Past
Grantees

FilmNorth (formerly Independent Filmmaker Project Minnesota), Saint Paul, Minnesota, received $35,000 in support of the 2015 season of MNTV, a series of three public television shows featuring short films made within the last 18 months by Minnesota filmmakers. MNTV is a catalyst for film and video artists to produce work and develop professionally. The series nurtures creativity, allows creative risks, advances difficult issues and represents non-mainstream points of view. MNTV’s eclectic compilations regularly showcase innovative and provocative work. All three one-hour shows are broadcast on Twin Cities Public Television (TPT), as well as public television stations in Duluth, Appleton, Rochester, the Bemidji/Brainerd area, and Fargo/Moorhead. IFP Minnesota’s mission is to advance a vibrant and diverse community of independent film and media artists through networking, education, funding, and opportunities for showcasing their work.  IFP Minnesota envisions a world where expression through images is encouraged and valued.

BROOKLYN ARTS EXCHANGE (BAX), Brooklyn, New York, as fiscal sponsor for MARJANI FORTE, New York City, received $9,900 in support of the production and touring of being Here…/this time, the final act of a three-year dance work, being Here: a trilogy of works, examining the intersections of mental illness, addiction, and systemic poverty. This work highlights the collection of systems, legislation, and institutions that have historically worked for disenfranchised peoples. Forte will combine imaginative sci-fi narratives with history, scientific research, and dynamic play with multimedia. BAX encourages artists’ risk-taking and stimulates dialogue among diverse constituencies by providing year-round performance, rehearsal, and educational programs that develop artists of all ages.

FRANCONIA SCULPTURE PARK, Shafer, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $78,000 in support of the Emerging Artist Fellowship Program. Franconia operates a 43-acre sculpture park, an active artist residency program, and community arts programming. Its mission is to provide physically and intellectually wide-open spaces where all are inspired to participate in the creative process. The FSP/Jerome Fellowships provide opportunities for emerging artists and/or emerging artist teams to create large-scale three-dimensional artwork to be exhibited at Franconia, develop technical and artistic skills, acquire experience in artistic practice, and participate in public engagement programs. Emerging artists in New York City and Minnesota are eligible for this residency program.

JA’TOVIA M. GARY received support for The Evidence of Things Not Seen, a 90-minute personal documentary that chronicles her journey to self-actualization through an intimate look into her closest relationships, exploring the reverberating effects of generational trauma.  This non-traditional confessional reveals her efforts to combat the stigma and shame associated with mental anguish and abuse, particularly within the African American community, showing her determination to redefine herself under tenuous circumstances. From tense meetings with former lovers and estranged siblings to intimate and revealing therapy sessions, she shares the healthy and not so healthy ways in which she attempts to cope. Photos, home video, archival footage, animation sequences, and reenactments will create a collage of memory, nostalgia, and identity that aims to draw connections between the woman Ja’Tovia is today and the most dramatic and harrowing experiences of her ancestors. 

GORMAN-CARTER, MALIYA, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Estampés, France, to study the art of clown with master teacher Philippe Gaulier in Estampés, France. Through this workshop, Gorman-Carter hopes to learn how to let go of technique in favor of focusing on presence. She is eager to discover and strengthen what is unique to her as a performance artist and will prepare her for eventually joining or creating a performance troupe that uses movement and clown to tell stories, express magic and connect with the hearts of audiences.

RASHAAD ERNESTO GREEN received support for Big Man, a feature-length narrative about Nick, an ex-con who spent a lifetime protecting himself from those who caused him harm. Through powerlifting, he has even made his body into a weapon of sorts, a first line of defense. Although Nick appears to be a large and intimidating man, he’s actually attempting to protect the vulnerable child within who has suffered a history of abuse, pain and neglect. Underneath his hard exterior, Nick has a sensitive soul. At first glance, many people don’t identify this quality in him because they’re so quick to judge his harsh exterior. Then Nick meets Nia, a nine-year-old who appears to be a normal child, but years of neglect have hardened her to the point of seeming more like a mature adult. This unlikely pair has suffered similar circumstances, and Nia presents an opportunity for Nick to correct mistakes of the past in order to heal his own inner turmoil. As his powerlifting pursuits collide and intertwine with his personal ones, Nick fights with everything he has to save the bond that he and Nia created together.

