Past
Grantees

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.

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.