Past
Grantees

Costume Designer SONJA BERLOVITZ will attend a workshop at the Split Rock Arts Program in Duluth studying fabric printing techniques, specifically the Japanese technique of Nassen with instructor Akemi Nakano Cohn, in preparation for future costume designing projects

A one-year commitment of $13,000 was made to the BLACKLOCK NATURE SANCTUARY in Moose Lake, Minnesota, to support a pilot residency program for emerging artists at this new retreat center. The 278 acre undeveloped land is a sanctuary for plants and animals indigenous to East Central Minnesota. The Center will provide residencies of various lengths for naturalists, artists and writers to create in a secluded, rural setting, entirely focused on their work.

GREG BORDOWITZ was awarded support for The Suicide, a feature-length film adaptation of Nikolai Erdman's play, which was banned by Stalin in 1932. Bordowitz's film will self-consciously employ the conventions developed for theatrical productions of American television, as well as strategies employed by early television situation comedies. The play was intended to be a critique of the political conditions of Erdman's society in his day; Bordowitz's film brings the themes of The Suicide into a contemporary environment. The themes are exhaustion and despair, the sense of loss accompanied by disillusionment with one's ideals. The scope of the philosophical and political questions proposed in The Suicide range from the responsibilities of the individual to the manner in which state repression compromises the behavior of individuals.

The NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, New York City, as fiscal agent for composer and performer SUSAN BOTTI and SUBO MUSIC received $5,000 to produce Telaio: Desdemona in a fully staged concert presentation in May of 1997. The work is written for soprano, harp, piano, percussion and string quartet; and is an operatic soliloquy exploring the character of Desdemona from Shakespeares Othello. The libretto uses text from the play along poems by Gaspara Stampa to create a collage portrait.

Artist DJOLA BERNARD BRANNER received a grant to study secular and sacred Haitian dance in Haiti. Branner will begin his studies at the Haitian-American School of Contemporary Ballet in Del Mas and will also attend the Rara Festival.

The BRONX COUNCIL ON THE ARTS, Bronx, New York, received a two-year grant of $23,000 to support the Longwood Arts Gallery and the Studio Scholarship Program. The Longwood Arts Project, housed in a former Public School, offers studios to artists through a scholarship program and at a subsidized rental fee. The Longwood Gallery exhibits work by contemporary local, national and international artists in both thematic and solo exhibitions. Jerome Foundation subsidy supports the participation of emerging artists in these programs. The Longwood Arts Project is the visual arts arm of the Bronx Council on the Arts, an arts agency which provides education programs, resource publications, regranting programs for individuals and organizations, and special events.

SUZANNE BUNKERS, a teacher and writer, will travel to Luxembourg to study religious and cultural artifacts and traditions for use in a new work of creative nonfiction titled Susanna and Me. Bunkers will explore the ways in which religious images, symbols, traditions and aspects of material culture have been and continue to be an important part of the metaculture of Luxembourg. She will examine ways in which this metaculture has imprinted itself on her, a fifth generation descendant.

Capoeira Foundation, New York City, was awarded a grant of $8,000 in support of the development of new choreography for DanceBrazil. The new work Quilombo will be created by Jelon Vieira, the Artistic Director of DanceBrazil. Quilombos were free communities of Africans living in Colonial Brazil during the 17th and 18th Centuries. Vieira plans to create an evening-length work based on an early American multicultural community/Quilombo.

The Center for Arts Criticism, St. Paul, Minnesota, has received support from the Jerome Foundation since 1984. Its mission is to provide a platform for defining genuine critical dialogue about the arts in their social, political and cultural contexts. The Center is working toward the decentralization of criticism, making it more inclusive and having it recognized as an ongoing practice of critics, artists, audiences, arts educators and administrators. The Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a $24,000 grant to The Center for Arts Criticism, over the next six months, as it clarifies its mission and program objectives, identifies the financial resources which can be garnered for its continued work and assesses its future.

THE CENTER FOR ARTS CRITICISM, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $40,000 in general support of programming in 1996-97. This grant continues the Foundations long-standing commitment to The Center for Arts Criticism and its mission of providing a public forum for the critical discussion of art and culture, and of increasing the quantity, quality and diversity of arts criticism. This grant was authorized with stated expectations regarding a broader base of support for the Center.

