Past
Grantees

The Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a $4,400 grant to the NORTHERN CLAY CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of an exhibition, workshop and related educational programming featuring the work of Eddie Dominguez, a major figure in American ceramics and artist whose work strongly reflects his identity as an individual of Mexican descent. The Clay Center will work closely with CreArte to engage local emerging artists in a workshop with Dominguez.

Subsidy of $20,300 was authorized for the NORTHERN CLAY CENTER, Minneapolis, to support the 1997-98 Jerome Artists Project Grants. The Center is a regional organization whose mission is to promote excellence in the work of clay artists, provide educational opportunities for artists and the community and encourage the publics appreciation and understanding of the ceramic arts. Jerome funding supports Project Grantssums of money intended to advance the work of emerging ceramic artists. Projects may include, but are not necessarily limited to, experimentation with new techniques and materials, work or study with a mentor, the purchase of equipment to facilitate an aesthetic or technical investigation, rent for a studio, and freeing an artist to work in the studio.

The Jerome Foundation Directors pledged $30,000 to support a regranting fund for individual artists ravaged by the 1997 floods in northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota. It is likely that this regranting fund for individuals will be cooperatively managed by a Minnesota arts organization and a corresponding agency in North Dakota. Two members of the Board of Directors and the Foundations President were empowered to design the program.

P.S. 122, New York City, acting as fiscal agent for independent choreographer CYNTHIA OLIVER, received a grant of $10,000 toward the development and production of the new work Unremovable Jacket. Olivers mix of dance, theater and the spoken word incorporates Caribbean themes and cultural conflicts. In Unremovable Jacket, Oliver will create a work which implicitly and explicitly engages the burdens of race and classification as entities that are signs and cannot be removed. Oliver will explore the volatile territory of race awareness, unawareness, relations and talk wrapped up in a confusing tangle of fashion.

PANGEA WORLD THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received its second grant from the Jerome Foundation, a sum of $12,000 to support work with emerging writers in the development and production of new works. Pangea is committed to works, styles and traditions which illuminate the universal human condition, end divisiveness and celebrate differences. Its goals are to create an international literature for theater, a change in casting practice to promote more diverse casts, the creation of new theatrical possibilities for more diverse audiences, and the encouragement of collaborations between local and international artists. Upcoming productions which engage creative, emerging artists include a play based on poet Li-Young Lees memoir The Winged Seed, a piece on war and refugees using various poems included in the Anthology Against Forgetting: 20th Century Poems of Witness, a performance work based on an anthology of classic Tamil love poems translated by A. K. Ramanujan, and a play focusing on the injustices of the evacuation, relocation and internment of Japanese Americans in World War II.

PATRICKS CABARET, Minneapolis, Minnesota, was founded in 1986 by performance artist, dancer, choreographer and producer Patrick Scully. As an informal place to test new work, the Cabaret presents new works by nearly 200 artists each year, with slightly fewer than half of those appearing at the Cabaret for the first time. The Cabaret provides an informal and supportive environment, committed to risk and diversity. The Jerome Foundations commitment of $10,000 subsidizes artists fees and a new initiative to foster the artistic and career development of artists who have presented work which shows exceptional promise. These artists will be presented in either a solo evening or a split bill for a run of two to three weeks.

The PENUMBRA THEATRE COMPANY, St. Paul, Minnesota, received $27,000, of which $14,000 is dedicated to the Cornerstone program and $13,000 to a new late night performance art series. It is the mission of Penumbra Theatre to present artistically excellent productions that respectfully and accurately reflect the richness, diversity and reality of the African-American experience. Penumbra offers developmental readings and workshops consisting of interactive sessions with actors, directors and dramaturgs to assist playwrights in testing ideas and rewriting scripts, under the program title of Cornerstone. A performance art late night series is being organized under the title of Non-English Speaking Spoken Here, to be launched as a pilot under the artistic direction of Laurie Carlos. This series will feature emerging performance artists on both national and local levels.

PERFORMANCE SPACE 122, New York City, received a $30,000 grant commitment in support of deficit reduction and commissions to emerging performance artists. Founded in 1979, P.S. 122 is a performance laboratory which supports the development of work by individual artists with authentic visions. It brings to the public eye new artistic creations from a diversity of cultures, points of view and ages. The primary concern is supporting the individual creative process through commissions, performance opportunities, donated and rental rehearsal space, workshop space, constructive criticism and a discerning audience. Since 1986, the Jerome Foundation has made annual commitments to P.S. 122 to support commissions for emerging artists toward the creation of new work for presentation at the space. Mark Russell, as Executive and Artistic Director, selects artists to receive commissions from a Jerome commitment of $15,000. In recognition of the critical importance of P.S. 122, the Foundation made a $15,000 deficit reduction grant as P.S. 122 works aggressively to retire its debt and operate on balanced annual budgets.

P.S. 122, New York City, received a $25,000 grant in support of emerging artists commissions in the 1997-98 season. P.S. 122 is a performance laboratory which supports the development of work by individual artists with authentic visions. It finds, develops and brings to the public eye new artistic creations from a diversity of cultures and points of view. Since 1986, the Jerome Foundation has made grants to support commissions for emerging artists who make new work for presentation at P.S. 122. Artists use the funds for expenses associated with the development of their works, for example, rehearsal salaries, rental of space, costumes and music.

PERFORMANCE TWINCITIES, Minneapolis, is a quarterly publication of theater and dance criticism and commentary, founded and edited by Pamela Ellis. Its purpose is to provide a venue for printed public commentary, response and critical analysis of the multitude of diverse theater and dance works performed in the Twin Cities area. Jerome Foundation subsidy of $8,000 was authorized, with the requirement that a certain portion of that grant be designated for writers/critics fees.

