Past
Grantees

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a grant of $15,000 to support a pilot commissioning program for Sonic Circuits. The Forum links communities with composers and performers, encouraging the making, playing and enjoyment of new music. Sonic Circuits started in 1993 as a means of showcasing electro-acoustic music in Minnesota. Three complementary presenting series were merged in order to develop a Sonic Circuits festival as a venue for composers working with technology. With Jerome subsidy, the Forum will commission three new works to expose artists compositions to their full potential in the festival.

Percussionist MARC ANDERSON will spend four weeks in Accra, Ghana, studying traditional Ghanaian music. Anderson fuses traditional African with electronically produced sounds.

The MINNESOTA DANCE ALLIANCE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for ARENA DANCES BY MATHEW JANCZEWSKI, received a two-year grant of $20,000 in support of the creation and production of new works. Janczewski began professionally presenting his choreography in 1993, while dancing with Jazzdance. The first full evening of his choreographic works took place in 1996. Jerome Foundations two-year commitment follows two annual grants the Foundation made toward his choreography in 1996 and 1997. For the next two seasons, Janczewski will schedule several smaller performances, and begin work toward a major McKnight Theater season early in the year 2000. Hes planned an extensive rehearsal schedule, with periodic two-month breaks, to develop new work over a longer period of time.

ART IN GENERAL, New York City, received a grant of $14,000 to support the second Minnesota Artist Residency. Founded in 1980 by artists, Art in General supports and stimulates the creation of contemporary art work. Its aim is to present a window on the creative process and to serve as a guide to the richness of contemporary cultural production. Two years ago, the Jerome Foundation supported a pilot in which a Minnesota artist was brought to New York City for eight weeks to create an installation in an Art in General gallery and to benefit from the opportunity to be in New York City working, building a network and receiving technical assistance and support from Art in General staff. Based upon the success of the first residency, the Jerome Foundation elected to continue its commitment for a second residency.

A small supplementary grant of $850 was authorized for ART IN GENERAL to assist its staff in offering an informational workshop in Minnesota on its residency and installation program in which a Minnesota artist is invited to create a new work for its New York City exhibition space

THE ASIAN AMERICAN WRITERS WORKSHOP, New York City, was founded in 1991 to facilitate the creation, publication and dissemination of Asian American literature and to serve as a center for its growth and maturation. It offers a variety of activities and services that support the development of the Asian American writer and the audience for Asian American literature. Programs include creative writing workshops, the Poetry Caravan Reading Series, panels and discussions, the Asian Pacific American Journal, a newsletter, the Asian American Book Seller, the publisher Asian American books, book signings, fellowships, literary contests, technical assistance to artists and access to facilities. Jerome subsidy of $30,000 over two years will support those activities serving emerging artists in 1998 and 1999.

THE UNIVERSITY OF SAINT THOMAS, St. Paul, Minnesota, acted as fiscal agent for composer WILLIAM BANFIELD in his request for a grant to develop a master for a CD. A grant of $15,000 was authorized for this established, mid-career composer who is making a new push in his career toward developing his credentials and his work as a jazz musician and composer. He will put together a collection of his best jazz and popular music compositions heard within the recording/performing framework of a small jazz chamber orchestra/ band. While the recording of a master is no guarantee that a CD will be forthcoming and will be distributed effectively, it is a necessary first step. Funding was authorized to support this initiative based upon Banfields reasoned proposal, and the recognition that this was, professionally and creatively, a significant time in his career development.

BANG ON A CAN, New York City, founded by composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe in 1987, has worked with over 175 composers to make new music accessible and welcoming to a broad public, through a variety of programs. A resident ensemble, the Bang on a Can All Stars, provides significant performance opportunities to emerging composers through its concerts in New York City and on tour. Jerome Foundation subsidy over two-years, in the amount of $40,000, will contribute to The Peoples' Commissioning Fund, monies directed to commissioning new works by emerging composers. Contributions to this fund have ranged from $9 to $5,000. Jerome's institutional support should encourage additional individual contributions. An open call for submissions draws composers from throughout the country.

INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acted as fiscal sponsor for independent artist ERIK BELGUMs request for a grant to support two CD projects. Belgum is a writer, composer and sound artist working in fiction, nonfiction, radio, performance art and opera. This grant will support recordings on compact disc of two works created for radio broadcast. The works can also be used on the Internet, in concerts of electroacoustic music and for home CD play. The first, titled Blodder, is comprised of four related stories arising from the robbery of a convenience store. The texts are arranged for five speaking voices. The second work PHON:E:ME is an elaborate multimedia hypertext created for the World Wide Web by Belgum and Mark Amerika. It is a story about cyberspace, Jewish mysticism

