Past
Grantees

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.

Alessandra Zeka/Rob Rapley - T Durosh, a one-hour documentary which examines the recent history of Albania from the perspectives of ordinary people, and of women in particular, focusing on the ways in which historical currents have affected their lives. The film will be divided into three sections. The first section will examine the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, in particular the unique conditions created by his radical social engineering. The second section will relate the events that led to the regime's collapse. The final section will examine the fragile democracy that emerged from the ashes, including the recent collapse of the pyramid schemes and the ensuing crisis.

The ZENON DANCE COMPANY & SCHOOL, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $40,000 in support of commissions of new works by emerging choreographers, a majority of whom will be residents of New York City and Minnesota. The mission of Zenon is to sustain an artistically excellent professional dance company. It presents the works of local, national and international choreographers. Jerome subsidy is directed toward the residencies of emerging choreographers who will set new works on the Zenon Company for production.

A grant of $10,000 was awarded to the NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, New York City, as fiscal agent for the media and theater company 3-LEGGED DOG. Projects include video installations, experimental theater works, multimedia theater, radio plays, films, video, hypermedia objects and websites. This company was founded on the idea of versatility across disciplines. Funding will underwrite the development and production of three new works in the 1997-98 season by Mike Taylor, Jill Szuchmacher and Kevin Cunningham.

Filmmaker ME-K AHN received funding to travel to Seoul, South Korea for two months in order to research adoption issues and to create a personal documentary, part of a trilogy of work on this subject.

The SOUTHERN THEATER FOUNDATION, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $20,000 in support of CHRIS AIKEN DANCE. Aikens work draws from extensive training, practice and performance in improvisation. Over the next two seasons, Aikens plans include a strong residency and touring schedule, the development of new choreographic works and the continuation of collaborations with other dancers and choreographers. Aiken will create an evening-length performance in which he is the only dancer collaborating with a composer/musician, a lighting designer and a visual artist. Hell test informal presentations of new choreographic ideas during the duration of the grant period.

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a supplemental grant of $15,000 to support Performance Outreach Grants associated with the Composers Commissioning Program. It is an explicit part of the Forums mission to encourage composers to break out of new music ghettos and bring their music to places where people commonly gathercommunity centers, schools, places of worship, public parks and the like, in rural as well as urban settings. The Performance Outreach Grant funds will encourage performances and discussions of new works commissioned through the Composers Commissioning Program in just such settings. The funds should provide an incentive to performers to give multiple hearings of new works in venues likely to engage new and different audiences. The composers will be primarily responsible for instigating these outreach performances, retaining artistic control of the work and gaining valuable community production experience that will benefit their careers in the long run. The composers will be present at all outreach performances.

A substantial two-year commitment of $180,000 was made to the AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, in support of a two-part Composers Commissioning Program in New York City and Minnesota. The Forum links communities with composers and performers, encouraging the making, playing and enjoyment of new music. It builds two-way relationships between artists and publics, educating todays and tomorrows audiences, energizing composers careers, stimulating entrepreneurship and collaboration and promoting musical creativity. The Composers Commissioning Program, which recently completed its 17th round of grants to composers, is unusual in that it encourages the initiative of composers by requiring a joint application from a composer and either a performer or presenting organization. Separate funds are allocated for Minnesota and New York City. Funding is dedicated to emerging composers. An independent selection panel reviews applications annually and makes commissioning awards.

The Foundation set aside funds to continue work on the Jerome Hill Archive, which is likely to be transferred to a public library/archive within the next year in order to make those materials more accessible to researchers

The MINNESOTA DANCE ALLIANCE, Minneapolis, acting as fiscal agent for ARENA DANCES BY MATHEW JANCZEWSKI, received $8,000 toward the development of new dance works. This is the second Jerome grant to Janczewski, awarded in recognition of his potential as an emerging choreographer. The funds will assist in the presentation of new work in the winter of 1998.