Past
Grantees

PILLSBURY UNITED COMMUNITIES, on behalf of PILLSBURY HOUSE + THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $36,500 in support of the participation of emerging artists based in Minnesota and New York City in the 2014 Late Nite Series. Pillsbury House Theatre was launched in 1992 as a professional arts institution committed to the Settlement House tradition of creating art in collaboration with community. Its mission is to create challenging theatre to inspire choice, change, and connection. Non-English Speaking Spoken Here: The Late Nite Series is a transformation of culture where text, music, spoken word, sounds, and images weave together in a fearless celebration of new voices and new art. The program provides support for artistic exploration by emerging artists. The works are presented in development. Emerging artists from the disciplines of dance, music, poetry, film/video, and theater push the boundaries of their art forms.

PILLSBURY UNITED COMMUNITIES, on behalf of PILLSBURY HOUSE + THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $12,000 in support of the development and production of new works by emerging playwrights for Pillsbury House Theatre’s mainstage programming. The Theatre is a diverse company of artists working in partnership with diverse audiences to create transformational arts experiences. Its mission is to create challenging theatre to inspire choice, change, and connection. Jerome support will contribute to the production of Death Tax by Lucas Hnath; underwrite the 2015 Three Mondays Reading Series, which showcases the work of emerging playwrights; and continue the Theatre’s new play development activities including commissioning, workshops, and dramaturgical support.

PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS, New York City, received a two-year grant of $50,000 in support of the participation of emerging playwrights in the New Works Lab, and full production of new scripts by emerging playwrights. Playwrights Horizons is a writer’s theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new works. The theater distinguished by the caliber of its work and steadfast commitment to the voices of American writers. The primary purpose of the New Works Lab is to provide writers with developmental opportunities, affording them the time and space to collaborate and hear their work read aloud. In permutations ranging from one-day readings to extensive weeklong workshops, each developmental process is structured to meet the needs of the individual playwright and her/his project.

THE POETRY PROJECT, New York City, received $21,000 in support of Emerge-Surface-Be. The Poetry Project presents contemporary poetry to diverse audiences; increases public awareness, recognition, and appreciation for poetry and other arts; provides a community setting in which poets and artists exchange ideas and information; and encourages the participation and development of new poets from a broad range of styles. Initiated in 2013, Emerge-Surface-Be serves three emerging poets, selected by and paired with mentors. Over the course of nine months, the emerging poets are given opportunities to develop their craft and complete writing projects. Emerge-Surface-Be fellows have access to all Poetry Project events, including a reading within the Monday Night Reading Series, posting work on The Poetry Project website, and attending fellows-only gatherings.

POETS HOUSE, New York City, received $28,000 in support of the Emerging Poets Fellowship 3 Program. Poets House, a national poetry library and literary center, seeks to document the wealth and diversity of modern poetry, to stimulate dialogue on issues of poetry in culture, and to cultivate a wider audience for poetry. The Emerging Poets Fellowship Program selects emerging poets with demonstrable talent, accomplishment, and need, to receive writing instruction, one-on-one consultations, mentoring, networking opportunities, career counseling, literary field trips, opportunities to present their work to the public; and more. Twelve workshop sessions constitute the core of the program, supplemented by one-on-one tutorials, guest lectures, field trips, the publication of a chapbook, and a public reading. The program is open to emerging poets living in the five boroughs of New York City.

POETS HOUSE, New York City, received $34,000 in support of its Emerging Poets Fellowship Program. Poets House is a comfortable, accessible place for poetry—a library and meeting place that invites poets and the public to step into the living tradition of poetry. It seeks to document the wealth and diversity of modern poetry, to stimulate dialogue on issues of poetry in culture, and to cultivate a wider audience for poetry. The Emerging Poets Fellowship Program is an opportunity for poets to receive guidance and instruction from a distinguished and diverse faculty and enter the next stage of their professional and artistic practice. The twelve-week program consists of weekly writing workshops, mentoring sessions, meetings with guest speakers, free access to Poet House events and archival resources, an honorarium and travel subsidy, and a final group reading. Poets are selected through an open call and panel review process.

