Past
Grantees

The Jerome Foundation entered into a partnership with ART MATTERS, New York City, to support a pilot program offering four one-month residencies to individual grant recipients of Art Matters and the Jerome Foundation at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France. Jerome's financial contribution is $9,450. The mission of Art Matters is to assist artists who make work intending to break ground aesthetically and socially. A call for applications to current and former individual artist grantees will be issued in late January 2015. An independent selection panel will award the residencies. More information on this opportunity will be posted on the websites of the Camargo Foundation, Art Matters, and the Jerome Foundation. This residency initiative is part of the Jerome@Camargo program.

ASIAN AMERICAN WRITERS’ WORKSHOP, New York City, received $24,000 in support of The Margins Fellowship Program for emerging writers of Asian American descent based in New York City. The Asian American Writers’ Workshop is devoted to the creating, publishing, developing, and disseminating of creative writing by Asian Americans. The Margins is an online magazine dedicated to inventing the Asian American creative culture of tomorrow. Jerome support will subsidize the participation of emerging Asian American writers of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction in The Margins, and also support the authors’ own writing projects. They will receive additional services and opportunities during their fellowships.

BENDECK, GEOFFREY, New York City, will travel to Ecuador to research the life of the late Peace Corps writer Moritz Thomsen. This fabled Peace Corps volunteer spent 30 years of his life, from age 44 to 74, and wrote four memoirs, in the province of Esmeraldas, Ecuador. Bendeck’s research will inform a hybrid memoir/unofficial biography about the jungle, this forgotten Afro-Ecuadorian Province, and the story of a writer and life forgotten. It is about how the life of Moritz paralleled Bendeck’s life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Esmeraldas from 2008 to 2010.

CHRIS BOLAN received support for the feature-length A Secret Love that tells the story of a woman and her partner, Pat Henschel. It is a personal love story of a farm girl from the prairies of Canada, who in her early adult years moved to the heartland of America to play professional baseball. Now in her late 80s, Terry has decided with her partner, Pat, to break a sixty-five year secret by coming out as lesbians to friends and family. Terry was a catcher for the Peoria Redwings in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. Scouted by Phillip K. Wrigley in 1945, she was drafted for the Redwings in 1946, where she played until the end of that decade. Terry and Pat’s life story is about relationships, commitment and family; today it is also a story about aging, healthcare and acceptance of gays and lesbians in the social fabric of our communities. At a time when same sex marriage legislation is being passed or considered across the country, love stories like this humanize stereotypes, and help viewers understand the risks that people take to live their convictions. As filmmaker Chris Bolan puts it, “These women are the heart of America.”

BOULÉ, MICHELLE, New York City, will travel to Gozo, Malta, to attend a BioGeometry Foundation Training course as part of her research on spatial design, patterns, sacred geometry, and radiasthesia. Boulé will integrate this research into a new work that responds choreographically to many element of this science, such as the relationship between shape and energy and the hidden ways in which nature creates and distributes energy through shape, color, sound, and motion.

The BRONX MUSEUM OF THE ARTS, Bronx, New York, received a two-year grant of $38,000 in support of the Artist in the Marketplace program. The Bronx Museum is a contemporary art museum that connects diverse audiences to the urban experience through its permanent collection, special exhibitions, and education programs. Reflecting the borough's dynamic communities, the Museum is the crossroad where artists, local residents, and national and international visitors meet. The Artist in the Marketplace program (AIM) provides professional development opportunities to emerging artists residing in the New York metropolitan area. The program consists of a thirteen-week seminar that addresses practical concerns, and cultivates networking opportunities for emerging artists. Every two years, AIM introduces the work of the 72 artists who have participated in the program to a greater audience via exhibition and catalogue.

BROOKLYN ARTS EXCHANGE (BAX), Brooklyn, New york, received $15,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists in the 2014-15 Artists in Residence Program. BAX provides a nurturing, year-round performance, rehearsal, and educational venue in Brooklyn that encourages artistic risk-taking and stimulates dialogue among diverse constituencies. For more than 20 years, BAX has been developing and supporting dance, theater, and performance artists through an array of programs and services. The Artists in Residence Program is tailored to each artist’s unique needs, process, and artistic practice. Artists receive free hours of rehearsal space, an annual stipend, priority for utilizing the studios, consultations, group meetings, and performances. Jerome support is focused on the participation of emerging creative artists based in New York City.

