Past
Grantees

The WOMENS ART REGISTRY OF MINNESOTA (W.A.R.M.), St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $37,000 for the 2001-02 Mentor Program. W.A.R.M. addresses the lack of sufficient exhibition opportunities and validation of women artists work. In the Mentor program, women participate in teams comprised of a mentor, a professional artist producing mature work who has statewide and often national recognition, and a protg, a serious artist who has finished her formal education and is in the early stages of career development. The mentorships are established for two-year terms, beginning with introductions and interviews and concluding with a group exhibition. Mentors provide developing artists with guidance and support. Participants attend workshops designed to explore and support their public role as artists.

The Directors authorized a grant of $25,000 to the WOMENS PROJECT & PRODUCTIONS, New York City, in support of developmental programs serving emerging playwrights. The Womens Project & Productions is a nonprofit Off-Broadway institution dedicated to the development and production of new plays by women. Developmental programs encompass the Playwrights Lab, a readings and workshop series, commissions, publication of play anthologies and mainstage productions. The organization offers conferences, holds post performance discussions and panels. The purpose is to create a community of women playwrights and directors and assist them in forming lasting working relationships.

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.

The Jerome Foundation authorized a grant of $15,000 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 professional and subsidized workspace, 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, to writers. It serves more than 300 writers a year. Each quarter, membership rotates, according to a pattern that brings approximately 160 new participants each year. The Writers Room provides affordable workspace in a city where market rate rents for office space are prohibitive for the emerging writer. The Room houses a 1,000+ volume reference and resource library; and it offers in-house seminars on subjects of importance to writers such as how to find a literary agent. It hosts readings for members at local cafes; and celebrates the achievements of members with a collective book party each year.

GREG YOLEN, Minneapolis, MN. Yolen received support for Don Ciegna, a 35mm feature-film about former baseball great Sam Maddox and his attempts to escape the consequences of his bi-polar personality. Sam led a rollercoaster life. Good looking and athletic, he breezed through his childhood as the playground enforcer. During his youth he was the designated hitter on the school team, which led to his successful career on the baseball diamond. At the same time, however, dark visions began to creep into his consciousness. He found himself plunged from the heights of being on top to the depths of complete desperation. This film follows his tumultuous journey.

THE SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, presents alternative performance by artists working at the grassroots of the Twin Cities varied cultural, political and economic communities. It acted as fiscal agent for a proposal from choreographer Cathy Young, who has received support from the Foundation since 1997 for the development and production of new works. A two-year grant of $30,000 was authorized to support CATHY YOUNG DANCE. Young brings to her work an understanding of diverse kinds of movement including jazz, postmodern, improvisation, social dance and gymnastics. Her work is defined by its musicality, athleticism and classic choreographic structure. Jerome support will allow Young to develop three new projects over the course of the next two years. The first is Cabaret, which will focus on vernacular dance and music of the past four decades. The second will be the reworking of Night of Many Dreams, a piece that explores ideas of connection and isolation, constraint and freedom. A one-time additional grant of $10,000 was authorized for The Gospel Project, the working title of a collaborative piece involving Cathy Young; Robert "Eddie" Robinson, Director of the Twin Cities Community Gospel Choir; Mary Easter, writer, poet and Director of the Dance Department at Carleton College; and choreographer, director and performance artist Djola Branner. The seeds of this project are in the collaborators desire to explore racism, mistrust and separatism. Ultimately, The Gospel Project is about salvation, redemption, hope and inclusion.

THE SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, presents alternative performance by artists working at the grassroots of the Twin Cities varied cultural, political and economic communities. It acted as fiscal agent for a proposal from choreographer Cathy Young, who has received support from the Foundation since 1997 for the development and production of new works. A two-year grant of $30,000 was authorized to support CATHY YOUNG DANCE. Young brings to her work an understanding of diverse kinds of movement including jazz, postmodern, improvisation, social dance and gymnastics. Her work is defined by its musicality, athleticism and classic choreographic structure. Jerome support will allow Young to develop three new projects over the course of the next two years. The first is Cabaret, which will focus on vernacular dance and music of the past four decades. The second will be the reworking of Night of Many Dreams, a piece that explores ideas of connection and isolation, constraint and freedom. A one-time additional grant of $10,000 was authorized for The Gospel Project, the working title of a collaborative piece involving Cathy Young; Robert "Eddie" Robinson, Director of the Twin Cities Community Gospel Choir; Mary Easter, writer, poet and Director of the Dance Department at Carleton College; and choreographer, director and performance artist Djola Branner. The seeds of this project are in the collaborators desire to explore racism, mistrust and separatism. Ultimately, The Gospel Project is about salvation, redemption, hope and inclusion.

MARCUS YOUNG, a performance artist and arts administrator, received a grant to spend up to one year in Beijing, China, studying the Chinese language, reconnecting with his cultural heritage, and laying the groundwork for future creative work. He is exploring new theatrical vocabularies, and seeks further development as the chief administrator for CAAM Chinese Dance Theater.

15 HEAD-a theatre lab, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $20,000. Funding will underwrite the development and production of two new pieces, Dracula and the Opera Project. 15 HEAD is an experimental theatre lab that presents works marked by collaborative script development utilizing classic and new texts, experimentation and highly creative and stylized staging that often focuses on epic and/or political themes. In Julia Fischers version of the tale about vampires, Dracula will be a woman; the work will explore the dark, hidden side of womens desire. 15-HEAD's artistic associates will stage songs, arias and other vocal ensemble music as theater/movement pieces in the Opera Project.