POMEROY, CARRIE, Minnesota, will travel to Bologna, Italy, to do research for a narrative nonfiction book about Charlie Chaplin at the Chaplin Archive in Bologna. Pomeroy is currently working on the fourth draft of a book for young adult readers about the making of Charlie Chaplin’s 1921 silent comedy The Kid. The Chaplin Archive at the Cineteca di Bologna holds the largest collection of Chaplin materials in the world, and, in many cases, is the only place to access key primary sources.

THE QUEENS MUSEUM, Queens, New York, received a two-year grant of $228,000 to launch a new Queens Museum/Jerome Foundation Fellowship Program for emerging artists based in New York City. The Queens Museum is dedicated to presenting the highest quality visual arts and educational programming for people in the New York Metropolitan area and particularly for the residents of Queens. It fulfills its mission by designing and providing art exhibitions, public programs, and educational experiences that promote the appreciation and enjoyment of art, support the creative efforts of artists, and enhance the quality of life through interpreting, collecting, and exhibiting art, architecture, and design. Building upon the Museum’s long and vital history of nurturing emerging artists, this new fellowship program will be part of the Museum’s Artist Services Program, awarding annually to three promising New York City-based emerging artists fellowships of $20,000, and the opportunity to concentrate on the development of their art, participate in professional development opportunities, host studio visits with curators and guest critics, and develop and present their work in an exhibition at the Museum.

RAMASWAMY, ASHWINI, Minnesota, will travel to Chennai, India, to observe the choreographic process of Alarmél Valli, world-renowned practitioner and teacher of the Pandanallur style of Bharatanatyam. Ramaswamy has been studying Bharatanatyam since the age of six and dancing in the Twin Cities for twenty-five years with Ragamala Dance. As an emerging choreographer, she is excited to study with Valli as she strives to form a clear aesthetic that is distinctly her own.

RHIZOME, New York City, received a two-year grant of $40,000 in support of Rhizome Commissions to New York City-based emerging artists for the creation of new works. Rhizome supports contemporary art that creates richer and more critical digital cultures. Each emerging artist will create works that take various forms tied together by their considered illumination of contemporary digital culture. Awards generally range from $1,000 to $5,000. An independent jury reviews submissions filed in response to an open call. As an arts organization based on the Internet, Rhizome re-thinks artistic creation, distribution, and reception in relation to changing conditions associated with network technologies. It functions as an affiliate in residence at the New Museum.

The ROCHESTER ART CENTER, Rochester, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $40,000 in support of the 3rd Floor Emerging Artist Series. The Center, through exhibitions and programs, presents a welcoming, integrated, and diverse experience that encourages questioning, creativity, and critical thinking. The 3rd Floor Emerging Artist Exhibition Series is an ongoing exhibition program dedicated to promising young Minnesota artists. There are four shows each year. The Center selects the emerging artists from applications submitted in response to an open call, utilizing a rotating independent panel. Each exhibition is accompanied by a gallery guide, opening reception, and an artist’s talk on concepts and practices.

JESSE ROESLER, Minneapolis, (previous recipient) received support for The Taste of Place, a feature-length documentary. From Vermont maple syrup to Yukon River salmon, some foods are what they are because of where they’re from. A cinematic odyssey through North America’s most dramatic and diverse landscapes, The Taste of Place explores the symbiotic relationships between humans, plants, animals and the environment as they bring something utterly unique into this world - and why many of these inimitable foods are becoming threatened. Why does honey from the banks of the Apalachicola River have a kick of cinnamon unlike any other? Why is salmon from the Yukon River the richest in the world? Why does one cave in Greensboro, Vermont, produce so many of the world’s most intense cheeses? The answer is terroir, or the taste of place. Originally used by the French to describe the way local conditions such as soil and climate affect the flavor of a wine, terroir has been overlooked (and often mispronounced) by Americans. Not for much longer. For those who have embraced the local and artisan food movement, the concept of this film will showcase the natural landscape and illuminate why place matters to what we eat. It will be a cinematic guide to the "flavor landscapes" of some of our most iconic foods: honey, maple syrup, coffee, oysters, salmon, wild mushrooms, cheese, and chocolate.