MICHELLE BROST, Minneapolis, received support for Animal, an animated five-minute work that will be an experiment in form in which Brost will create animal characters with distinctly human-like qualities. The work will be based on the concept that animals are not soulless wards of the human race. Brost will reflect upon many ideas, which will be centralized around the basic question of what is an animal? This question will be explored within the context of primal human instincts that Brost believes people have been conditioned away from in their pursuit of perfection. She also feels the proclivity of humans toward a kind of "godliness" elevates them above other animal forms and perpetuates a false superiority. Animal will be a very intuitive, freeform exercise in visuals and sound composed of random images and ideas that will interrogate the connection between humans and animals.

THE CAMERA CLUB OF NEW YORK, New York City, received $16,000 in support of solo exhibitions featuring the work of emerging artists participating in the Darkroom Residency Program. The Club is a photography gallery, forum, and learning center dedicated to nurturing a diverse community of photographers, from documentary and photojournalism to studio portraiture and fine art, and fans of photography. Four emerging, New York City-based photographers participate in the Darkroom Residency Program each year, selected through a competitive open call. The program offers workspace and access to the Camera Club of New York's professional community and programs. Jerome Foundation support is directed to solo exhibitions, self-curated by the artists in the program, at the conclusion of their residencies.

THE FIELD, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for Camille A. Brown & Dancers, received $10,000 in support of the creation, development, and production of Black Girl. Founded by artists for artists, The Field provides strategic services to thousands of performing artists and companies by fostering creative exploration, stewarding innovative management strategies, and helping artists reach their fullest potential. Camille A. Brown & Dancers presents authentic performances that embody a strong sense of storytelling, theatricality, and the aesthetics of modern, hiphop, African, ballet, and tap to tell stories that connect history with contemporary culture, on a journey for meaning, understanding, and relevancy. The new multimedia work Black Girl depicts the complexities of carving out a positive identity as a Black female in urban American culture, representing the full spectrum of the Black female and how they negotiate themselves in a racially and politically charged world.

LUIGI CAMPI, for My First Kiss and the People Involved, a feature-length narrative coming of age story, told entirely from the perspective of Sam, a girl living with autism. The movie follows a mystery plot, and it is designed to give a sense of how it feels to have autism, and the unique way in which Sam sees the world.  On the edge of a small town, a house is home to a group of people with autism. Sam, a resident, is an isolated girl with a mind of her own. Courted by fellow resident, Junior, Sam welcomes the guidance of Lydia, a caretaker at the home. But one night, before the party where Sam is supposed to kiss Junior, Lydia disappears.  Sam is left alone to confront the confusion of her blooming love life. So she sets out to find her vanished friend.  Soon, ominous clues come to life, and point to a secret story of violence and passion. Determined to find out what happened, Sam will have to be stronger than ever to keep her mind from spinning out of control.

JONAS CARPIGNANO received support for Mediterranea, a feature-length narrative. After leaving his native Burkina Faso, Ayiva, the film’s central character, makes the perilous journey across the Sahara and Mediterranean in search of a better life in Europe. But the realities he encounters are not what he dreamed of. Once in Italy, he must balance his desire to provide for his family in Africa with the intolerance and harsh working conditions he finds in his newly claimed home. This very timely film looks at the increasingly divisive issue of refugee immigration to Italy through a distinctly humanitarian lens.

CARRINGTON, BLAKE, New York City, will travel to Japan: Tokyo, Gifu, Kyoto, Nara, Awa and Yamaguchi to research the creative possibilities of cutting-edge video/media arts in Japan and so-called “traditional” forms of technology: sumi-e (ink painting) and washi (Japanese handmade paper). Combining old and new technology – digital and analog – Carrington will explore new techniques for his work.

