Past
Grantees

Writer and editor SUSAN RAFFO will undertake a combination book tour/release and study journey coinciding with the release of an anthology she has edited which examines class and queer issues (Queerly Classed, South End Press, March 1997). Raffo will be visiting individuals, activists, cultural and artistic programs and projects at the same time she is presenting book discussions and readings. She intends to examine how the release of a book can be more than the culmination of its production, achieving a point at which community building will take place.

A grant of $9,000 was authorized for RAGAMALA MUSIC AND DANCE THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of its 1996-97 season, and in particular, the choreography of Ranee Ramaswamy. Ramaswamy, born and trained in India, moved to the United States in 1978. She founded Ragamala Music and Dance Theatre in 1989 in collaboration with composer/sitarist David Whetstone. Ramaswamys choreography is spawned from the Pandannallur style of Bharatanatyam, the ancient classical dance of South India. This is an extremely structured dance style, with ancient gestures, movements and stories. While retaining strong elements of the traditional style, Ramaswamy adapts the dances to new contexts and themes, adding contemporary movement to the vocabulary.

Artist NANCY RANDALL, received support to undertake a visit to Norway in order to create image about the placearchetypal and timelessand to create a new body of work. Norway offers her a place of pilgrimage.

Sculptor MIKE RATHBUN received subsidy to spend three weeks studying and utilizing wooden boat building techniques at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle, Washington, in order to better understand their sculptural applications in his own work.

REPERTORIO ESPAOL, New York City, received its third grant from the Jerome Foundation in support of the program Voces Nuevas II. Repertorio Espaol, founded in 1968, averages four full productions each year of Spanish language theater. Four years ago, the company initiated a program to develop new plays that represented the many Spanish language cultures in America. Its commitment to playwrights encompasses readings, the commissioning of new plays and the production of new works in the mainstage season. There will be 13 play readings on Monday nights this fall, open to the public, free of charge. A two-year grant of $25,000 was authorized for this program of assistance to playwrights.

ROULETTE INTERMEDIUM, New York City, a grantee of the Jerome Foundation since 1983, received a two-year authorization of $28,000 in general support of its developmental and presentation program for emerging composers. Roulette offers over 50 concerts each year for which it pays fees; commissions new works; provides publicity, production and recording facilities; and initiates recording and distribution programs. Each season includes a wide variety of musical styles mixing new jazz, world music, experimental rock, improvisation, multimedia and interdisciplinary work, and computer music. Young and emerging composers are prominently featured in the season.

Writer and teacher CAROLANN RUSSELL will visit Australia and New Mexico to research Aboriginal-indigenous concepts for a new book of poems, interview Native American poets, talk with musicians and editors about collaborative projects, and study a Zen meditation-writing technique. These will help her develop a multicultural aesthetic context for her work.

The DANSPACE PROJECT, New York City, received, as fiscal agent for SANDS OF TIME, $7,000 to support the development of Spiritual Survival in a War Zone during the 1996-97 performance season. Sands of Time Theatrical Dance Company was founded in 1991 by Kwame A. Ross, who fuses traditional African and African diaspora dance forms and movement concepts within the contemporary performing arts arena. The fusion illustrates parallel cultural experiences, and offers alternative solutions to societal problems.

The JAMES SEWELL BALLET, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $11,000 in support of the development of two new choreographic works in the 1996-97 program, one by James Sewell and the second by an emerging New York City-based ballet choreographer. The mission of the Sewell Ballet is to create and perform an exceptionally diverse and appealing repertoire based in the ballet idiom, in an effort to broaden audience access to dance and to advance the art form itself. The Jerome Foundation had previously supported choreographers workshops at the Sewell Ballet. This new request was designed to test an alternative, but it retained the emphasis on developmental activity undertaken between the skilled dancers of the company and choreographers in residence.

