Past
Grantees

CORINNE BOTZ was awarded funding for Bedside Manner, an experimental documentary that will use the construction/deconstruction of a standardized patient simulation to explore the performative aspect of doctor-patient encounters.  Focusing on a neuropsychology case (delirium), the piece will be shot in a manner that references the history of psychiatric photography and how the camera has been used to represent and construct medical interactions. Bedside Manner will enact a reversal of the traditional medical gaze from the patient onto the doctor.  Ethical and aesthetic issues that result from who is looking, how and in what context will be addressed.  This film examines issues related to empathy and medical relationships. 

THE BRONX MUSEUM OF THE ARTS, Bronx, New York, received $18,000 in support of the 2012-13 Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) program.  The Museum’s mission is to connect diverse audiences to the urban experience through its permanent collection, special exhibitions, and education programs.  The Artist in the Marketplace program, established in 1980, provides networking opportunities for emerging artists residing in the New York metropolitan area and introduces their work to a larger audience.  Each year, 36 artists participate in two semesters of AIM, each containing 13 weekly seminars.  The seminars are led by a faculty of specialists, and address areas of practical concern to artists such as career management, gallery representation, exhibition and public art opportunities, grant writing, copyright law, and marketing.  Participating artists are encouraged to build their networks through the program’s collaborative structure.

The Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Brooklyn, New York, received $10,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists in the 2013-14 Artist in Residence program.  The mission of BAX is to provide a nurturing, year-round, performance, rehearsal, and educational venue in Brooklyn that encourages artistic risk-taking and stimulates dialogue among diverse constituencies.  It provides advocacy and opportunities for emerging and mid-level professional dance and theater artists to develop, grow, explore, and present new work.  The Artist in Residence program provides participating artists with one to two years of uninterrupted artistic, technical, and administrative support, as well as the rehearsal space and guidance necessary to take chances, refine their craft, and expand their horizons.  An open call and competitive application review results in the selection of artists in residence.  The residencies are tailored to an individualized plan that incorporates each artist’s experiences, goals, and questions.

AARON BROOKNER, received a grant in support of Uncle Howard, an intimate character-driven documentary about the life of filmmaker Howard Brookner, who died of AIDS making his breakthrough Hollywood feature at age 34. Howard Brookner was an incendiary unknown artist who, in the space of his short lifetime, managed to make three astonishing feature films. In Uncle Howard, Aaron Brookner – his nephew and the maker of this film – seeks to resurrect the memory of his beloved uncle, and to spark emulation of Howard’s inspirational approach to filmmaking and art. Aaron Brookner’s quest leads us into a labyrinth of old guard artists, unreliable narrators, secrets, and lies in a tale of power, control, and ultimately, love. As he pieces together the story of his uncle’s life journey, the figure of an artist who championed artistic struggle in a hostile world emerges. Aaron Brookner also explores Howard’s dance with death, set in motion by the “devil’s bargain” he entered in the making of his acutely perceptive film portrait of William Burroughs.

THE CAMERA CLUB OF NEW YORK, New York City, received $14,000 in support of solo exhibitions in the Darkroom Residency Program. The Camera Club supports photographers in the development of their craft, providing a working facility and collegial environment for discussion and the exchange of ideas. It welcomes photographers and devotees of photography, and encourages their participation through memberships, classes, lectures, exhibitions, and residencies. The Darkroom Residency Program offers to emerging photographers three months of free access to darkrooms, digital workstations, and a shooting studio. Jerome grant dollars provide solo shows for Darkroom Resident artists in the year following their residency.

 Cave Canem Foundation, Brooklyn, New York, received $18,400 to support two multiple-session workshops serving New York City-based emerging poets. Cave Canem is home to the many voices of African-American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African-American poets. Emerging poets find sustenance and a safe place to take artistic chances. The workshops supported by Jerome Foundation provide opportunities for emerging writers to work with accomplished poets. Limited to an enrollment of 12 to 15, workshops offer rigorous instruction, careful critique, and an introduction to the work of established poets. The final session is usually a public reading in which participants showcase poems honed in the workshop.

The Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $21,200 in support of its commissioning program for emerging Minnesota composers.  The Cedar is an eclectic music venue known for hosting a wide variety of folk, blues, jazz, indy rock, and world artists, as well as films, spoken word performances, dances, and community events.  Its mission is to promote inter-cultural appreciation and understanding through the presentation of global music and dance.  Jerome support is directed toward the commissioning of new works by seven emerging Minnesota composers and their presentation as part of the 416 Club Series.  Composers of diverse genres are selected through an open call based on their emerging status; aesthetic quality; and evidence of rigor, innovation, and potential.

THE CENTER FOR FICTION, New York City, received $38,500 in support of the New York City Emerging Writers Fellowship program.  The mission of the Center for Fiction is to encourage people to read and value fiction and to support and celebrate its creation and enjoyment.  The Center seeks to serve the reading public, build a larger audience for fiction, and create a place where readers and writers can share their passion for literature.  The New York City Emerging Writers Fellowship program serves nine writers over a one-year period.  They receive stipends, space and time to write in the Center, the option to engage in a mentorship with a freelance editor, the opportunity to meet with agents who represent new writers, a Center membership, free admission to Center events, discounts on tuition for select writing workshops, and two public readings.  

CHEZ BUSHWICK, Brooklyn, New York, received $9,000 in support of the creation, development, and production of the new work OCCUPANT, by Jonah Bokaer. Chez Bushwick is an artist-run organization dedicated to the advancement of interdisciplinary art and performance, with a strong focus on new choreography. Chez Bushwick supports the work of choreographer and media artist Jonah Bokaer. OCCUPANT will be a 120-minute multidisciplinary performance work for four dancers, examining pattern recognition and perceptual faculties applied to the moving body and the human eye. OCCUPANT explores movement in relationship to built spaces, objects, lighting, and other media, creating illusions in stage space. Its scheduled to premiere in late 2013.

CHOMET, SUN MEE, Minnesota, will travel to North Korea where generations of her birth family resided before the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. Chomet is specifically interested in going to Pyongyang to visit factories, the Women's League offices, the National Reunification Institute, universities, and museums; Baekdu Mountain, the highest mountain on the Korean peninsula, considered sacred as the place of ancestral beginnings; and Cheolsan in Pyeongan-do, the city where her birth family resided before the Korean War broke out. The trip is offered through the New York-based organization Nodutdol for Korean Community Development (NDD), which promotes research by North American Korean artists, activists, and educators to increase their knowledge about reunification efforts and exposure to North Korea from the North Korean perspective. Her goal as a playwright is to create authentic work and address what is not said in the silences that have fracture families.

COFFEE HOUSE PRESS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $26,000 in support of the publication of four books by emerging Minnesota writers.  The mission of the Press is to publish exciting, vital, and enduring authors of this time; to delight and inspire readers; to contribute to the cultural life of its community; and to enrich literary heritage.  By building on the best traditions of publishing in the book arts, it produces books that celebrate imagination, innovation in the craft of writing, and the many authentic voices of the American experience.  Coffee House brings the work of emerging Minnesota writers to the attention of reviewers, award panels, booksellers, teachers, and, most importantly, readers.  

COUNCIL OF LITERARY MAGAZINES AND PRESSES (CLMP), New York City, received a two-year grant of $92,000 in support of the FACE OUT Program. The Council serves independent publishers of exceptional fiction, poetry, and prose. It unifies the strength of this diverse field by serving the common needs and goals of literary publishers while celebrating their independent voices. The FACE OUT Program maximizes the visibility of emerging writers. It is a re-grant and technical assistance program for New York City-based independent publishers applying with one or two emerging New York City-based writers. Important components of the program include peer networking and learning, skills and techniques to effectively market books, and the development of an effective and productive relationship between the writer and her or his publisher. Important lessons learned in the program are captured in monographs that CLMP makes available to the field. 

JUXTAPOSITION ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for choreographer Kenna-Camara Cottman, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $8,000 in support of the development and production of Takk.  Juxtaposition Arts develops community by engaging and employing young urban artists in hands-on education initiatives that create pathways to self-sufficiency while actualizing creative power.  It combines design education and youth empowerment with a social-enterprise business model.  Cottman has been dancing, studying, teaching, and organizing in the Minneapolis area for over 20 years.  Her main area of focus is Black Dance, with an emphasis on West African and Hip Hop Dance and culture.  Takk is an exploration of relationships placed in the shifting sand of a Senegalese wrestling ring.  The work will investigate the ambiguity that comes from expressing emotions and desire, the effects of commentary by outsiders on a romance, and the way the sand affects movement.  Jerome support will subsidize, in part, three productions of the work in 2013.

