Past
Grantees

EXIT ART, New York City, received a two-year commitment of $36,000 to support the participation of emerging artists in the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 exhibition programs. Exit Art organizes and presents experimental projects exploring the diversity of contemporary culture in the visual arts, theater, music, design, film and video. It aims to provide a unique perspective on culture by establishing a dialogue that places histories, values and aesthetic sensibilities within the transcultural reality of art in the 1990s. Exit Art provides regular and substantive opportunities to emerging visual artists. Its exhibitions

Robert Fenz - Revival, a poetic 16mm documentary/experimental film about jazz music as an art form which was created as a metaphorical and literal means out of slavery; a form of expression in which form directly addresses the basic dialectic of freedom and slavery, or structure and improvisation. Mr. Fenz will bring these considerations into his film project, while understanding and contextualizing other historical elements in the development of this unique musical art form as well.

A commitment of $7,000 was made to FilmNorth (formerly Independent Feature Project/North), Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of programs and services for emerging media artists. This service organization encourages the quality and diversity of independent media production in the region. It accomplishes its mission by fostering the personal visions of a diverse group of media artists, providing access to funding that allows for creative control by those makers and cultivating exposure to a wide range of audiences. IFP/North offers innovative programs and services that are recognized on a regional and national level.

WILLIAM FIORINI, an artist and professor from Lacresent, received funding to spend six to ten weeks in Japan investigating and studying traditional Japanese metal techniques. He expects this experience will have a highly positive effect on his own work in metal.

CAROLE FISHER, an artist and teacher, received a grant to spend five weeks in South and Central Alaska conducting interviews at Year 10 following the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Fisher has been working on installation pieces addressing the Alaskan Oil Spill for eight years.

HOLLY FISHER was awarded support for BURMA LAND/SCAPES, an experimental video which will involve the viewer in exploring the seemingly innocent activity of tourism in Burma. At its simplest level the viewer will witness the filmmaker's personal travelogue of locations, people, rhythms, and the interaction of a traveler discovering a new land. But as testimonies from refugees and archival materials from colonial, underground, and other sources are woven into the fabric of this diary, space is created for a multiplicity of narratives. This video panorama will exploit myriad levels of meaning while unleashing a fuller accounting of forced labor and relocation, bondage, terror and denial of basic human rights that underpin Burma's tourism campaign.

A two-year commitment of $55,000 was made to FORECAST PUBLIC ART WORKS, St. Paul, Minnesota, to subsidize the Public Art Affairs Program, which Jerome Foundation has funded since 1989. FORECAST supports the development and appreciation of public art by creating opportunities for artists and communities to explore the public realm, and by producing educational materials to enhance the understanding and growth of public art. In the Public Art Affairs Program, a competitive application and jury review process awards stipends to emerging Minnesota artists to develop and/or produce public art projects throughout the state. Funding is available to artists in two categories: research and development stipends and public projects.

The Jerome Foundation Directors authorized approved $2,000 for THE FOUNDATION CENTER, New York City, to support its general program of providing useful information to grantseekers and grantmakers.

The Jerome Foundation initiated support for THE FOUNDRY THEATRE, New York City, in 1997. A second season grant of $12,000 will be directed toward emerging playwrights commissions and related developmental and production expenses. The Foundry is both a producing theater and an artists think tank. It is committed to pioneering new ways of developing theatrical material, which by its very nature challenges traditional boundaries of theater, while remaining accessible to audiences. With each originating artist, the Foundry customizes a process that includes dramaturgical consultations, workshops, extended rehearsal periods and full productions.

Writer SARAH FOX received a grant to travel to Milwaukee and Green Lake, Wisconsin; Chicago, Illinois; and Collegeville, Minnesota, conducting research, interviewing family members and others in order to complete a book-length collection of essays.

Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a grant of $15,000 to FRANCONIA SCULPTURE PARK, Shafer, Minnesota, in support of residencies and programs serving emerging artists in the 1998 program year. This 16-acre site located between Shafer and Taylor Falls in Minnesota is an outdoor sculpture park that provides artists with residency opportunities, workspace and exhibition exposure. Its primary, but not exclusive, focus is to support emerging sculptors. Proposals are sought via an open call. An independent selection panel chooses those artists to whom residencies are awarded. Jerome Foundation support will enable Franconia to pay fees to artists as well as assist with materials and program administration.

