Past
Grantees

In an unusual action, the Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a grant of $5,000 to the MINNESOTA DANCE ALLIANCE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, to assist in the reduction of its accumulated debt, and move it toward a more stable future. The Dance Alliances mission is to support and foster dance in Minnesota. It was founded in 1979 with the initial purpose of providing support and services to independent choreographers in the state. It grew quickly, and began offering a variety of programs including several major fellowship and regranting initiatives. The Dance Alliance experienced program-related financial setbacks in its 1994 and 1995 fiscal years, and in the beginning few months of its 1996 fiscal year. Massive reorganization was undertaken, and programs and activities reduced. The Jerome Foundation Directors felt that the Alliance had responsibly reacted to its situation and needed the assistance of its loyal funders to move forward.

A two-year grant of $29,000 was awarded to Danspace Project, New York City, in support of commissioning initiatives for emerging choreographers in the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons. Danspace Project provides an affordable performance venue for independent experimental choreographers.

The Jerome Foundation made a commitment of up to $22,000 to the DAYTON HUDSON FOUNDATION, Minneapolis, Minnesota to support a pilot program which serves Twin Cities-bases arts administrators and artist-administrators. This pilot program is intended to provide substantial leaves of absence to two individuals for the purpose of encouraging the creativity of arts administrators, time for reflection and active learning. These are not sabbaticals, but rather, subsidized time for investigation into organizational issues and styles of management that will move arts organizations forward.

Singer and professor DAN DRESSEN will make a five-week study tour of Copenhagen, Oslo Stockholm, Helsinki and Reykjavik for personal and professional development and to continue work in laying a foundation for a Center of Nordic Solo Vocal Music at St. Olaf College. He will research Nordic solo vocal music and study lyric diction in Nordic languages.

Writer CYNTHIA DRISCOLL will undertake a personal pilgrimage, one which will stimulate a body of creative nonfiction work connecting her experientially to earlier generations of her family. She will travel by car from Grand Rapids to Alaska, and the State of Washington. She will research and write about the Minnesota Brackett family and their enterprises during the Klondike Gold Rush and the Atlin British Columbia Gold Rush.

Arts administrator SUSAN DUBIN will observe extended chamber music residencies in other communities, Iowa City and Kansas City, in order to improve her presenting skills as Executive Director of the Chamber Music Society of Saint Cloud. She has chosen presenters whose residency projects are at a stage, or perhaps several stages, ahead of her own, in order to learn more about their planning processes their collaborations with other community organizations, their solutions to funding problems and new ways of incorporating an ensemble into a community.

SANDI DUBOWSKI received subsidy to produce Trembling Before G-d, an hour-long experimental documentary about Hasidim and Orthodox Jews who come out as gays and lesbians and must abandon their intertwined worlds of family and faith. This is also a story about those who choose to remain Orthodox and how they must constantly negotiate their sexuality and identity in religious communities. The work is structured as a series of journeys depicting the moving and humorous relationships that develop between DuBowski and a Diaspora of exiles. DuBowski returns with each subject to places in their Orthodox past which evoke loss, joy, nostalgia and the turbulence of emotions which derive from being cut off from one's community.

The DULUTH ART INSTITUTE, Duluth, Minnesota, received $10,285 to support the participation of emerging artists in the 1996-97 exhibition program. Founded in 1896, the Duluth Art Institute is one of the states oldest arts organizations. The exhibition program promotes visual art created by artists living and working in the Arrowhead region. Its shows mirror the diversity of the regions constituency, promote a broad spectrum of art forms, recognize the creativity of visual artists and acknowledge their contribution to the creation of American culture. Funding was authorized on the strength of the Institutes services to artists and the substantial number of emerging artists included in the annual exhibition program.

Matt Ehling, Minneapolis, MN, $6,500. To produce "Prairie Downs", an experimental video documentary about the evolution of the suburb, which will juxtapose a documentary about a "gated community" - Bearpath in Eden Prairie - with a narrative taking place in the more "old fashioned" suburb of Brooklyn Center.

A $12,000 commitment to the Contemporanea series of EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO, New York City, will allow the institution to support the work of emerging artists. Founded in 1969, El Museo del Barrios mission is to preserve and protect the dynamic cultural heritage of Puerto Ricans and all Latin Americans in the United States. The Contemporanea series, initiated in January of 1996, features newly commissioned, site-specific installations by contemporary artists in four-month rotating slots, shown in a high visibility gallery at the entrance of El Museo.

