Past
Grantees

GRANTMAKERS IN THE ARTS received a $7,000 commitment, of which $5,000 is designated for an Update of the Arts Benchmark Study.

Writer ALVIN GREENBERG received funding to spend two weeks in New York City at the YIVO Institute for Yiddish Studies. Greenberg will continue research on the life and writing of his great grandfather David Greenberg (1853-1917), an immigrant Jewish poet who wrote in Yiddish under the name Ben Yishai.

Poet CINDRA HALM will attend the Ropewalk Writers Retreat in New Harmony, Indiana, to study with poet and teacher Heather McHugh.

DAVID HAMILTON, an operatic tenor from Moorhead, received funding to spend two weeks in New York City. Hamilton will work with William Riley investigating operatic roles that will enable him to move into the lirico spinto repertoire.

AARON DAVIS HALL, Harlem's principal center for the performing arts on the campus of City College of New York, operates seven programs, one of which received funding of $12,000 from the Jerome Foundation in support of emerging artists' commissions in the Fund for New Works program. Subsidies provide each emerging artist with free rehearsal space, a commission fee, and developmental support. Approximately seven major commissions are awarded each year. The Fund also provides smaller cash and space grants to five to eight promising new artists. The Jerome Foundation has been supporting the Fund for New Works since 1993.

A commitment of $12,000 was authorized for AARON DAVIS HALL, New York City, in support of the Fund for New Works, which offers commissions to artists for the creation of new works. Aaron Davis Hall is both a training center for students of the City College of New York and Harlems principal cultural center. It fosters the development of new works by performing artists of color; provides a valuable forum for culturally diverse artists, community-based performing arts organizations and regionally significant arts groups; presents performances for the residents of Harlem at affordable prices; and institutes effective education programs for area young people. The Fund for New Works provides support for the development of one to three major works each year, and also subsidizes five to eight smaller commissions to bring new works to their next levels of development. Jerome subsidy will be directed toward the emerging artists selected by Aaron Davis Hall to receive commissions from the Fund for New Works in the 1998-99 season.

HARVESTWORKS, New York City, received a two-year grant of $20,800 to support its Artist in Residence program. Founded in 1977, Harvestworks is a nonprofit digital media arts center providing services to emerging and mid-career artists, particularly those seeking to expand the vocabulary of digital media art forms and to increase the audience for that work. It serves a broad range of artists working in a variety of media forms. The Artist in Residence Program awards to artists time, space, use of equipment and the services of a technician to explore and create new pieces. Funding will allow at least four emerging artists to work collaboratively with engineers and technicians on site, purchase materials and access studio production facilities.

Poet KATHLEEN HEIDEMAN received a grant to spend three weeks in the Iron Range region of Michigans Upper Peninsula. Heideman will investigate caving grounds, which were often named for Greek and Roman gods. The caving grounds will provide information for her poetry.

SHIRLEY HEITZMAN, a Celtic dancer, received a grant to spend one month in Ireland studying the Ceili and Set dances in the regions of their origin. She will investigate dance steps and figures to improve her own performance ability.

A grant of $16,000 was authorized for the production of two new works in the 1998-99 season of HERE, a multi-arts center in New York City. HERE has become a major arts presenter in downtown Manhattan, serving many artists and presenting varied performance works. Tim Maner will direct Cry Pitch Carols, a hybrid opera form with text and music combining fragmented forms and language from actual and imagined histories. Librettist Ruth Margraff is contributing a text within a science fiction landscape that will release preconceived notions of place and time. Composer Mathew Pierce will deconstruct the carol form, with violin white noise and clear silver bell acoustics. Cry Pitch Carols will encourage the audience to explore racism, Christianity, feminism, the sins of father figures and Christmas as a cultural icon. Kristin Marting will create Women of Orleans, which will use French, Creole and Spanish folk dancing, gestural vocabulary and poetic texts to examine the lives of real and fictional women in New Orleans during the late 1800s. The piece

Artist KENDRA HERRING, a resident of Rochester, received a grant to spend two weeks in Oaxaca, Mexico to explore and experience the annual Day of the Dead Festival, especially the creation of altars and rituals surrounding the festival.