HAHN, HEIDI, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Rome, Italy, to heighten her sense of dislocation through the study of Italian architecture, and explore her fascination with the façade of painting. Hahn is intrigued by the way contemporary life is built around the history of Rome, with classical designs refurbished and incorporated into the exteriors of contemporary buildings, perpetuating an endless undoing of placement and time. Hahn is particularly interested in the ruins that intersect the city. She sees this trip as a transcendental mediation on light and space and will incorporate ideas of the compression of time into future paintings.

HAM, CHRISTINA, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Dublin and Galway, Ireland, to research the connections between the Irish Renaissance and the Harlem Renaissance in drama. This trip will benefit Ham’s work by informing the creation of a new play called Niagara that she plans on writing based on the information that she uncovers in Ireland. It will also help her in terms of establishing a new collaborative alliance with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.

RUSSELL HARBAUGH received support for a 100-minute narrative called LOVE AFTER LOVE, a sad, funny, romantic account of a mother and two grown sons as they struggle in the wake of a father’s death. After 4 years of development, the project began shooting in July with actors Chris O'Dowd and Andie MacDowell in the lead roles. Glenn and Suzanne are theater professors at a Midwestern University. They enjoy a playful, tempestuous marriage surrounded by students and family. Their two sons, Nicholas and Chris, have grown up and left the nest, making homes in New York City.  Nick is a successful book editor involved in a long-standing relationship with a colleague, Rebecca, whom the whole family loves, while Chris waits tables, trying to find an outlet for his vague, center-less creativity. When Glenn becomes ill with cancer, the family waits out his last summer days together: caring for his dying body that lies in the living room. Unable and ill-equipped to attend to their mounting emotional needs after Glen's death the family implodes, finding release in alternatively abhorrent and comic ways.

HARLEM STAGE/ AARON DAVIS HALL, New York City, received a two-year grant of $50,000 in support of the Fund for New Work, a program that supports artists in the creation, development and presentation of new work through commissions. Harlem Stage is a performing arts center that celebrates and perpetuates the unique and diverse legacy of Harlem and the indelible impression it has made on American culture. It provides opportunity, commissioning and support to artists of color, and makes performances easily accessible to all audiences, including children to whom it introduces the rich diversity, excitement and inspiration of the performing arts.

HART, HEATHER, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa, to explore architectural forms as they relate to liminal space and the body in “colored” communities, specifically biracial people and families. As a biracial woman, she navigates and unpacks liminal spaces as metaphors for identity and humanity. Hart is interested in how architectural forms relate to participation, particularly in the context of racially divided places. Her interdisciplinary practice fuses fabricated and historical belief systems and legends bequeathed through generations mixed with invention and intuition. She makes oracles in the form of porches, stoops, and rooftops and sees this travel as an opportunity to find forms, people, and stories for her work.

HENLY, ANNE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Prague, The Czech Republic, to experience the largest worldwide theatre design festival, the Prague Quadrennial, and attend a traditional Czech marionette carving workshop to expand her knowledge and skills in order to explore her own scenic design and puppetry work in Minnesota. Henly strongly feels that attending the Prague Quadrennial and the Puppets in Prague marionette carving workshop will undeniably inspire her future personal and collaborative work as a theatre maker and an artist.

HENRY STREET SETTLEMENT/ABRONS ART CENTER, New York City, received $21,000 in support of the commissioning and production of new works by three choreographers, who will receive commissioning fees for the development of new works and up to 400 hours of free rehearsal workspace at the Abrons. Abrons provides a work-in-progress showing during development and fully produces the work upon completion. Commissioned choreographers also receive marketing, administrative, and technical support. This initiative is an extension of Abrons Artists’ Workspace Program. The Abrons Arts Center’s mission is to bring innovative artistic excellence to Manhattan’s Lower East Side through diverse, cutting-edge performances; exhibitions/artist residencies; classes and workshops for all ages, including pre-professional training for youth; and arts-in-education programming at public schools.

HERE ARTS CENTER, New York City, received a two-year grant of $44,000 in support of the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP). From its home in Lower Manhattan, HERE builds a community that nurtures career artists as they create innovative hybrid live performance in theatre, dance, music, puppetry, media, and visual art. For more than 20 years, HERE has come to occupy a unique and essential place in the landscape of downtown theatre, and to be known as a destination for audiences who are passionate about groundbreaking contemporary work and the creative process behind it. HERE’s signature program, the HERE Artist Residency Program, supports the singular vision of a diverse roster of Resident Artists through commissions, long-term development, and a quality production, all of which strengthen their careers for the long-term.