EMILY ABT and YORUBA RICHEN received support for Take It From Me, a documentary that follows the struggles of six women and their families as they fight to survive in response to drastic changes to the country's welfare system.

A grant of $10,000 was authorized for ADOBE THEATRE COMPANY, New York City, in support of the development and production of the upcoming Orpheus and Eurydice. Adobe cultivates a younger audience, and provides an artistic home where emerging playwrights, actors, designers and directors can develop entertaining, thought-provoking theater. Artistic director Jeremy Dobrish is retelling Orpheus and Eurydice through the eyes of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, combining elements from Dante's Inferno and Nirvana's lyrics, to explore the essence of faith and love.

AYESHA ADU AND E. G. BAILEY, Minneapolis, MN, received a $10,000 grant in support of Cord, a feature-length narrative film based on Adu's relationship with her mother - a relationship in which she is manipulated into taking on the role of her father.

Media artist AYESHA ADU received funding to travel to the Ivory Coast, Africa, to spend time with the tribe of her mentor for artistic and personal growth while investigating her African roots. She will document her trip with a digital video camera and collect information for a future screenplay.

PEGGY AHWESH was awarded a grant for a feature-length narrative titled The Star Eaters, based on The Blue of Noon by Georges Bataille. Written in 1935, it tells the story of a man named Troppmann who seems divested of all emotion and social commitment. His relationships are banal, except with one woman for whom he develops an intense love too explosive to sustain.

A two-year grant of $37,000 was authorized to the SOUTHERN THEATER FOUNDATION, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal agent for dancer improviser CHRIS AIKEN DANCE, in general operating support and a special collaborative performance and teaching residency. Aiken will work in a September 1999 residency in Minneapolis with dancer Kirstie Simson and musicians Peter Hamilton, Peter Jones and Dean McGraw. The collaborators originally presented work together last year at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City, which received rave reviews. This grant will also support Aiken's next two season of improvisational work.

Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a $10,000 grant to ALL OUT ARTS, New York City, to develop and produce workshops of plays by emerging writers. All Out Arts unites the energies of three member programs: the National Renaissance League, OutMusic and ArtGroup for lesbian and gay artists. It is sponsoring a commissioning program for the development of full-length and one-act gay/lesbian themed plays by New York metropolitan area playwrights. From a pool of entries, eight plays will be chosen for further development. Each will be given a public reading. Subsequently, four production workshop recipients will be announced. Jerome funding will enable the organization to pay the playwrights awards of $2,000 each and support the readings program.

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, links communities with composers and performers, encouraging the making, playing and enjoyment of new music. It develops programs that educate todays and tomorrows audiences, energize composers careers, stimulate entrepreneurship and collaboration, promote musical creativity and model effective support for the arts. A multiple-year grant of $257,000 will continue the Jerome Foundations support of the Composers Commissioning Program, an initiative it began funding in 1978. Additional portions of the grant will be used for performance outreach subsidies and the provision of services to emerging composers. The Composers Commissioning Program recently completed its 18th year of grants to composers. Its purpose is to foster and support creative relationships among emerging composers, performers and audiences. CCP is unique in that it provides commissioning funds directly to composers who are empowered to take the initiative in developing their creative visions and pursuing the creation of new works for ensembles of their choice or for their own bands, at a significant venue. Jerome subsidy supports a program in Minnesota and one in New York City. The Performance Outreach Grants are a pool of funds that encourage performers to give multiple performances of newly commissioned CCP work, particularly before audiences that may be relatively unfamiliar with new music. The composer is the primary force in arranging these performances, in this way retaining artistic and practical control over the work while gaining valuable community production experience with long-term career benefits.

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $30,000 in support of commissions to emerging composers within the Sonic Circuits program. The Forum links communities with composers and performers, encouraging the making, playing and enjoyment of new music. Sonic Circuits showcases electroacoustic music through programs of taped and live works selected by a peer panel. Jerome funding was authorized for the commissioning of three works by composers residing in Minnesota and/or New York City.

The ANDERSON CENTER, Red Wing, Minnesota, received a grant of $13,000 in support of emerging Minnesota and New York City artists residencies. The Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies is located on 355 acres on the outskirts of Red Wing. Retreats of several weeks in duration are available to artists, scientists and humanists to advance and complete works-in-progress. Funding from the Jerome Foundation is designed to enlarge the scope of the current residency program. Artists are provided sleeping rooms, work spaces and two meals a day. In return, the residents work on their art and serve the community of Red Wing and/

A publication grant of $17,000 was awarded to APERTURE FOUNDATION, New York City, to support the publication of a book of photographs by Minnesota-based artist KERI PICKETT. Aperture publishes an acclaimed quarterly journal of photography and has produced more than 450 award-winning photography books in collaboration with museums, publishers and academic institutions. It also develops traveling exhibitions, mounts exhibitions in its own space, offers workshops and manages archives. Pickett's publication, Fairies: Visions, Voices and Pretty Dresses, A Northwoods Spiritual Gathering, spans five years of summer gatherings in which men come from across the country, young and old, to form a circle of souls seeking to find their place in a society that aspires to celebrate the individual, but frequently fears those who are different. The book will also contain interviews, and poetry by James Broughton. This publication will be a significant career and work advancement for Pickett.