Past
Grantees

Dawn Renee Jones, Minneapolis, MN, $5,000 (Production). Shiny Stockings. A 56-minute documentary videotape about the Dyerettes, six African-American female tap-dancers who performed on US and Canadian stages in the late 40s, 50s and early 60s.

Playwright and business consultant SYL JONES will spend approximately 12 days in Seattle, Chicago, Pittsburgh and West Virginia. Jones has been commissioned to write a play about the formation the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. He will interview African-American Pullman car porters in the four areas.

Artist and educator GITA KAR received subsidy to spend five weeks in India to broaden the conceptual and creative scope of her work in traditional impermanent art through advanced study and work with master artists in the Mithila tradition and Sanskrit literary scholars. In addition to studying the art form, she wishes to develop further the relationship of mythology and philosophy to her own art work, which is an expression of her cultural identity.

John R. Killacky, Minneapolis, MN, $5,000 (Production). Stolen Shadows. A 10-minute stark black & white film lamentation on the ever accumulating loses from the AIDS pandemic, to be made in collaboration with Venus de Mars.

Filmmaker BARRY KIMM received support to spend two months in the Philippine Islands and Japan to study two innovative land rights programs that are preserving endangered environments and traditional customs within a Filipino rainforest tribe and several rural Japanese villages. Kimm visually explores the unique relationships people have with the landscape that surrounds them. He wishes to examine this interest in other countries, focusing first on the Batak tribe in the remote region of Palawan, Philippines. The tribe, through a brokered agreement with the government, will return to their ancestral homeland and manage their forest for a renewable 25-year term. Kimm is interested in the tribal traditions of the Batak; specifically, how their ceremonies and everyday activities are inspired by the religious belief that nature is sacred. In Japan, he will study at the Machizukuri Center, which promotes the preservation of traditional art forms and architecture in the city of Nara and in villages throughout the country.

LEWIS KLAHR received production support for a group of experimental film animations that set cutout animation to music. Klahr will follow the uncensored lead of his intuitions and deepest emotional attractions to create an arc of musicals that stretches from the early 1940s through the 1970san idiosyncratic history bracketed by World War II and Vietnam.

Executive Director of the Minnesota Dance Alliance, KIM KONIKOW will travel for two months in Australia and New Zealand for personal exploration and growth to support her professional work in the future.

Karen Kysar, Minneapolis, MN, $3,000 (Production). untitled. A multi-media installation, to travel to Jr. Highs and High Schools, which will investigate the responses evoked in women by the mass-mediated female image.

The Schubert Club of St. Paul, Minnesota, acted as sponsor for a project involving Minnesota composer Elizabeth Larsen. Jerome funding of $15,000 was authorized for Larsen, as an established mid-career artist, to produce a recording solely dedicated to her work. This undertaking is sponsored by Koch International Classics through a recording arrangement with the London Symphony and the Abbey Road Recording Studio. It is a rare opportunity to be offered a full recording of orchestral music with one of the world's leading orchestras. The Foundation makes only one to three such grants per year for mid-career established artists to take advantage of exceptional opportunities.

Kathleen Laughlin, Minneapolis, MN, $5,000 (Completion). Women on Fire. For the completion of a feature-length personal film-essay on menopause, which integrates interviews, home movies, animation and narrative vignettes. Laughlin received $10,000 in 1992 from FITC to begin this project.

Gemma Lockhart/Lydia Whirlwind Soldier, Rapid City, SD, $5,000 (Completion). Unci Maka Sina Kiye. For the completion of a 58-minute video documentary which records the experience of the Sioux people from Lake Traverse Reservation as they bring home the remains of 31 ancestors from the archives of the Smithsonian.

