Past
Grantees

A two-year grant of $28,000 was authorized for the ALTERNATIVE MUSEUM, New York City, in support of the participation of emerging artists in the 1996-97 exhibitions programs. Founded and operated by artists, the Alternative Museum offers a welcoming environment for younger and emerging artists. It provides a professional showcase for artists of all career levels, leadership with an artistic perspective within the museum profession, and an atmosphere in which ideas can be presented and challenged. This fall, the Museum will focus on photography, video, film, computer-generated art works and electronic media installations. It will also create a new Alter-NET-ive museum, located on the World Wide Web.

Harpsichordist and organist JULIETA ALVARADO will travel to Bolivia and Mexico to research analyze and study for performance two extant Colonial keyboard music collections in Latin American from the 17th and 18th Centuries. The work will be done at the Musical Archives in Chiquitos, Bolivia, and the Mexico City Cathedral Archives in Mexico.

A grant of $42,000 was awarded to American Composers Forum (formerly the Minnesota Composers Forum), St. Paul, Minnesota, in support of the 1996 Composers Commissioning Program in New York City. The Composers Commissioning Program, now in its 16th year, supports the production of new musical works by American composers. A composer applies in conjunction with a performing organization/performers/presenting organization, thereby fostering productive and cooperative ventures. Composers take the initiative in developing their own creative visions and pursuing the creation of new works for ensembles of their choice.

The American Composers Orchestra, New York City, received an award of $15,000 toward the commissioning and performance of a new work by an emerging American composer. This orchestra is dedicated exclusively to performing and commissioning symphonic works by American composers. Commissioned works are performed as part of the Orchestras five concert subscription season at Carnegie Hall.

The MINNESOTA DANCE ALLIANCE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for choreographer MATHEW JANCZEWSKI, received $6,000 to support the creation of a new work titled Twitch to be performed in the spring of 1997. This 20-minute piece uses eight dancers to investigate the individuals struggle to remain unique and yet maintain connections to a group. Emerging choreographer Janczewski has danced with several professional companies in the Twin Cities. He presented his first choreographic piece in 1993. His proposed 1997 concert is designed to showcase his creative work.

The Jerome Foundation Directors decided to test a pilot concept proposed to it by ART IN GENERAL, New York City. A grant of $14,000 was made to Art in General, a nonprofit alternative space which offers exhibition opportunities to emerging artists, especially women and artists of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds. Exhibitions are selected by revolving-member advisory panels comprised of artists. This pilot is a residency and installation program, one which falls within an ongoing program interest of Art in General and one which addresses the Jerome Foundations particular interest in bridging its Minnesota and New York City program areas. Art in General will offer a Minnesota-based artist an opportunity to work on a new installation during a two-month residency in New York. Selection will be based on nominations from Minnesota-based visual arts organizations. Art in Generals Executive Director Holly Block will travel to Minnesota to handle the announcement and explanation of the program, with the goal of engaging more Minnesota artist participation in the programs of Art in General.

The ASIAN AMERICAN RENAISSANCE, St. Paul, Minnesota, received $28,000, $7,000 of which was awarded in support of the Renaissances services to artists, and $21,000 for a new regranting program for individuals. The mission of the Renaissance is to build the Asian American community through the arts. It nurtures Asian American art and artists; educates itself and others about Asian American art, history and culture; and provides a forum for Asian Americans to discuss issues which affect them. The focus of the regranting effort will be capacity-building for emerging professional artists. Artists will propose individualized plans for professional developmentfor the acquisition of skills and the knowledge to advance their work.

BANG ON A CAN, New York City, received a 15-month grant of $14,000 in support of the commissioning and performance of new works by emerging composers. In the period of time covered by the grant, Bang on a Can will present eight concerts of new music in New York, including the annual Marathon, and performances at Lincoln Center, The Knitting Factory and The Kitchen. The Bang on a Can All-Stars, the resident ensemble of performers, records for Sony Classical and tours extensively.

Theater educator and artist JULIE BARTHOLDI will spend ten days in Manhattan investigating theater in education in workshops and sessions within the Summerfest International Theater and Education Festival, the National Conference of the American Alliance for Theater and Education and the Association for Theater and Higher Education

TERRY BERKOWITZ was awarded support for an installation dealing with the appropriation of property and belongings from those who have been displaced for political reasons. This is meant to be an evocative work, although it will utilize some documentation and interviews with people who have suffered this experience. It will focus on displacement as a mirror of the 20th Century. The installation will be placed in a gallery as though it were someone's living room, with a soundtrack blending comments culled from interviews with displaced people and information taken from newspapers about current situations around the world, especially examples of mass displacement and appropriation. On two of the chairs, videotapes will be projected. Partially covered photographs will be on the walls, images of occupiers of the house exposed to the viewer.

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.