The PICK UP PERFORMANCE COMPANY, New York City, acting as sponsor for artist Ain Gordon, received $8,000 toward the development of the new work Burning on the Eleventh Floor. In 1995, the Jerome Foundation made its first grant in support of his work, resulting in a piece titled Wallys Ghost, for which Gordon received an OBIE. Burning on the Eleventh Floor will look at the theme of history and its relation to modern everyday existence. As the world careens toward the year 2000, Ain Gordons mind rolls back to the turn of the last century when the creation of a mass culture was fed by rapidly expanded means of transportation, communication, production and education. The play will be developed in workshops this spring, followed by a rewriting stage and further developmental work leading to full production.

A two-year grant of $100,000 was awarded to THE PLAYWRIGHTS CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in continued support of a fellowship program for emerging playwrights, initiated in 1976 with Jerome Foundation subsidy. The Playwrights Center fuels the theater by providing services which support playwrights and playwriting. It is committed to artistic excellence, playwright initiative and leadership, the practice of cultural pluralism, the discovery of emerging artists, the advocacy of playwrights and their work and new visions of theater. It is a regional and national resource for script development, providing a range of services for playwrights at all career stages including public readings, private workshops, classes, conferences, roundtables, residencies and fellowships. The Jerome Fellowship Program provides monetary and developmental support to emerging American playwrights who have had no more than two professional productions of their work. They live and work in the Twin Cities, provided with financial and creative resources, and an artistic home. Five Fellowships of $7,000 are awarded each year.

A two-year terminal grant of $18,000 was authorized for the POWDERHORN PARK NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION in support of Crepuscule IV and V. One of the purposes of the Neighborhood Associations arts program is to establish cultural programming as a focal point, and as a tool for community building, individual enrichment, understanding and economic development. The annual Crepuscule project is under the direction of composer, musician, instrument maker and visual artist Douglas Ewart. He composes a suite of compositions and lyrics derived from community-based issues. He teaches area youth how to construct wind and percussion instruments from everyday and discarded items. He develops a programmatic scheme for a performance piece. Professional musicians serve as pod leaders, directing the music, movement and instrumentation for a pod of five personsa mixture of amateur musicians, students from the workshops and lay persons. The resulting event is a remarkable multidisciplinary program which is a joyful event.

The MINNESOTA DANCE ALLIANCE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for writer, performance artist and administrator J. OTIS POWELL!, received $12,000 to support the development and production of Theology. This is a multidisciplinary performance work which includes spoken word, dance, music, publication of a sequel book and CD recording. Powell! describes Theology as a journey into a dream that is filled with all of the struggle, ambiguity and potency of loving in a mendacious world. It is a documentation of lives lived in spiral revolutions that return to the original point of departure, which is love, and the reflections that love reveals. It is the wisdom of the blues. Powell! will work with several collaborative artists.

KELLA PRILL, Minneapolis, MN, $12,618. Support was awarded to Prill to produce Freight, a short narrative film about three homeless men who are trying to escape their troubles by hopping a freight train out of town. These three people only want their right to self-determination but instead are shipped around like human freight: out of sight and out of mind.

Playwright, actor and director T. MYCHAEL RAMBO received funding to travel to Rambo, Dallas and Austin, Texas, as well as Charleston, South Carolina; Los Angeles, California and Costa Rica. In 1856, Rambo, Texas was settled by Colonel Gale Rambo and his former slave Lydia, T. Mychael Rambos great, great grandmother. Through interviews with family members and others, he will create a multidisciplinary theater piece about the turn of the century in Rambo, Texas, a thriving community of Black Americans, known as the first Freedman City in East Texas.

RED EYE COLLABORATION, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $40,000 in support of its work with emerging creative artists and for debt reduction. Founded in 1983 by Artistic Director Steve Busa and Managing Director Miriam Must, Red Eye presents multimedia theater, functioning as producer and developer of experimental art in a creative laboratory setting. Red Eye produces a Works-in-Progress series and Isolated Acts, both of which encourage artists to define new parameters for the stage. Jerome subsidy is appropriately committed to these programs because they include a large number of emerging artists working to test ideas. For these two series and other opportunities throughout the year for emerging artists, Red Eye received $35,000. In recognition of Red Eyes importance to artists, a one-time commitment of $5,000 was authorized for debt reduction.

Writer WILLIAM REICHARD received a grant to spend time in Maine and Nova Scotia to conduct research and to write poetry. He will complete In and Out of America, a series of speculative biographical poems focusing on the life and work of American painter and poet Marsden Hartley.

ROULETTE INTERMEDIUM, New York City, received a pilot grant of $45,000 over an 18-month period for an emerging composers commissioning initiative. Roulette serves composers by presenting a concert series of new experimental and adventurous music. These concerts provide performing opportunities for composers to present their work for a live audience, and for audience members to learn about new directions in music. A pilot commissioning initiative will award first commissions to an eclectic range of emerging composers recommended by other composers, independent curators and presenters. The pilot is intended to discover new trends which young composers are following, described, in part, as a manipulation of rediscovered technology toward an expressive end.

The HUNGRY MIND REVIEW, St. Paul, Minnesota, first published in 1986, is distributed to over 600 independent bookstores in the United States and Canada. It serves as a link among publishers, bookstores, book sellers and readers. With Jerome Foundation assistance, initiated in 1994, the Review identifies emerging writers and offers them review and essay assignments, with assistance provided by an editor committed to working with them to put their writing in final form for publication. The Review identifies new and emerging writers, offering them the editorial time and attention they deserve, and assists them in finding a national readership. Jerome subsidy of $11,000 will be directed to emerging writers, with the majority of those residents of Minnesota and New York City.