Composer MARY ELLEN CHILDS will travel to the San Francisco Bay Area to meet rock drummer Bill Bruford and his group King Crimson, attend their concert and explore the possibilities of writing a new composition for them. She will also meet with composers, musicians, musical groups and curators of performance venues in the Bay Area regarding future projects.

Writer and teacher TOM CLARK received a grant to travel to New York City to conduct research leading toward a biography of Waiter Quirt. An artist of national and international reputation, Quirt lived in Minneapolis and taught at the University from 1947 until his death in 1968. A trip to New York is necessary in order for Clark to conduct primary and secondary research on materials in libraries and archives there, and search for photographs. In addition, collectors and museums in and around New York have Quirt paintings that Clark needs to see.

COFFEE HOUSE PRESS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $39,000 in support of the publication of books of fiction and poetry by emerging authors in fiscal years 1997 and 1998. This nonprofit publishing house, founded by Allan Kornblum, is a nationally recognized literary arts organization with a reputation for presenting award-winning writers and beautifully designed books. Its mission is to publish books that advance the craft of writing, books that present the dreams and ambitions of people who have been under-represented in published literature, books that help build a sense of community, and books that help to shape a national consciousness.

Pamela Colby, Minneapolis, MN, $5,000. For the production of "The Trials of Margaret Randall", a video documentary about activist/photographer/writer Margaret Randall, which will use the voices of the INS judges in Randall's landmark trial to restore her US citizenship, as a narrative frame for a portrait of her life.

A grant of $8,000 was awarded to the Southern Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal agent for Concrete Farm, in support of the commissioning and production of new works by the members of the collective. The largest component of Concrete Farms work in the coming year will be the Flatbed project, in which Concrete Farm will embark on a two-week statewide tour performing on a flatbed truck. Flatbed is an opportunity to develop a public dance work for a variety of peoples and locations. The choreography will focus on what can be performed on a flatbed surface, with the addition of wildcard dances which will take advantage of different surroundings on the tour.

The SOUTHERN THEATER FOUNDATION, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $18,000 in support of the upcoming seasons of CORNING DANCES & COMPANY, which was established in the Twin Cities in 1993. Cornings goal is to have a company functioning as a full-time modern ensemble with a small, but efficient staff, drawing upon and collaborating with local artists and arts organization. Corning will continue work on The Human Trilogy, a set of three evening-length works which have exploded from her, surprising her with some of the most exciting and inspirational work of her life. Part III, tentatively titled Echoes in the Ghetto, should premiere in 1997.

The Jerome Foundation approved general support and membership grants of modest size COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS in Washington, D.C.

CREARTE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, forms ties among Mexicano, Chicano and Latino artists and the larger community in order to promote Latino arts and traditions. Through cultural programming, CreArte opens venues for people of all ages and backgrounds, and provides artists with the assistance needed to assume more vital roles within the community. Two-year funding of $28,000 was authorized for two purposes. The first is to continue Dia de los Muertos annual celebrations. Funding will also be directed toward the provision of services to artists. Finally, the Foundation authorized an additional sum of up to $10,000 to develop and implement an artist mentorship program. Support for CreArte is channeled through INTERMEDIA ARTS, as fiscal agent.

Artist DORIT CYPIS will travel to Poland, specifically Warsaw and Lodj, where some members of her family met devastating deaths as Jews caught in the Nazi uprising of the Second World War, to develop ideas for a project titled Contve Jour (a meditation on the dialectics of death and life), initiated by Nourit Masson Sekine, an artist/producer living in Strasbourg, France. They will work with musician Guedalia Tazartes, incorporating multiple computerized projections and a theatrical presentation, in a public work of art.

PUBLIC ART ST. PAUL, St. Paul, Minnesota, received $15,000 to support the Living Water Garden project in Chengdu, China, conceived by artist BETSY DAMON. Damons conceptual work on the Fu Nan River in Chengdu will be a large (5.9 acre) park designed specifically to address water quality issues. The Living Water Garden will clean 400 cubic meters of river a day by diverting a portion of the river water and treating it through natural processes that run the length of the park. The design will contain an environmental education center, a public greenhouse and an amphitheater. Damon is also developing two companion parks, located south of the main Water Garden, which will feature sculptures by Chinese artists. As Artistic Director of the Design Team, Damons project exemplifies the synchronicity of environmental concern and aesthetic purpose.