THE SCHUBERT CLUB, St. Paul, Minnesota, acted as fiscal agent for composer EDIE HILL as she sought support to create new music compositions. The Schubert Club promotes the art of music through performance, education and music exhibitions. Hill requested support to develop new works in order to pursue higher visibility opportunities such as touring, composing works for larger ensembles and established venues, and composing solo work for artists who will champion her music. The three works to be subsidized are a piano trio, a flute concerto and song cycle. The piano trio will first be heard at the Montanea Chamber Music Festival in Switzerland, with two additional performances in Europe and U.S. performances in at lease four locations. The flute concerto will be premiered with the New York Chamber Ensemble by flutist Susan Rotholz. Hill will also research materials for a song cyle for mezzo soprano. Hill intends that this strategic plan will significantly advance her career.

Visual artist JEAN HUMKE will spend a week in New York City and Long Island City doing research for a public project exchange. Shell plan and make models with her collaborator, visit public art pieces in and around New York City, and visit P.S.1 and the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City.

THE ILLUSION THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, has received Jerome Foundation subsidy for its developmental playwrights' program since 1977. Since 1991, the funds have been directed toward the Fresh Ink series and the cost of a literary associate. Illusion develops and produces new works by artists who reflect a variety of cultural perspectives which contribute to positive personal and social change. In doing this, it provides opportunities for both emerging and established artists. The Fresh Ink series gives playwrights a chance to develop material in front of an audience, without exposing that work to the pressures of the mainstage before it is ready. Illusion benefits from this opportunity by building valuable artistic relationships that will shape the Theater's future. Fresh Ink supports works in progress, chamber pieces which are basically finished and exploratory pieces which take artists in new directions. Four to six projects are presented annually, and some of those go on to full production on the Illusion mainstage or at other theaters. Illusion Theater also received partial subsidy for its Literary Associates program.

Choreographer LADDAVANH LADDA CHANTHRAPHONE received funding to spend six weeks in Laos. In order to retain the nuances of dances of her culture, Chanthraphone will study and explore the traditional exposition of Lao repertoire and the expression of various folk dances.

The Jerome Foundation authorized a grant of $10,000 to INTAR GALLERY, New York City, in support of the participation of emerging artists in the 1997-98 exhibition season. The current season began with a two person show featuring new pieces by Philippe Avila and Juan Carlos Garcia Lavin. The work was conceptually driven by a mystical investigation of the vulnerability of the body. Currently showing is an exhibition of works by Fernando Aris, who forces the viewer to confront the boundaries of public space, and also explores the concept of art as a commodity. There will then be an exhibition of three emerging Latina artists, followed by a site specific installation. Jerome subsidy will underwrite the participation of emerging artists in the exhibition season.

INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, has received support for an installation art commissioning program since 1986. A two-year grant of $78,000 will continue to subsidize that activity through the year 2000. Titled Art in Space, the program awards competitively selected commissions to emerging artists to create and display major installation pieces at Intermedia. Enhancements of the program over the next two seasons are planned. Also, in support of programmatic and technical assistance programs offered to emerging artists by Intermedia Arts, the Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a two-year grant of $12,000 to cover those expenses.

A grant of $30,000 was made to INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, for a pilot Performance Art Commissioning and Production Program. Intermedia operates a multidisciplinary program recognized for its variety and responsiveness to artists and their endeavors. This pilot will provide creation funding, technical assistance, directorial assistance, facility access, critical response and other services which enable artists to develop their ideas and advance their skills and careers while creating and presenting new work. The program will be directed toward multidisciplinary performance artists, each of whom will receive a $3,000 commission toward the development of a new work.

THE QUINTET OF THE AMERICAS, New York City, acted as fiscal agent for composer KEVIN JAMES, who sought funding to create a large scale work, Portraits, for tape and a variety for soloists and chamber ensembles. James is a New York City based composer, trombonist and founder of the Quadragon Trombone Collective. In Portraits, James will paint the faces of homelessness in New York City. Interviews with over 700 homeless people will be used as part of the sound score for the work. The piece will consist of eight distinct sections, each drawing on specific themes arising from the interviewing process. The music will be varied stylistically. James will then have the work performed by a variety of ensembles, including Kronos Quartet, Glen Velez and Handance, Quintet of the Americas, The Meridian Arts Ensemble and The Sirius String Quartet. Funding of $10,000 was authorized for the development of this work leading toward a workshop performance of the piece at the Kitchen in late 1998.