MINNESOTA COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $5,000 in support of a research project on Hill Family Philanthropy. The Minnesota Council on Foundations, with over 170 grantmaker members, seeks to expand and strengthen a vibrant community of diverse grantmakers who individually and collectively advance the common good.

SPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS, St. Paul, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for composer JOE HORTON, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $12,000 in support of the development and production of A Hill in Natchez, a multi-disciplinary postmodern, surrealist re-telling of an American slave narrative through music, movement, and performance. Horton’s impetus for this work was a family visit in which his father shared with him a bill of sale listing livestock, farm equipment, and new slaves, including his newborn great, great grandmother. Horton is best known for his work with experimental hip-hop band No Bird Sing. He is a professor of Songwriting and Composition at McNally Smith College of Music. Springboard for the Arts is an economic and community development organization for artists and by artists. Its work is about building stronger communities, neighborhoods, and economies.

INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $140,000 in support of the 2016 and 2017 Beyond the Pure Fellowships for Writers and VERVE Grants for Spoken Word Poets. The mission of Intermedia Arts is to be a catalyst that builds understanding among people through art. Beyond the Pure Fellowships make it possible for emerging writers to study with master teachers, work with mentors, travel for professional opportunities, bring work to publication, and keep writing. VERVE grants enable emerging spoken word poets to create new work, make CDs, tour their work, expand the range of performance opportunities, and work with established spoken word mentors.

HANNAH JAYANTI received support for an 85-minute documentary entitled Truth or Consequences. In 1950, the residents of a southern New Mexico town, then called Hot Springs, voted to rename themselves after the most popular radio show of the time—Truth or Consequences. In return, the show’s charismatic host would visit once a year, bringing his celebrity friends to the newly burgeoning resort town. Fame and prosperity would inevitably follow, or so they hoped. For a short while the boom seemed imminent, but soon everything returned to how it was before—a small economically depressed desert town. Sixty years later, the same optimism and frustration is playing out as the world’s first commercial Spaceport is being built 20 miles outside of town. Just as the town’s residents are attracted to the remoteness of the desert, so is Spaceport America. Run by the government of New Mexico, one of the poorest states in the country, and funded with tax payer dollars, the spaceport’s landing strip is rented out to private Space Tourism companies such as Virgin Galactic and Space X. Through an intimate combination of observational and impressionistic filmmaking, this documentary will paint a portrait of a small town in flux by focusing on the daily lives of its residents. Intertwined with traditional documentary footage will be experimental photogrammetric animations of the landscape and the spaceport. Referencing sci-fi tropes of an impenetrable force affecting the status quo (think Solaris, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Contact), the animations will dramatize the desert landscape and represent the perceptions that the residents have of the spaceport, both fears of unknown progress and the hope that an outside influence could save the town.

THE JAZZ GALLERY, New York City, received $25,000 in support of the 2015-16 Jazz Gallery Residency Commissions, which support emerging jazz composers. During the 2015-16 year of the program, The Jazz Gallery plans to celebrate guitarists, with each of the selected artists approaching the guitar in a radically different way, challenging traditional notions of jazz, crafting their own methods of musical notation, engaging in creative methods of improvisation, and blurring lines of genre and culture in their music. The Jazz Gallery nurtures a young generation of professional jazz musicians, giving them a performance venue with audiences. The Gallery also encourages established musicians to present new projects and collaborate with emerging artists.

JAMES N. KIENITZ WILKINS received support for Mediums, a 45-minute narrative short centered around the jury selection process known as “voir dire.” This process is when a pool of prospective jurors are questioned about their backgrounds and biases before being chosen. In ideal form, it could be described as a trial before the trial to select those who best represent society. The setting of Mediums is the exterior of an upstate New York courthouse, where participants smoke and drink coffee before, during, and after a day of jury selection. While on break, they naturally form groups and alliances and learn from each other. This trade of information and the small dramas of a single day is the focus of the film. As an experimental narrative, Mediums takes literally the definition of voir dire (“to say what is true”), by collaging original dialogue with texts collected from the internet and found in the world, including jury selection pamphlets, automotive manuals, union constitutions, fast food franchise contracts, health insurance primers, blog posts and more. Bits and pieces from these sources are woven into the fictional dialogue as informal quotations (to be acknowledged in the end credits). As such, each juror-character is a sort of “medium” of specific, real-world knowledge. They each possess a unique expertise as well as a problem to be solved. As the day progresses, they trade tips and insight, finding common ground in a show of civic participation extending well beyond—and literally external to—the legal requirement of jury duty.