Past
Grantees

RITA MUSTAPHI, a choreographer, dancer and teacher, received a grant to travel for eight weeks in India to study the frontiers of Kathak innovations; collaborate with a choreographer; perform; create music with composers; and visit and research sculptures, classrooms and artists.

Musician and puppeteer AARON NAUTH received a grant to travel to Belize, Central America, to study extensively Afro-Creole drumming and drum making with Emmeth Young in the small village of Gales Point Manatee.

The Jerome Directors authorized $15,000 to the New Music-Theater Ensemble, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the 1995 Composer-Librettist Studio in the Twin Cities. The Ensemble is a developmental entity as well a producer. Its mission is to explore the dynamics of individual and communal integrity through the creation, development and production of new operas and other forms of music-theater. The Composer-Librettist Studio is an intensive two-week program designed to provide opportunities for writers, composers and performers to explore the basic elements of music-theater in a collaborative atmosphere free from the performance pressures usually associated with the commercial music-theater and opera fields.

A grant of $7,500 was made to New Dramatists, New York City, to support its Composer/Librettist Studio, which offers playwrights an introduction to musical theater and an educational and experimental venue to collaborate with composers. The Studio is a collaborative effort with the New Music-Theatre Ensemble.

The New Museum, New York City, received a two-year grant of $30,000 authorized for the participation of emerging American artists in the 1995-96 and the 1996-97 exhibition seasons. Committed to an investigation of what art is and how it relates to society, The New Museum provides a forum for diverse viewpoints addressing a broad, inquisitive public. Jerome funding is directed to the On View series, small group exhibitions and solo installations, featuring the work of emerging artists.

A two-year grant totaling $32,000 was authorized for New Rivers Press to continue the Foundation's support for the Minnesota Voices Project and a new marketing and sales initiative. The Jerome Foundation has supported the Minnesota Voices Project since 1980. This is a competition for emerging writers from Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Six books are produced each year. To date, 71 books have been issued by New Rivers as part of the Minnesota Voices Project.

Dance Theater Workshop, New York City, an internationally recognized producer of new work, received support for its 1995 Out-of-Towners series, designed to introduce talented visionary choreographers from outside of New York City to the dance capital of the world. Now in its seventeenth year, the Out-of-Towners series has sponsored more than 80 artists from the United States and abroad. The 1995-96 series will open with a three-week program presenting Minnesota-based choreographers Joe Chvala and the Flying Foot Forum, Chris Aiken and Body Logic, and Shawn McConneloug and her Orchestra. Jerome Foundation authorized a grant of $25,000 for this program.

An award of $65,000 over two years was made to Dance Theater Workshop, New York City, in support of First Light commissions in dance and theater, accompanied by adequate video documentation of the new works produced. In this era of declining support for individual artists and their creation of new works, the First Light commissioning program takes on added significance. It offers awards ranging from $500 to $2,500 to innovative artists in dance and theater, helping them offset the cost of creating new work for their DTW concerts. The Jerome Foundation has supported First Light commissions at Dance Theater Workshop since 1980.

The New York Mills Arts Retreat, New York Mills, Minnesota, received a grant of $12,000 to continue its emerging artist residency program. Located 180 miles northwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the Arts Retreat is a place for artists to concentrate on their work while sharing their creative energies with the New York Mills community. Studio space and living quarters are provided, as well as a Cultural Center where artists may give workshops, teach classes and exhibit and perform their work. The Center makes every attempt to enhance rural life by presenting the people of the region with art and cultural experiences which are not only of the highest quality but which speak specifically to the rich, complex, modern rural experience.

Lorraine Norrgard, Cloquet, MN, $3,500 (Production).Whose Name They Gave Me. A narrative videotape based on the true story of a contemporary Native American woman who in her first year in medical school confronts the conflict between traditional ways and her medical school requirements.

The Northern Clay Center, St. Paul, Minnesota, received $20,000 in support of 1996 Ceramic Artists Project Grants. The Center promotes excellence in the work of clay artists, provides educational opportunities for artists in the community and encourages public appreciation and understanding of the ceramic arts. The Project Grants Program provides small grants intended to advance, artistically and technically, the work of emerging ceramic artists in Minnesota. Projects may include experimenting with new techniques and materials, studying with a mentor, studio rental, time to work in the studio, supplies and so forth.

The Jerome Foundation continued its support of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, New York City, through the authorization of a grant of $13,000 to support individual playwrights' honoraria for the 1995 National Playwrights Conference. A company of actors is assembled each summer to bring playwrights' works to life at the conference. Each play receives four or five days of rehearsal, with playwrights encouraged to rewrite while observing the interaction of actors with scripts. Each play is given two staged readings, followed by a substantive critique.

BILL OLIVER received funding for The Debutantes, which will explore a strand in the complex process of forging a marginal identity, particularly in the contexts of family and regional culture. The film dramatizes the difficult experiences of coming to terms with being gay and being a woman in a culture which values traditional codes of male and female behavior.

Acting as fiscal agent, the Southern Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $8,000 in support of performers fees within the 1995-96 season of Patricks Cabaret. The Cabaret provides a supportive environment to assist artists in their professional growth and development. A priority is placed on serving artists who take risks, try new initiatives and present works-in-progress. The founder, artist Patrick Scully, organizes the annual program of the Cabaret.

Tony Pemberton received support for Youngstown, a narrative film about a young girl coming of age in a rural coal mining town in Ohio, circa 1970. The community is primarily an enclave of Hungarians-early immigrants from the turn of the century and more recent ones who immigrated after the 1956 rebellion. Only through the young girl's odd sense of imagination and humor does she eventually find self-liberation from her disposition within a loveless and cruel family.

The Cornerstone Dramaturgy and Development program is a way for Penumbra Theatre, Minneapolis, Minnesota, to expand its support of African-American artists by encouraging the development of new and emerging playwrights. Program activities encompass commissions to writers, workshops, readings and productions. The Jerome Foundation Directors authorized $18,000 for Cornerstone.

The Jerome Foundation carefully analyzed the present situation of the Penumbra Theatre Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, and authorized a two-part grant of $33,000. Of that total, $18,000 is designated for the Cornerstone program, consisting of activities which support emerging playwrights within the 1995-96 season. Cornerstone began over ten years ago as a national competition for new and emerging African-American playwrights who were striving to present alternatives to the majority view. Within the last five years, Cornerstone has been much more than a competition; it is now the descriptive title for an expanding set of programs and services which Penumbra offers to playwrights. An additional, one-time grant of $15,000 was authorized for debt reduction.

Pepatin (PEPATIÁN) is South Bronx-based arts organization dedicated to creating, presenting and supporting multidisciplinary Latino art. It was founded in 1983 by Pepón Osorio, Merián Soto and Patti Bradshaw as a collaborative seeking to cross transitional boundaries between artistic disciplines. Funds were awarded to support the creation and performance of the new work Familias, which will explore the place and nature of family and urban communities, and the experience of several generations of immigrant families living in the South Bronx.

Lori Phelps, Madison , WI, $2,000 (Encouragement). Big Trouble Up North. A 15-minute experimental video documentary which will use images of nature, minimalist music and repeating voice-overs to examine the environmental threats associated with mining in northern Wisconsin.

The Pick-Up Performance Company, New York City, received $8,000 to support the development of Hard Work, created by Ain Gordon, to be presented in February of 1996. Funds will be directed toward artistic salaries during a six-week rehearsal period. Hard Work chronicles the arc of a relationship between two men, set against the tyranny of New York City real estate.