Photographer PAUL SHAMBROOM will make two trips to Washington DC. to study examples of group portraiture and to meet with government officials to arrange access for his photographic series of power in the United States. This extends his earlier exploration of areas of hidden power in three series: Nuclear Weapons, Offices and Factories.

Funding for The Look of Love: A Gothic Romance, was awarded to SUZIE SILVER. The grant supports an experimental video collage of original and appropriated images and sound, exploring the expression and representation of female desire and sexual pleasure. The Look of Love will delve into the horror as well as the magnificence of intense sexual experiences. Foremost among her concerns in developing this piece is how women's sexual ecstasy is represented cinematically. The video work will take shape narratively in a conventional form, in which Silver critically examines a consciously narrative form that is often viewed as the embodiment of male desire. She will develop the visual look of the tape by layering and collaging original and appropriated footage with computer-generated special effects.

NO NAME EXHIBITIONS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a $10,000 grant in support of its exhibition and performance programs, and a one-time grant of $5,000 to improve the exhibition and performance space at the Soap Factory. No Names mission is to support emerging artists, enhance the publics understanding and appreciation of their artistic expressions, and foster strength and vitality within the arts, cultural and education communities.

The Jerome Foundation made a commitment of $8,000 to SOCRATES SCULPTURE PARK, New York City, in support of the participation of emerging artists in the Fall 1996 Outdoor Studio Program. The park is a 4 1/2 acre waterfront site on the East River in Long Island City. It opened its first exhibition in 1986 after a year of cleaning what was an illegal garbage dump. The mission of the Park is to encourage creative interaction among artists, their art and the community. Its existence is based on the belief that reclamation, revitalization and creative expression are essential to the survival, humanity and improvement of the urban environment.

SPACESPACE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received subsidy of $7,500 to continue The Co-Project. SpaceSpace is an artist-run rehearsal and performance space dedicated to low cost accessibility for artists and audiences. Founders Georgia Stephens and Shawn McConneloug developed the Co-Project in order to provide significant subsidy to selected artists seeking to place their work in front of an audience. Artists have control over all aspects of their productions. Funding will underwrite three Co-Projects in the 1996-97 season. The Co-Project underwrites subsidized hours of rehearsal and technical time, six performance dates and use of equipment. A stipend for creation and publicity is also provided.

Directors authorized a one and a half year commitment of $17,000 to STOREFRONT FOR ART & ARCHITECTURE, New York City, in support of exhibition programming which features emerging artists. Storefront provides a forum for artists/architects, and brings to public view critical cross-disciplinary work for which there are few outlets. Programming is based on the premise that the fields of art and design can offer invaluable experience, sensitivity and innovative responses to contemporary issues.

Playwright and actor JIM STOWELL received support to gather material for a new play. Stowell will spend three months living and traveling in Cuba in early 1997.

Writer JOYCE SUTPHEN received support to go into retreat in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, to finish a new manuscript of poems. She will be able to work for one solid week, without interruption, to complete her work on the manuscript, in a location near, in spirit and geography, to the farm in Stearns County where she spent her childhood.

JOAN SWEEN, Executive Director of the Midwest Theatre Network, will spend five days at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Kentucky. She intends to deepen her experience as a dramaturg, and to improve her organization's administration of a biannual new play festival.

SYMPHONY SPACE, New York City, received $8,000 to support the participation of emerging literary artists in the 1996-97 Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story series. The objective of this series is to foster the appreciation of short fiction and the spoken word. There are ten evenings of Selected Shorts during the season, with occasional special events. Actors read short stories to live audiences. The series is broadcast on more than 120 National Public Radio member stations throughout the country, with an estimated audience of 250,000 listeners each week. This constitutes such an exceptional opportunity for emerging authors to be heard that the Jerome Foundation decided to offer subsidy.

Minneapolis College of Art & Design Gallery Director BRIAN SZOTT will continue and expand his research into the dynamic environment of contemporary art in Mexico by visiting Mexico City, Monterrey and Oaxaca. This return trip will build on a ten-day journey to Mexico City in March of 1996