EN GARDE ARTS, New York City, received $10,000 to continue its support of emerging creative artists. En Garde produces site-specific theater on a large scale, under the artistic direction of founder Anne Hamburger. It commissions playwrights, directors and composers to create events that call attention to treasured city landmarks, historic streets and neighborhoods, and striking architectural structures. Artists to be engaged in the current season include Chay Yew, Sapphire, Eve Ensler and Sarah Kane.

The Jerome Foundation authorized a grant of $35,000 to Exit Art, New York City, in support of exhibitions featuring works by emerging artists in the 1996-97 and 1997-98 exhibition program years. Since 1982, Exit Art has organized and presented exhibitions, film and video programs, site-specific installations, theater performances and publicationsall of which explore the diversity of art, and reflect the transcultural nature of contemporary American society.

The LORING PLAYHOUSE THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal agent for EYE OF THE STORM, received a grant of $10,000 in support of the production of new works by emerging playwrights in the 1996 season. The first work, Hate Mail, was created by playwrights Kira Obolensky and Bill Corbett. The second will be selected for production in the fall. Funding was authorized for this adventurous theater companys growing interest in playwrights.

FilmNorth (formerly Independent Feature Project/North), Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $5,000 in support of artists services. The organizations mission is to promote and encourage quality independent video and filmmaking, and to develop public appreciation for the art form. The Jerome Foundations commitment to offering production grants to emerging film and video artists in Minnesota is aided by the presence of strong service organizations such as IFP/North.

Lisa Fisher, Minneapolis, MN, $5,000. For the production of "Slash, Burn & Poison", a video documentary about breast cancer, which will consist both of personal testimonies and of political debate over various environmental and medical issues.

Arts administrator KATHLEEN FORAN, who has been working at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, has designed a two-part travel trip which will assist her in learning more about the what and how of puppet companies. She will visit Bread & Puppet Theatre in Clover, Vermont, to experience their annual Domestic Resurrection Circus, and visit New York City to see the International Festival of Puppet Theatre produced by the Jim Henson Foundation.

FRANKLIN FURNACE, New York City, received $32,000 for the Fund for Performance Art and the Performance and Installation Program. The Furnaces primary programs have been an archive of artists books, a performance series for emerging artists, and exhibitions of historical and contemporary artists books and other time-based ephemeral art. For nearly 20 years, the Furnace has presented exhibitions and performances which have given many emerging artists their first New York exposure. The Fund for Performance Art places small grants of approximately $2,000 in the hands of emerging performance artists so that they can develop and present new work. A rotating member selection panel is convened annually to review Fund applications and determine those which receive funding.

FRANKLIN FURNACE, New York City, received $32,000 for the Fund for Performance Art and the Performance and Installation Program. The Furnaces primary programs have been an archive of artists books, a performance series for emerging artists, and exhibitions of historical and contemporary artists books and other time-based ephemeral art. For nearly 20 years, the Furnace has presented exhibitions and performances which have given many emerging artists their first New York exposure. The Fund for Performance Art places small grants of approximately $2,000 in the hands of emerging performance artists so that they can develop and present new work. A rotating member selection panel is convened annually to review Fund applications and determine those which receive funding.

Support was awarded to dancer KATSUSHI FUKASAWA to experience traditional Bharatanatyam dance in its place of origin. Fukasawa, for the past two years has been performing with Ragamala Music and Dance Theater, and will travel to India to study with noted teachers and to observe performance.

GRAYWOLF PRESS, St. Paul, Minnesota, received one-year subsidy of $20,000 to support the participation of emerging writers in its 1996-97 publishing program. For more than 21 years, Graywolf Press has been publishing creative literature by contemporary writers. It will publish a total of 16 titles this year, a good portion of which will feature emerging authors. Jerome support will underwrite three titles by Jan Zita Grover, Charles Baxter, Martha Bergland; and an anthology featuring several emerging authors under the title Tolstoys Dictaphone: Technology and the Muse, which addresses the creative individuals role in a society increasingly interconnected by mass technological innovation.