THE FIELD, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for Yanira Castro’s dance company a canary torsi, received $9,000 in support of the creation and production of Court/Garden. Founded by artists for artists, The Field provides strategic services to thousands of performing artists and companies in New York City and beyond. It fosters creative exploration, stewards innovative management strategies, and helps artists reach their fullest potential. a canary torsi creates site-adaptable, installation-based performance projects. Founded in 2009 by choreographer Yanira Castro, it invites audiences to participate in work that is anchored in live performance and extends into other media and online platforms. Court/Garden is a spectacle in three acts with live music and live video feeds. It takes its inspiration from participatory spectacles of the French Court, the spectatorship of the proscenium stage, and the presentation of live video feeds as cultural, social, political frames of experience.  

CAVE CANEM FOUNDATION, New York City, received $20,000 in support of the participation of emerging poets in two New York City-based workshops. Founded in 1996, Cave Canem is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets. Two multiple-session workshops serving emerging poets based in New York City will be offered during fall 2014 and spring 2015. The fall workshop targets African American poets, and the spring workshop poets of color and Arab American poets. Workshops often involve close readings of the participants’ poems, outside readings, experimentation, new strategies, and an examination of language and poetics.

THE CEDAR CULTURAL CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $64,000 in support of 416 Club Commissions for emerging Minnesota composers. This performing arts venue organizes and hosts over 200 events each year, including music and dance performances, lectures, workshops, and benefits. Its mission is to promote inter-cultural appreciation and understanding through the presentation of global music and dance. Through an open call and competitive review, the Cedar will commission six emerging Minnesota artists to compose and perform new music. The commissioned works will debut in public performances at the Cedar. The commissions are intended to support ideas, collaborations, and/or bodies of work that would not have otherwise have been explored.

THE CENTER FOR FICTION, New York City, received a two-year grant of $85,000 in support of the New York City Emerging Writers Fellowship Program. The Center For Fiction is dedicated to celebrating fiction, working to connect readers and writers. It provides workspace, grants, and classes to support emerging writers, reading groups on classic and contemporary authors, and programs to encourage youth to read. The Center recognizes achievement in the world of fiction through annual awards, and operates one of the few independent fiction book shops in the country as well as a renowned circulating library collection. In 2015, nine writers will be selected from applications submitted in response to an open call by an independent panel. The one year fellowship includes a stipend, an optional mentorship with an editor, meetings with agents, membership  in the Center, free admission to Center events, discounts on tuition for select writing workshops, and two public readings at the Center. Funding is restricted to emerging artists based within the five boroughs of New York City.

CHANDLER, TODD, New York City, will gather research for his next feature film while traveling from Boston to Los Angeles and back on a Greyhound bus. Over the course of the 12-day journey Chandler will shoot video and photo documentation, conduct interviews at bus stations and rest stops, and scout locations for his new film, The Scenic Route. 

CHE, CATHY LINH, New York City, will retrace her mother’s journey from her birthplace in Vietnam (a village outside of Da Nang) to the site where she left Vietnam as a boat person, the refugee camp where she lived for 11 months while waiting to come to the United States, and the site in Manila where her mother played an extra in Apocalypse Now. She will conduct interviews with first-hand witnesses of the war including family members, friends, and others, contacted through The William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences. She wants to gain a full and more textured understanding of the war through multiple perspectives to feed a manuscript of poems reflecting on her parents’ experiences of the war and its aftermath. 

CHEZ BUSHWICK, Brooklyn, New York, received $15,700 in support of the creation and production of a new work, A Museum of Nothing, by Jonah Bokaer and a collaborative creation residency at the Camargo Foundation for Bokaer through the Jerome@Camargo program. Chez Bushwick fosters the development, research, and presentation of new performance works across disciplines through rehearsal and performance subsidies, arts advocacy, education, outreach, and community development. Within its umbrella, it sustains the multidisciplinary work of Jonah Bokaer, which includes choreography, media art, video, sculpture, and installation-based practices. A Museum of Nothing is a movement-based multidisciplinary production with text by Antoine Dufeu. The piece begins as a solo and progresses into a production for four performers, combining social sculpture with new media. A residency for Bokaer at the Camargo Foundation will enable him to work on the creation of choreography, integrate scenic elements, and seed the creation of a multi-dimensional design in collaboration with author Dufeu.