FRANK THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, has received subsidy from the Jerome Foundation since 1991 for its work as a small developmental theater company. It is committed to producing artistically innovative work designed to challenge the skills of the artists and the everyday perceptions of the audiences. It explores texts which address ideas and issues of social, political and/or cultural concern. Jerome support of $11,000 was authorized to subsidize emerging playwrights' productions and developmental activities. This includes the production of a work by Caridad Svich; a laboratory for creative artists responding to Chekhov plays, short stories and letters; the development of a new work on Mata Hari; and the fall 1998 production of a new American play by an emerging playwright.

The Jerome Foundation made a two-year grant commitment of $64,000 to FRANKLIN FURNACE, New York City, in support of the Fund for Performance Art and the series Franklin Furnace at Pseudo Programs. In collaboration with Pseudo Programs, a producer of Internet television featuring emerging artists, news and entertainment, Franklin Furnace presents artists on the Internet. Artists to be featured in the 1998-99 season were selected by an independent review panel last May. Artists retain the rights to their works. Netcast shows remain on Pseudos server for six months after broadcast allowing for multiple hits. The Fund for Performance Art places funds in the hands of emerging performance artists so that they may create and produce new works. A call for applications is announced each year. An independent selection panel identifies Fund recipients.

The Jerome Foundation made a two-year grant commitment of $64,000 to FRANKLIN FURNACE, New York City, in support of the Fund for Performance Art and the series Franklin Furnace at Pseudo Programs. In collaboration with Pseudo Programs, a producer of Internet television featuring emerging artists, news and entertainment, Franklin Furnace presents artists on the Internet. Artists to be featured in the 1998-99 season were selected by an independent review panel last May. Artists retain the rights to their works. Netcast shows remain on Pseudos server for six months after broadcast allowing for multiple hits. The Fund for Performance Art places funds in the hands of emerging performance artists so that they may create and produce new works. A call for applications is announced each year. An independent selection panel identifies Fund recipients.

BRIAN FRINK, a painter and Art Professor at Mankato State University, received a grant to study Italian paintings from the Renaissance. Hell spend four weeks in Italy for an extended period of reflection and individualized study designed to inform future work.

A grant was awarded to violinist ROGER FRISCH and flutist MICHELE FRISCH to spend two weeks in the Ukraine. They will engage in a series of collaborative seminars with classical and folk musicians across the Ukraine, including the capital city of Kiev, in conjunction with a concert tour.

GALE GATES ET AL., New York City, is an experimental performance ensemble founded by Michael Counts and Michelle Stern. It creates, develops and performs theatrical/performance installations. Jerome funding of $10,000 was authorized to continue the work of the company, and specifically to support the new work Tilly Losch and the presentation of The Salon Series. The organization strives to expand the definition of performance and revitalize live production through unlikely combinations of form, style and tradition in improbable locations. It is interested in challenging the relationship between audience and performers, event and site. Tilly Losch takes its name from an assemblage created by Joseph Cornell. The Salon Series is a means for an ever-growing community of emerging artists to produce works-in-progress and short finished pieces. It features the work of young artists in all media, and is curated by Counts and visual artist Tom Fruin.

The Directors authorized a grant of $10,000 to THE FIELD, New York City, as fiscal agent for KEELY GARFIELDS SINISTER SLAPSTICK, to support the creation and performance of new work during the 1998-99 season. Garfield has been choreographing and performing since 1982. She moved to New York City in 1986. She founded her company a year later and has performed in a variety of venues there. She is known for her wit as a choreographer and depth as a performer. She considers herself an archeologist of the satirical soul, attempting to excavate the myriad places that open up inside as she unearths subterranean sensations, looking for places where laughter and tears hide, and revealing them in poetic and peculiar dance sagas.

The Jerome Foundation Directors made a commitment of $8,000 to the SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal sponsor for composer ANTHONY GATTO, in support of The Orchestra Dancing in Your Head. Gatto will assemble a nine-piece ensemble, integrating his academic training in music history and composition with his performance experience in rock, jazz and free improvisation in order to bring his music to audiences in concerts he designs.

WILLIAM GORCICA, a resident of Sauk Rapids, received a grant to travel to Alberta, Canada. Gorcica will collect and reprocess digital video for a project involving cultivated nature while in residence at the Banff Art Centre. Gorcica is an artist and professor working in the areas of sculpture, interactive design, web development and digital video.