist and sculptor, was awarded funding to spend five weeks in Otis, Oregon, studying at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. The Center is dedicated to building a strong relationship between art and nature. Sanders commitment to healthy leasing of the earth is apparent in his work.