Past
Grantees

The GREAT AMERICAN HISTORY THEATRE, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year commitment of $50,000 in support of commissions, royalties and development assistance for emerging playwrights. The History Theatre is devoted to creating new work about Minnesota, the Midwest and the American experience. It is now in its 22nd professional season and is one of the foremost producers of new works in the Midwest, with 83 world premiere plays and musicals to its credit. Selections for the upcoming season include playwright Dana Marie Gillespie's First Ladies of Ramsey County, Jim Northrup's Rez Road 2000, Jeffrey Hatcher's play A Piece of the Rope, and David Hawley and Drew Jansen's The Gangster Musical.

STEPHAN HOGLUND, a photographer from Grand Marais, will travel to Stockholm, Sweden, and will visit various villages around Lake Superior to complete a program of study into the ethnic and spiritual roots that have driven the evolution of his work.

JUDITH HOWARD, a choreographer and dancer, received a grant to attend the Not Just Any Body conference in Toronto, Canada. This series of workshops, lectures and sessions will focus on the advancement of health and well-being in dancers, an area of great concern to Howard.

WANDA HOYUM, a curator from Cass Lake, received a grant to travel to Filottrano, Italy, to study the Native American art collected by Count Giacomo Constantino Beltrami while exploring the northern tier of Minnesota. In 1823, Count Beltrami returned with the art to his estate in Filottrano. Hoyum is the Executive Director of the Beltrami County Historical Society and plans to establish a long-term loan agreement for several of the artifacts to be exhibited in Minnesota.

Funding was awarded to SUE HULSETHER, American traditional dancer and dancer caller, to travel for two and a half months throughout the Southeastern United States and New England. Hulsether will study the art of calling American square, contra, and circle dances through visiting community dances and interviewing dance callers.

A CAPITAL NEW YEAR (Culture, Inc.), St. Paul, Minnesota, received a grant of $10,000 as fiscal agent for artist JEAN HUMKE, in support of her work Fire and Ice Garden. This will be a site-specific, outdoor installation incorporating temporary structures, placemaking, timed activity and community interface within the annual A Capital New Year celebration. The installation will be in Rice Park, directly across the street from the St. Paul Public Library.

A two-year grant of $20,000 was awarded to FilmNorth (formerly Independent Feature Project/North), Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of programs and services for independent film and video artists. The mission of IFP/North is to encourage the quality and diversity of independent media production. It accomplishes its mission by fostering the personal visions of a diverse group of makers, providing access to funding that allows for creative control and cultivating exposure to a wide range of audiences.

ILLUSION THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $35,000 to commission emerging artists to create portions of its newly renovated theater space within the Hennepin Center for the Arts. Emerging artists will be invited to compete for commissions to develop grillwork motifs or patterns for the 14 windows that surround the 8th Floor space, a frieze that will run on three adjoining walls of the lobby and a treatment for the concessions area. Eligible artists would include, but not be limited to, sculptors, painters, muralists and theater designers. This grant was made as part of the Foundation's specific and limited interest in construction projects for arts facilities that offer significant opportunities for visual artists to create works.

The Jerome Foundation makes a limited number of project grants to mid-career, established artists at critical junctures in their work. Subsidy of $15,000 was awarded to INDEPENDENT FILMWORKS, New York City, for the production of Silent Voices by filmmakers Jane C. Wagner and Tina DiFeliciantonio. Silent Voices discloses how independent women filmmakers were pushed to the margins during a period of dramatic transition from cottage film industry to mature oligopoly (1910 - 1925). This story is told through the window of silent film pioneer Nell Shipman, described as a charismatic and passionate filmmaker as well as a determined and independent spirit. The filmmakers' goal is to subvert the language of the historical documentary in order to challenge the prerogative of the "Great Men" approach to history; to bring a feminist perspective to archival images that shape cultural consciousness; and to emphasize the contingency of history in order to liberate viewers from the stale and mistaken notion that contemporary life could not have been otherwise.

A one-year grant of $12,000 was awarded to INTAR HISPANIC AMERICAN ARTS CENTER, New York City, in support of the 1999 NewWorks Lab. The Lab, part of the developmental process at INTAR, is dedicated to the support and development of new writers, directors, actors and other artists from the Latino/a theater community. The focus is creation rather than production. Emerging playwrights are encouraged to experiment with new forms, and participate in a process that nurtures the next generation of Latino/a theater artists. The Lab mounts both readings and workshops.

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.