DUSTIN M. ROSEMARK, Rochester, (previous recipient) received support for Looking At: Looking Into, a series of six silent, two-minute experimental films on the subject of Mediated Voyeurism, the act of consuming voyeuristic content through means of a third party, most typically through a mass media outlet such as television, radio, newsprint, or the internet. Each of the six films will be a different vignette in the lives of everyday people. None of the stories or characters are related, save for their voyeuristic nature. Each film will be presented inside a Mutoscope, an exhibition device from the earliest days of cinema. Mutoscopes are fundamentally voyeuristic objects and present content differently than a television or movie screen. By presenting stories told in a voyeuristic fashion through Mutoscopes, filmmaker Rosemark hopes to compel the viewer to examine his or her own relationship with Mediated Voyeurism. The overall message of Looking At: Looking Into is a commentary on how the proliferation of voyeurism through contemporary mass media affects our lives.

MARK ELIJAH ROSENBERG received support for Approaching the Unknown, a feature-length drama about Captain William D. Stanaforth, an astronaut on a one-way mission toward the unknown. A month after the first NASA spaceship bound for Mars explodes, Captain Stanaforth is alone aboard a spaceship awaiting his own launch. With the eyes of the world watching, knowing he’ll never again see Earth, but steadfast in his commitment to the mission, Stanaforth launches on a one-way mission to Mars. His only hope for companionship is Captain Emily Maddox, who is on her own Mars-bound solitary journey. Initially, she has no time for camaraderie—but when her ship’s navigation goes haywire and her life hangs in the precarious balance of space, Stanaforth risks his life in a daring remote rescue, saving Maddox and gaining a confidante. He wrestles with isolation and mental anguish, questioning the very purpose of the mission even as he tries to hide the ship’s problems and his own weakening condition. Meanwhile, Maddox loses course without enough fuel to get back to where she needs to be, and drifts off into the abyss. Given this crisis, Stanaforth is faced with what it means to be a hero, or to complete his mission no matter the cost.

ROULETTE INTERMEDIUM, New York City, received a two-year grant of $128,000 in support of programs for emerging composers based in New York City. For over three decades, Roulette Intermedium has presented experimental music and intermedia, most recently in a 400-seat theatre in Brooklyn. Its purpose is to support artists through presenting a substantial and diverse program of concerts, commissioning new work, paying artists a deserving fee, and finding artists and audiences interested in learning about developments in experimental art. Jerome support is directed to two programs, the first a commissioning program that annually provides four New York City-based emerging composers with commissions, fees to cover rehearsal and production, and concerts featuring their new works. The second is a residency program that provides fees and stipends to five emerging composers to develop new work while in residence at Roulette. They receive a substantial number of hours in the space and concerts.

ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSITY, Collegeville, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $50,712 in support of the Emerging Artist in Residence Program within the St. John’s Pottery. For 35 years, the St. John’s Pottery has embodied the Benedictine values of community, hospitality, and self-sufficiency, as well as the University’s commitment to the integration of art and life, the preservation of the environment, the linkage between work and worship, and the celebration of diverse cultures. Four emerging artists from Minnesota and/or New York City will be selected via an open application and competitive review for one-month intensive studio residencies during the summers of 2015 and 2016. They will be given studio spaces, stoneware clay, access to technical assistance, room and board, stipends, and the opportunity to fire their work in the Johanna Kiln. The program offers creative interactions among the participating artists, a dynamic studio environment, and the support and mentoring of Master Potter Richard Bresnahan.

