Past
Grantees

A grant of $10,000 was awarded to Thin Man Dance, Inc., a.k.a. John Jasperse Company, New York City, in support of a new evening-length work in 1999-2000. This is the first grant awarded to choreographer John Jasperse by Jerome Foundation. John Jasperse Company is deeply committed to breaking down the walls of the artist/audience dance "ghetto". Its work is rooted in physical experiences of the body, which are not exclusive to dancers. This grant will enable Jasperse to spend extensive development time on the new work.

MARY JOHN, Moorhead, MN, received $10,000 for All My Relatives, a 60-minute documentary that chronicles the last 100 years of the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation through four generations of her relatives.

Choreographer and dancer EMILY JOHNSON received a grant to travel to St. Mary's, Alaska, to attend Yupiit Yuraryarait, a Yupik Eskimo dance festival. Johnson is Yupik, but has never attended the festival, which is held every four years. She intends to write about the festival and incorporate what she learns into her movement vocabulary.

Bat Theatre Company, New York City, acting as fiscal agent for choreographer Sarah East Johnson, received $10,000, in continued support of the creation and production of LAVA Love Cabaret. This evening-length work will include the dance and circus-like movements that the company has been developing over the last several years, such as hoop diving, partner acrobatics, solo and double trapeze and pyramids. LAVA Love Cabaret will include an aerial that involves walking on the ceiling.

SHEILA MARY JORDAN is a traditional Irish dancer who also choreographs new work within the form. Jordan received funding to travel for four weeks in Ireland to learn new dance steps that she will incorporate into her choreography.

The Directors authorized a two-year grant of $40,000 to the JUNGLE THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the Play Reading Series and production of two new plays by emerging playwrights. Six plays will be chosen for the 1999 Reading Series, of which one will receive a full staged reading; and seven plays will be selected in the 2000 series. The Jungle aims to produce works that challenge people to end ignorance, embrace honesty and straightforwardness and seek a more inclusive and generous society.

STEVEN KELLY, filmmaker, was awarded a grant to spend six weeks in China to study language at the Beijing Film Academy and to continue research for his film in progress entitled Walking Giant.

STEVEN KELLY, Minneapolis, MN, received $10,000 in support of Walking Giant, a feature-length documentary that will be a provocative city portrait of modern Beijing, China, presented through the stories and lyrics of China's obscure underground music scene.

NICOLE KOSCHMANN received support for Black, White and Yellow, a short, experimental documentary that will explore the relationship between two sisters - one White and the other Black/Chinese - at a time when their racial difference becomes an issue.

INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acted as fiscal agent for a request by independent multimedia artist SUE KOSMALSKI. A grant of $10,000 was authorized. Kosmalski is creating The Memory Theater project, produced by artists who work in film, video, sculpture, photography, performance, lighting and movement. The artists will make works that respond to old machines, architecture, history, film, music and vaudeville. The piece will be installed in the Orpheum Theater in St. Paul. Kosmalski will explore how memory and perception inform the fluid boundaries among the past, present and future.

PO-LIN KOSUTH/SARAH STONICH, artists and professors living in Duluth, were awarded funding to spend time in Hong Kong and the Southeastern Chinese Provinces to document with essays and paintings one familys progress since the 1997 changeover from British rule

MALICHANSOUK KOUANCHAO, a muralist, was awarded funding to travel to Havana and Santiago, Cuba, to participate in the Universal Gallery of Art Event, where she will paint sociopolitical murals with artists from around the world. She will research pre/post revolutionary Cuban art, examine the impact political change has had on the art and generate ideas for her murals in the Twin Cities.

Visual artist MARINA KUCHINSKI received funding to travel to Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, to install an exhibition of her work, document places in Tennessee for incorporation in the exhibition, give a gallery talk and attend the opening.

THE CENTER FOR ARTS CRITICISM, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $14,000 as fiscal agent for the LATINO ARTIST GROUP, a collaborative, grassroots entity that works to create a supportive environment in which artists become more visible in the Latino community and advance their work within the larger culture. The Latino Artist Group is sponsoring an exhibition and dialogues centered on the Latino family. The show will open in late September. It is expected that 20 artists will participate, competitively selected. There will be an opening reception and an artist talk, as well as a critical response session. Jerome funding was authorized for the participation of emerging artists in this program.

Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a grant of $10,000 to THE BAT THEATER, New York City, acting as fiscal agent for NICHOLASLEICHTERDANCE, which is committed to the development of innovative and exciting dance performances that break down the barriers between the audience and the performer. Funding is specifically designated for Breakdown, a piece about rebellion and breakdown, which uses urban, street and hip-hop styles to explore the depths of human sexuality. Breakdown will be presented this coming January in a three-week run, and will subsequently tour.

The LEIGH MORRIS CHORALE, Eagan, Minnesota, received a grant of $10,000 in support of a competition designed to identify talented emerging African American composers from Minnesota and New York City, whose works will be presented by the Chorale in the 2001 season. The Chorale is recognized for its preservation and performance of spirituals, and the concert music of African American composers. Dr. Robert Leigh Morris serves as Artistic Director. The uniqueness of the group rests in its grounding in African American traditions and history. The concerts include historical lecture material that fosters a clear understanding of the role of African American music in shaping American culture. Funding from the Jerome Foundation will support a new music initiative. Emerging African American composers will be invited to create original works based upon the written, spoken, historical and contemporary words of African Americans. Two compositions will be chosen from a competitive field of applicants.

A two-year grant of $120,000 was authorized for THE LOFT, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the Minnesota Writers Career Initiative. Established in 1974 as a nonprofit organization serving writers, The Loft has evolved into a nationally recognized literary center with a membership of 23,000. Its mission is to foster a writing community, the artistic development of individual writers and an audience for literature. In 1993, The Loft and Jerome Foundation created a pilot program to serve advanced Minnesota writers who had achieved significant artistic recognition for their work on a regional level. These writers have the potential to expand significantly that recognition and/or their existing audience. The purpose of the Career Initiative program was to leverage this potential in order to bring the writers to new levels in career development. The Career Initiative uses a two-step process of logistical and strategic planning, resulting in the creation of workable career plans. The initiative is open to writers of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, childrens literature and performance oriented work.

FRANCISKA ROSENTHAL LOUW, an artist who makes installation and sculptural works, will spend six months in Germany, Poland and England installing new work, participating in a conference and interviewing Holocaust survivors and their children for future works.

LEE LOVE, a potter, received a grant to travel to Mashiko, Japan, where he will be an invited guest artist in residence at the Yumito Pottery. He will learn new techniques at an advanced level of production. Yumito Pottery is the home of Japanese national treasure Shoji Hamada, one of the founders of the Mingei folk craft movement in Japan.

The LOWER EAST SIDE PRINTSHOP, New York City, was founded in 1968 as a community-based arts resource center. Today, it provides its local community and emerging artists in New York City with a full range of services through an Artist Workspace Program and an Educational Outreach Program. The Printshop fosters excellence in the medium of printmaking by encouraging experimentation, introducing and developing new materials and processes, and incorporating printmaking in interdisciplinary works. The Artist Workspace Program is a multi-component effort to support emerging artists as they create and exhibit new work, and gain visibility in New York's competitive art scene. Approximately 60 emerging artists of diverse backgrounds annually receive support through the Workspace Program, in the forms of 24-hour access to the studio, materials, scholarships, stipends, exhibition honoraria, opportunities to learn from established artists and arts professionals and opportunities to present work in curated exhibitions. Jerome funding of $15,000 was committed to the Artist Workspace Program.