DETWAH, DULCINEA (CORNELIA MCPHERSON), Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Detroit, Michigan, to deepen her knowledge of techno music and hone her own work in this unique music community. Detwah plans to study with B Moe from the Bruiser Brigade; Derrick May, a pioneer of techno and founder of the Electronic Music Festival in Detroit; and Mike Huckaby, a techno music composer and educator. Detwah’s work with these Detroit techno legends will help her gain more knowledge about their history, style and process as she seeks to push her composition to a more professional level.

DORN, Adrienne, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Copenhagen, Denmark, to attend the second annual Copenhagen-Somali Seminar and meet with leaders, artists, and academics from the Somali community to enhance her professional support of the Somali immigrant communities in Minnesota. Dorn’s organization, The Cedar Cultural Center, is based in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood, which is home to a large Somali population. The Cedar is making a concerted effort to connect with the Somali community and to support Somali artists through its global music and dance programming. Dorn sees participation is this seminar as a means to deepening her understanding and connections.

Douglas, Kristopher, Rochester, Minnesota, will travel to Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa to conduct research in support of an exhibition to be presented at the Rochester Art Center in 2015.  This exhibition will feature the work of South African-born artist Kendell Geers and other artists from the region.  The exhibition will add significant new scholarship in the field of contemporary art, and will present candid confrontations with ideas and contemporary topics that might otherwise be ignored or taken for granted by Western audiences.  A major component of the exhibition is the commissioning of new work by artists living and working in South Africa. Douglas will make studio visits, talking with artists, meeting with art historians and scholars to identify topics for the exhibition’s catalog. Researching spaces for contemporary art in the region is critical for his conceptual framing of the exhibition. 

OPEN EYE FIGURE THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for Annie Enneking, received $8,000 in support of the development and production of what i want now i will want later. Open Eye’s mission is to create original figure theatre, animate the inanimate on an intimate scale, train the next generation of figure theatre artists, and advance adventurous artist-driven programming. Enneking is a singer-songwriter, actor, dancer, fight director, and teaching artist. what i want now i will want later will be a performance installation that blends music, video, and live performance based on the mythology surrounding sirens, sea nymphs who bewitched sailors and lured them to their deaths with their songs. Enneking is creating a walking tour through a “gallery of loss”, with a theatrical song structure around the pathos of suffering, the violence of heroism, and the allure of situations where to love invites death. The stories investigate how the body and soul surrender to song, how music is a method of murder, and how art brings life and destroys it.

ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE, New York City, received $17,000 in support of the 2013 Youngblood Program.  Ensemble Studio Theatre was founded on the belief that extraordinary support yields extraordinary work.  It is a dynamic and expanding family of member artists committed to the discovery and nurturing of new voices and the continued support and growth of artists throughout their creative lives.  It develops and produces original, provocative, and authentic new plays that engage and challenge audiences across the country.  The Youngblood Program is a collective of emerging professional playwrights under the age of 30.  As a creative home for the next generation of theater artists, Youngblood provides artistic guidance, peer support, feedback, and a fertile production environment that allows playwrights to hone their skills and explore their craft.  

ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE (EST), New York City, received an 18-month grant of $29,000 in support of Youngblood. Believing that extraordinary support yields extraordinary work, EST is a dynamic and expanding family of artist members committed to the discovery and nurturing of new voices, and the support and growth of artists throughout their creative lives. It develops and produces original, provocative, and authentic new plays that engage and challenge audiences. EST annually presents over 150 projects including readings, workshops, studio productions, and full productions. Youngblood is EST’s collective of emerging professional playwrights under the age of 30. Initiated in 1993, Youngblood provides artistic guidance, peer support, regular feedback, and a fertile production environment that allows member playwrights to hone their skills and explore their craft. The program provides exposure to the public and the press, professional outreach to the industry, and opportunities for production and publication.

Relief grants totaling $55,500 for losses and damages from Superstorm Sandy were approved for The Kitchen, Eyebeam, Smack Mellon and its Artist Studio Program, Printed Matter, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.