Zoe Beloff - Where Were There Where, an interactive film on CD ROM which is centered around the play "Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights" by Gertrude Stein, in the sense of finding a contemporary formal equivalent in digital media for the radical restructuring of the 1938 text. Also, as a playful philosophical investigation of the relationship between electricity, logic and language games that Stein's work inspires. Thus opening the text up to parallel radical perspectives in the work of I.P. Pavlov, Alan Turing and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

The BLACKLOCK NATURE SANCTUARY, Moose Lake, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $38,000 to support emerging artists residencies. The Blacklock Nature Sanctuary, founded in 1994 by the Blacklock family, encompasses 278 acres and provides residency programs for artists in the performing, visual and literary arts, and for nonprofit arts administrators. The aim is to provide a significant period of uninterrupted residency time for research, reflection and field work. An independent selection panel reviews all applications. Jerome subsidy is primarily dedicated to emerging artists receiving month-long residencies and stipends of $2,700 per recipient. There are also opportunities to apply for short-term residencies of seven to ten days.

LAUREL BRADLEY is the Director of Exhibitions and Curator of the College Art Collection at Carleton College in Northfield. She received funding to travel to Australia for two weeks for the purpose of learning first-hand about contemporary Aboriginal art and meeting artists to discuss their work in preparation for an exhibition that will tour four Midwestern college galleries.

Artist DJOLA BRANNER is developing a new work titled Mighty Real, a piece chronicling the life and times of the flamboyant singer/songwriter Sylvester in the form of a solo performance piece. This grant of $13,000 was awarded to INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor of the Branner production. The piece will explore Sylvesters contribution to contemporary music, his effect on popular culture as a champion of the progressive gender movement and his public and private struggles as an openly Black, gay male. The piece will open its run in June of 1999.

The Jerome Foundation has supported the Artist in the Marketplace program at THE BRONX MUSEUM OF THE ARTS, Bronx, New York, since 1989. The Museum presents exhibitions that highlight contributions of minority populations to culture and history, public programs that make art more accessible to the community, and a cooperative art education program with schools to enhance curricula. The Artist in the Marketplace is a comprehensive program that provides artists with guidance in such practical and essential areas as self-promotion and financial management. It provides a forum for learning and social interaction as well as information sharing and networking. Each year, 36 artists participate in one of two 12-week programs that culminate in a group exhibition at the Museum, accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalog. This program is designed to advance the careers of emerging artists. A two-year grant of $30,000 was authorized.

A grant was awarded to playwright CARLYLE BROWN to spend four weeks on St. Helena Island in South Carolina, researching and studying the Sea Islands and Gullah Culture, of which Brown is a descendent. He will use this information to develop a new work.

JULIE BUFFALOHEAD, a painter, will spend one month in Northern Nebraska and Northern Oklahoma to investigate the contemporary visual experiences of American Indian people, especially her own tribe, the Ponca Indians. She expects this journey will assist her in focusing her own painting.

The CAAM CHINESE DANCE THEATER, St. Paul, Minnesota, was formed in 1992; and is currently under the artistic direction of choreographer and master teacher Shen Pei. Jerome Foundation subsidy of $9,000 is directed toward the creation of choreography for professional-level dancers by Shen Pei. Funds will underwrite three to five choreographic initiatives, from duets to large-scale works. While Shen Pei is a noted choreographer and teacher in her native China, her level of recognition in the United States is under-developed. Grant funds will support this choreographer who is emerging in a different country.

CAVE CANEM, New York City, was founded by poets Cornelius Eady and Toi Derricotte in 1996 as a week-long summer retreat/workshop in upstate New York. The first session was so successful, that in the second summer, the number of participants doubled in size. The atmosphere created was one in which African American poets felt free to take creative risks, and seize the opportunity to study with skilled and widely acclaimed African American poet mentors. Cave Canem addresses the isolation of African American poets and their lack of recognition and opportunities. Jerome subsidy of $15,000 was enthusiastically awarded to support the participation of New York City and Minnesota emerging writers in two programs. The summer retreat/workshop will continue in 1998. To that will be added a workshop for African American poets who live in New York City. Up to ten poets will be chosen on the basis of competitively reviewed manuscripts for a workshop which will meet weekly for ten weeks in the fall of 1998.

THE CENTER FOR ARTS CRITICISM, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $28,000 in support of a major initiative titled CriticsLink, and general programming. The Center addresses the need for more quantity, quality and diversity in arts and cultural criticism. It works with a wide variety of critics, artists, arts organizations and community groups to clarify and expand the definition of arts criticism, and diversify the voices who practice it. CriticsLink is a four-month mentoring program in which emerging Minnesota critics work with experienced national and local critics to refine critical and writing skills. Together with a lecture series titled Checks and Balances, CriticsLink aims to foster dialogue and collaboration among critics and communities traditionally left out of critical dialogue concerning the arts.

LINDA CHATTERTON received a grant to spend one and a half weeks in St. Andrews, Scotland. She will study with internationally known flutist and teacher Peter Lloyd at the St. Andrews Flute Summer School.