DAVID SAMPLINER, for the feature-length documentary My Own Man. David Sampliner, the maker of this film is 40 years old, but he still doesn’t feel like a man – not a real man anyway. When his wife becomes pregnant with a boy, David’s manhood insecurities deepen. How can he bring his son into manhood if he feels so estranged from his own?  This question sets him off on a quest for his manhood that leads him from voice lessons to a men’s group to deer-hunting, and ultimately back to his own father. My Own Man is an intimate, humorous, and emotional account of one man’s search for what it means to be a man and a father in the 21st century. Through My Own Man the filmmaker hopes to play a role in encouraging the male equivalent of feminist “consciousness raising,” inspiring those who accept the reality of gender equality and see this moment in time as an opportunity for men to discover new ways of relating to themselves, to women, to their sons and daughters, and to themselves.

JUSTIN SCHEIN received support for The Last Go Round, a feature-length documentary about filmmaker Justin Schein’s friendship with aging anti-war Yippie peace activist, Mayer Vishner, whose last political act was to take his own life. Schein began filming with Mayer in order to learn more about the life and beliefs of this man who was struggling to get by, but still clinging to his ideals. When Mayer announced on camera his plan to kill himself, the dynamics of the film radically changed. What began as Shein’s simple curiosity about Mayer’s intellect, and the rebellious, irreverent legacy of his countercultural generation, turned into a dark yet profoundly humorous exploration of what Mayer called “My Existential Project.” Mayer repeatedly told Schein that he was “dying of loneliness,” and Schein believed him. But the only way to truly visualize this was to put up a camera in his house. Schein filmed many days and nights of Mayer alone, drinking, smoking his bong, sleeping, pacing, and watching TV. When Mayer went to his long-time physician to ask for help in carrying out his suicide, Schein was there filming the discussion. When he went to his weekly therapy sessions, Schein was permitted to film. From putting on his adult diapers to being staggering drunk, he allowed Schein to film anything and everything. When he finally told Schein that he planned to take his own life, he assumed Schein would be a partner in that project as well––a role Schein struggled with and questioned. He even wanted Schein to film his death, a line that Schein would not cross. Even so, in the end it was Schein who discovered Mayer’s body. A year after Mayer's death, Schein is left with intense feelings and questions, which he continues to process and explore in the production of this powerful film.

PATRICK’S CABARET, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for choreographer Chris Schlichting, received $10,000 in support of the creation, production, and touring of the new work Stripe Tease. Patrick’s Cabaret supports artists in their growth and development by encouraging artists of all experience levels to try new things, take risks, or present works-in-progress. Schlichting is creating a contemporary dance work that is part experimental music, part cultural critique, part rock opera, part visual art, and part contemporary performance for six dancers. The new work will examine how once pure and unselfconscious acts of consumption and appreciation are now complicated negotiations. It enlists sly twists that alter expectations and understanding of the familiar and the everyday.

AARON SCHOCK received support for La Laguna, a feature-length experimental documentary about a young Mayan boy’s education as he navigates two different worlds and identities: between the Mayan world of forest and field, and the world of contemporary Mexico that lies just a bit beyond his reach. Raised within a small forest village in the Mexican state of Chiapas, Yuk has impressively mastered a way of life forged within the natural world from a base of knowledge learned from family and community. There, he harpoons fish for his family’s daily meal, gathers seeds, nuts and fruits from the forest, tends to his family’s agricultural plot, and is responsible for caring for and educating his 8-year-old younger brother. While the forest provides for many of Yuk’s immediate needs, his future outside this village depends on his ability to become literate in Spanish. Yet for Yuk, the concept of Mexico is largely a distant one, experienced mainly through a one-room classroom and its non-Mayan teacher from outside his village. In contrast to the kind of experiential learning he has had in the forest and fields, this new way of learning so greatly challenges Yuk that failing is a real possibility. As the oldest son of an elderly father, and brother of a sick sister in need of medical attention, the pressure is on for Yuk to succeed in school and provide for his family. Blending genres of ethnography, documentary, and experimental film, YUK immerses the viewer in a way of life and learning that, deeply tied to the natural world, is increasingly rare in modern human experience.