Past
Grantees

THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP, New York City, received $16,000 to continue the National Theater Criticism/Affiliated Writers Program. As the national service organization for the nonprofit professional theater, TCG undertakes numerous activities, including the publication of American Theatre magazine. In an effort to increase the amount and substance of arts criticism in that publication, TCG designed an Affiliated Writers Program for New York City and Minnesota-based critics, which attracted Jerome support in 1988. The purpose of the program is to foster the development of a corps of theater critics and journalists who are knowledgeable about the field as a whole; to raise critical standards; to increase the visibility of American Theatre as a forum for the publication of high quality critical writing; and to increase the public demand for serious criticism, persuading editors nationwide of its importance. Since its launch, 28 writers from Minnesota and New York City have participated in the program, contributing a total of 85 articles. A travel component allows the selected critics to make connections among geographically diverse programs.

MORGAN THORSON, dancer and choreographer, was awarded a grant to spend nine weeks in Seattle, Washington, to study and be certified in Skinner Release Technique. Thorson will study with Stephanie Skouras, Robert Davidson and Joan Skinner, the Techniques masters.

Two years of subsidy at $12,000 per year was granted to the SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for MORGAN THORSON AND DANCERS. Thorson received support to develop and produce new work over the next two years, focusing on three projects. The first is a restaging of the dance Bottom Heavy. The second is a new solo for Thorson; and the third is the development of Toe the White Line. Bottom Heavy explores the fluidity and intermingling of sensuality, fantasy and sexuality in contemporary club social dancing. Toe the White Line will critique the behaviors associated with whiteness and privilege, layering movement phrases and exploring codes and systems that ensure the hierarchical existence of power, privilege, class distinction and lineage.

ERIC TRETBAR, a filmmaker, received funding to spend one month in New York City and one month in Los Angeles. Tretbar will build upon the attention generated by his latest films world premiere in the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival.

KIM-CHI TYLER was awarded support for what i remember of her, an intensely personal look into the life of her mother, who was forced into prostitution to support her children during the Vietnam War. It will recount Ms. Tylers memories of seeing her mother have sex with American soldiers, and the emotional prison of her mothers eventual marriage to an American. Visually the film will be shot from the point of view of Ms. Tyler, whose journey begins in America where she talks to people who knew her mother. She will eventually end up in Vietnam, the place of her birth, to visit her biological father and others who were well acquainted with her mother. An old Vietnamese proverb says, Go out one day, come back with a basket full of knowledge. Tyler hopes to achieve this through her quest to know her mother.

A grant was awarded to AERIN VANHALA and BRETT STATELY, public art muralists, to spend one month in Santiago, Cuba, attending the International Entrenos Mural Conference. They will work with more senior muralists to gain skills and knowledge in order to enhance their future work as public muralists in the Twin Cities area.

VOICE & VISION, New York City, received a grant of $14,000 in support of its 1998-99 season. Voice & Visions mission is to build an artistic home for the many women artists who feel under-served and under-represented by the art and imagery of the common culture. This theater places women at the core of every project it undertakes. Unheard Voices is the title of the play development program, which includes workshops, readings and full productions

The Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a two-year grant of $30,000 to VERY SPECIAL ARTS MINNESOTA, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of services offered to emerging professional artists and the Artist Recognition Grant Program. The mission of Very Special Arts Minnesota is to make the arts accessible to people with all types of disabilities throughout the state. Following a substantial assessment of the needs of the disability community, Very Special Arts Minnesota identified a particular program for which it sought Jerome assistanceArtist Recognition Grants. Minnesota artists with disabilities are invited to submit proposals to an independent panel, requesting assistance for a variety of purposes designed to advance their art. Artists working in all disciplines are eligible to apply.

Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a $10,000 grant to the WALKER ART CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the commissioning, development and presentation of new theatrical work by MICHAEL SOMMERS and ANDREW MCCORMICK. The new work, titled A Prelude to Faust, is scheduled for 21 performances from mid-November through early December 1998 at Patricks Cabaret. This will be the major Twin Cities component of a new Walker-sponsored, five-part experimental puppetry series. A Prelude to Faust will feature live actors, puppets and other figures in an intricately designed unit set, accompanied by original music performed live. The work explores the concept of the fatal deed, a delicate choice or action that confronts the doer with the realization that

The Jerome Foundation committed $29,000 to the WALKER ART CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of a series of on-line emerging artists projects. The Walker Art Center emphasizes the exhibition of 20th Century Art and the work of living artists. It is committed to the active engagement of audiences. Jerome funding is directed toward a new initiativea commissioning project in which the Walker will identify emerging artists whose work is made on-line and whose commissioned projects will be placed on the Walkers web-site gallery. The Walker believes that by highlighting and supporting the work of emerging new media artists, it will create a contextsupportive and criticalthat will help establish individual artists of merit and advance new media as a serious avenue of creative expression. Furthermore, given the emerging state of the medium, commissioned artists works will help museums and other institutions understand better how to utilize the vast potential of new media and the Internet to advance artistic missions.

The NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, as fiscal agent for the DARK LOVE project, received a grant of $10,000 to mount a series of concerts, self-produced by six composers. These six emerging composer/musicians formulated a collective vision for larger-scale productions and decided to take the next step in their artistic and career development together. Scheduled for production at The Kitchen in the spring of 1999, Dark Love will unfold in three sections; a new group composition by the Talujon Percussion Quartet, a new work by composer Ushio Torikae and a new composition by composer Theodore Wiprud. The three sections will be bridged through improvisation in order to create a unified experience. Wipruds collaboration on Dark Love also involves painter Pat Lipsky Sutton, whose series of Black Paintings prompted his compositions

A two-year grant of $33,890 was authorized by the Jerome Foundation Directors to support the Mentor Program of the WOMENS ART REGISTRY OF MINNESOTA (WARM), St. Paul, Minnesota. WARM was organized in 1975 to address the shortage of exhibition opportunities for and validation of women artists works. The WARM Mentor Program began as a pilot in 1982. It matches mentors who are established professional artists and members of WARM with protegeesserious developing artists, no longer in school, and in the early stages of career development. The program has several goals including the empowerment of women to take responsibility for their artistic careers, assistance to protegees in clarifying artistic goals, the stimulation of women artists to identify and value their unique skills and areas of expertise and the development

The Jerome Foundation authorized a $15,000 grant to the WOMENS PROJECT & PRODUCTIONS, New York City, in support of the Staged Reading Series and other developmental activities for emerging playwrights. Founded in 1978, the mission of the Womens Project & Productions is to nurture women playwrights and directors, produce their plays in an environment that values their creativity, and cultivate an audience for that work now and into the future. Toward these ends, the WPP produces readings, workshops and full productions of new plays by women, nurtures emerging women artists in its Playwrights Lab and Directors Forum, commissions plays, publishes anthologies of plays produced at WPP, administers the New American Theatre School, and provides an arts education program titled Ten Centuries of Women Playwrights for the New York City Public High Schools.

Sculptor STEVEN WOODWARD received a grant to spend four months traveling in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. He will study the art and architecture of the Buddhist and Hindu religions, created over the past 2,000 years. This is designed to expand his thinking and suggest new ideas for his sculptural work.

RICHARD WORMSER received funding for Behind the Veil, a 30-minute documentary film that will examine the Farmville student strike of 1951, during which a group of African-American high school students rebelled against the inferior conditions of their segregated school.

WOVEN SPACES, Brooklyn, New York, was founded in 1996 by artist Rosa Valado. She designs and creates sanctuaries, buildings of approximately 2,000 square feet, located in public areas, either as independent structures or within existing complexes. The interiors are filled with art work, primarily sculpture and painting, built to encourage visitor interaction. The interiors are also designed to hold a variety of artistic performances for the benefit of the general public including readings, musical performances, symposia and community forums. Jerome subsidy of $8,000 will allow Valado and Woven Spaces to test the viability of this concept.

PAM WYNN, poet, received funding to travel to Bloomington, Indiana, to attend the Indiana Writers Conference and to study with poet Amy Gerstler.

X-ART FOUNDATION, New York City, was founded in 1990 to create, encourage and present new forms of text and art. It fosters the collaboration of emerging artists working in diverse media, primarily through its publication Blast, but also through exhibitions, symposia, discussion forums and various on-line activities. Blast is a boxed publication containing projects by writers, artists and other contributors, in the forms of printed matter, drawings, computer programs and other objects. A previous grant from the Jerome Foundation supported the publication of Blast5. Funding of $10,000 was authorized for Blast7, intended to generate new terms and formats for thinking about Internet art works and the practices of the artists who make them.

The MINNESOTA DANCE ALLIANCE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for independent choreographer CATHY YOUNG, received a two-year commitment of $24,000 toward the creation and presentation of new work in the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 seasons. Young intends to present two full evenings of work, as well as smaller and more informal showings of works-in-progress. Young brings to her creative work an understanding of many kinds of movement including jazz, postmodern, improvisation

ZEITGEIST, a musical ensemble based in St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $30,000 in support of an emerging composers commissioning program, which includes the Spring Training Project. Zeitgeist presents the best of contemporary music reflecting the spirit of the 20th Century, and is particularly committed to performing the music of live composers. Jerome Foundation has supported commissioning programs at Zeitgeist since 1980. Dissatisfied with the traditional form of the chamber music concert, Zeitgeist has moved to a concert format that features one evening-length work or two works of half-concert length, with the goal of developing and sustaining dramatic energy throughout the concert. Zeitgeist anticipates that the number of commissions it offers to emerging composers per year will be reduced in number, but that the opportunity for creating longer and more substantial work will provide a new type of creative challenge to composers.