The Loft, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received two grants. The first was a two-year award of $26,000 to continue Jerome subsidy of the Creative Nonfiction program, now in its tenth year. Six nonfiction writers, selected competitively, have an opportunity to work closely with an established artist-in-residence to further develop their work. The second grant, a two-year award of $114,000, continues a pilot undertaken by The Loft and the Jerome Foundation in 1994. This program, titled the Minnesota Writers Career Initiative, is designed to served advanced Minnesota writers who have achieved significant recognition on a local or regional level, and who have the potential to expand significantly their recognition outside the five-state region. The purpose is to utilize and leverage artistic potential to bring the writers to a new level in career development.

The Loft, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received two grants. The first was a two-year award of $26,000 to continue Jerome subsidy of the Creative Nonfiction program, now in its tenth year. Six nonfiction writers, selected competitively, have an opportunity to work closely with an established artist-in-residence to further develop their work. The second grant, a two-year award of $114,000, continues a pilot undertaken by The Loft and the Jerome Foundation in 1994. This program, titled the Minnesota Writers Career Initiative, is designed to served advanced Minnesota writers who have achieved significant recognition on a local or regional level, and who have the potential to expand significantly their recognition outside the five-state region. The purpose is to utilize and leverage artistic potential to bring the writers to a new level in career development.

The Loft, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $30,400 to continue the Mentor Series program in 1996 and to underwrite the expenses of program evaluation. The Loft is a nationally recognized, community-based literary center which has an all-encompassing commitment to literary artists. The Mentor Series provides emerging regional writers with advanced criticism and professional development opportunities by bringing nationally known writers to the Twin Cities for residencies. The selection of participants is quite competitive. Visiting mentors tailor their workshops and consultations to the needs of eight writers each year. The monies awarded for program evaluation allow The Loft and the Jerome Foundation to step back and ask what emerging Minnesota writers need most to develop their work and careers.

A grant of $2,000 was awarded to the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York City, to assist with the expenses of convening a small conference of individuals, in Chicago in September of 1995, to examine the current crisis in funding for individual artists, and to develop strategies and plans for the future. Although this event was initiated by the Artists' Projects Regional Initiatives National Partnership Program, the actual gathering will have an expanded agenda addressing all instances in which funding for individual artists has been called into question, and how that trend might be reversed.

The noted experimental theater ensemble Mabou Mines operates a program titled Suite, which represents the collective philosophy that if young artists are to grow and develop their uniqueness, they require the support and patience of more established fellow artists. Mabou Mines has developed a number of initiatives over the years to help young artists make their transitions into professional lives. Suite emphasizes intensive development and experimentation, with Suite artists working in tandem with Mabou Mines company members to develop new projects. Jerome subsidy of $15,000 was authorized.

LESLIE SHANK/HEATHER MacLAUGHLIN, musicians, will spend two weeks in Keszthely, Hungary, to study the violin-piano duo repertoire with master teacher Joseph Seiger, at his invitation, at Festetics Castle.

JOHN MAMER, a drama teacher, received a grant to spend three months exploring the life, times and writings of Shakespeare, in England, transporting his personal artistic experiences back to the classroom.

The Margolis Brown Adaptor Company, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $8,000 in support of its 1995-96 season. This is a multi-media movement theater company which is the producing body for the work of artistic directors Tony Brown and Kari Margolis, who joined forces 18 years ago to create works that are provocative and socially relevant, and which push the boundaries of the movement theater art form.

Filmmaker and arts administrator BIENVENIDA MATIAS received support to spend two weeks in Puerto Rico to explore how island and United States-based Puerto Ricans define a Puerto Rican national cultural identity. Part of this discussion centers on how artists and critics define and discuss the difference between high/fine and low/popular arts and culture. The question of a Puerto Rican cultural identity runs deeper than aesthetic debates, for it is informed by race, class, language, politics, religion and geography. Her journey is divided into two parts, the first to coincide with a festival of contemporary Latino performance art titled Rompeforma and the second during the Festival of Santiago, the patron saint of the village of Loiza, which is well known as an Afro-Caribbean community.