Past
Grantees

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.

Pillsbury Neighborhood Services in Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $10,000 for the development of new works by emerging playwrights in the 1994-95 season of the Pillsbury House Theatre. As part of the cultural arts and heritage program of Pillsbury Neighborhood Services, the Theatre has for the past three years presented a series of provocative works intended to enlighten, educate and challenge the diverse elements of its community. A $10,000 award was given in general support of the Theatre's ongoing work with emerging creative artists.

Suzan Pitt, Minneapolis, MN, $3,500 (Completion). Joy Street. Finishing funds for a 23-minute 35mm animated film-poem about our spiritual and psychological need for the earths environment, described through the dark adventures of a depressed woman and a cartoon mouse.

Amy Pivar Dances, New York City, received $8,000 in support of choreographic work in the 1995-96 season. Funding will be directed toward the creation of Hey Little Man, a postmodern dance/theater piece that keeps alive the questions raised by the German scientist Wilhelm Reich about how the rise of Nazism was possible in such a civilized society.

Composer RUSSELL PLATT will undertake two months of concentrated composition time at two artists' colonies, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Yaddo, this summer. The residencies will feed into his production plans for the 1995-96 season.

Playwrights Horizons, New York City, received a two-year grant of $33,500 in support of playwright development activities. Founded in 1971, Playwrights Horizons is dedicated to the support and development of new American playwrights, composers and lyricists, and the production of their work. The theater provides writers with skilled and talented collaborators, and the time and freedom to take risks during the development of their works. There are five developmental and production programs which shape the theater's artistic profile.

The Playwrights' Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, has received subsidy from the Jerome Foundation since 1976 to support Jerome Playwright Fellowships and the developmental Laboratory program. A two-year grant of $98,000 will support five annual Jerome Fellows-in-Residence and the Laboratory development of their work. In addition, the Foundation made a two-year grant of $30,000 in support of the Many Voices program, which encompasses a variety of technical assistance, service and stipend activities for playwrights of color. The Center fuels the contemporary theater by providing services that support the development and public appreciation of playwrights and playwriting. It is committed to artistic excellence; diversity of aesthetic, culture, age and gender; playwright leadership in governance; advocacy of playwrights' work; and freedom of expression.

A grant of $9,000 was authorized for the Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of Crepsucule in Powderhorn Park II, conceived and organized by Douglas Ewart, a composer, visual artist and musician who will compose a suite for a 100-piece orchestra comprised of professional and amateur dancers, musicians, poets, martial artists and visual artists.

Red Eye Collaboration, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $32,000 in support of its work with emerging creative artists. This theater specializes in interdisciplinary performance. It is regarded as a creative laboratory, functioning as a producer and developer of experimental art. Collaborations are forged among directors, performers, filmmakers, writers, choreographers, video artists, composers and sculptors.

Jennifer Reeves received support toward Read-Along Storybook, an experimental narrative film that tells the story of a 25 year old woman recovering from a mental disorder spanning ten years, beginning in rural Pennsylvania and concluding in New York City. The film will focus on personal history, diversity, friendships and recovery. The film will attempt to explore a more complex existence of someone living with mental illness.