Past
Grantees

MOMENTA ART, Brooklyn, New York, received $7,500 in support of solo exhibitions of new works by three emerging video artists based in New York City.  Momenta provides exhibition opportunities to emerging and under-represented artists through group shows and solo exhibitions.  The emerging video artists will receive stipends, promotion, and installation support from Momenta Art.  

The WALKER ART CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $36,500 in support of the 2013 Momentum Festival. The Walker is a catalyst for the creative expression of artists and the active engagement of audiences. It examines the questions that shape and inspire us as individuals, cultures, and communities. Momentum: New Dance Works allows the Walker to commission, develop, and present new contemporary dance works by four promising and innovative dance makers. The Momentum Festival will include four half-evening new works presented over two weeks in July 2013. Support and developmental services will be available to the choreographers during the creation period and leading up to the premier productions.

"R. VINCENT MONIZ, JR., writer, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Belcourt, North Dakota to attend the Turtle Mountain Writing Workshop and Retreat and the Returning of the Gift Native American Writers Conference.  Moniz’s goals are to hone his writing skills in poetry, poetic monologue, and spoken word performance. These workshops and conferences offer an opportunity to strengthen his skills and expand his knowledge."

MOVEMENT RESEARCH, New York City, received $25,000 in support of six emerging New York City-based choreographers as they create and develop new works in the Artist-in-Residence program. Valuing individual artists, their creative processes, and their vital role in society, Movement Research is dedicated to the creation and implementation of free and low-cost programs that nurture and instigate discourse and experimentation. Resident artists receive commissioning funds for the development of new works; works-in-progress presentations, performance fees; and access to Movement Researchs infrastructure and network of other programs to create personalized, integrated, and multifaceted experiences.

"ALESHIA MUELLER, filmmaker, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Ecuador to improve her Spanish; deepen existing connections and make new connections with people regarding the protest art of dissedent visual artist Oswaldo Guayasamín; and learn more about the life and legacy of Guayasamín from various perspectives.  She will conduct research at the Fundación Guayasamín Museum.  Mueller will incorporate this research into the outline of a documentary film that will place Guayasamín and his work in a cultural, political, and historical context in Ecuador, Latin America, and the world."

NEW DRAMATISTS, New York City, received a two-year grant of $80,000 in support of the Playwrights Lab and Composer-Librettist Studio.  Jerome funding supports the participation of emerging playwrights and composers who are residents of New York City and Minnesota.  The mission of New Dramatists is to give playwrights time and space in the company of gifted peers to create work, realize their artistic potential, and make lasting contributions to the theater.  Each resident playwright becomes the artistic director of his or her own seven year new play laboratory.  The artistic staff works closely with resident writers to make sure they have the casting, stage management, directorial, and dramaturgical resources they need to generate, test and realize their ideas.  The Composer-Librettist Studio is an extended musical theater workshop conducted in partnership with Nautilus Music-Theater.  The Studio focuses simultaneously on music-theater development and the principles of collaboration, teaming five New Dramatists’ writers with five composers and five performers to develop new works.  

NEW RADIO AND PERFORMING ARTS, Staten Island, New York, received a two-year grant of $36,000 in support of eight commissions for emerging New York City-based artists to create networked art for the website Turbulence.  Turbulence commissions, exhibits, and archives works that explore networked technologies, and supports experimentation with distributed real-time multi-location performance events.  Since 1996, it has commissioned over 220 original networked art projects and hosted over 20 performance events. 

NEW YORK LIVE ARTS, New York City, received $36,000 in support of commissions for the creation and production of new works by emerging choreographers.  New York Live Arts is an internationally recognized destination for innovative movement-based artistry, offering audiences access to art and artists notable for their conceptual rigor, formal experimentation, and active engagement with the social, political, and cultural currents of our times.  It commissions, produces, and presents performances in its theater and studios. 

NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP, New York City, received a two-year grant of $40,000 in support of Artists Workshop programs. The Theatres mission is to ensure the robust and compelling presence of the artist in society, manifested through producing an annual season of productions and by inviting theater makers at all stages of their careers, with whom the Theatre shares a common vision. Artists Workshop programs foster the creation, development, and production of new plays. The Workshop offers emerging playwrights a home to take risks, ask for feedback, advance their latest projects, and surpass challenges.

The NORTHERN CLAY CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $26,500 in support of the 2013 Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grants Program.  Northern Clay Center’s mission is the advancement of the ceramic arts.  Programs include classes and workshops for children and adults at all levels of proficiency; exhibitions of work by regional, national, and international artists; studio space and grants for artists; and a sales gallery representing many of the top ceramic artists from the region and elsewhere.  In the Ceramic Artist Project Grants Program, three competitively selected emerging ceramic artists are each given $6,000 to support projects that are self-designed and may include such activities as studio time to develop new work, residencies, professional development, and mentorships.  The grant year culminates with an exhibition at the Northern Clay Center.

NORTHERN LIGHTS.MN, Minneapolis, Minnesota received a two-year grant of $130,000 in support of the Art(ists) On The Verge Fellowship Program for Minnesota-based emerging artists and artist groups.  Northern Lights.mn presents innovative art in the public sphere, both physical and virtual, focusing on artists creatively using technology, both old and new, to engender new relations between audience and art work and more broadly between citizenry and their built environment.  Art(ists) On The Verge is a two-track fellowship and mentoring program for artists working experimentally at the intersection of art, technology, and digital culture with a focus on practices that are social, collaborative, and/or participatory.  Participating fellows receive commissions, technical support, mentorship, critical feedback, and exhibition or presentation.

DARIAN PARKER, choreographer and performer, New York City, will travel to Bamako, Mali, to conduct intensive study of Malian dance--the technical aspects, its accompanying music and the folklore--with master artists to enhance his abilities as a performer and choreographer. Parker’s study will center on dance training with members of Bamako’s artistic community, music training, and conversations and interviews with artists, community elders, and other gatekeepers of the cultural, folkloric, and historical significance of Malian dances and the accompanying music. One particular area of study will involve the form known in the United States as Lamba. This Malian dance was traditionally performed by the Djeli, a poet, praise singer, and wandering musician considered a repository of oral tradition. Parker wants to understand how different ethnic groups in Mali interpret the form.

"MÁRA PELECIS, filmmaker, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Jaunlaicene, Mālupe, Alūksne region, and Rīga, Latvia, to learn “Maléniski”, a very rare language (or dialect of Latvian), so that she can understand published texts written by her storyteller grandfather. His texts will be the basis of a future film project.  She will attend weekly group lessons in Jaunlaicene, a small town in Eastern Latvia, as well as supplement her learning with language tutoring sessions.  She will also live with relatives who speak Maléniski, and travel around the counties where it is spoken, in order to use her newly acquired language skills with a broader group."

NERINA PENZHORN, filmmaker, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to South Africa to conduct research for a documentary film about South African tabloid newspapers in terms of how they function as a voice for marginalized South Africans and how their reporting on the supernatural challenges the rationalist ideals of South African journalism and post-apartheid democracy.

PERFORMANCE SPACE 122 (P. S. 122), New York City, received $25,000 in support of three commissions, residency fees, and administrative costs for the commissioning program.  P. S. 122 is dedicated to supporting and presenting artists whose work challenges the traditional boundaries of dance, theatre, music, and performance.  Committed to exploring innovative form as well as material, P. S. 122 is steadfast in its search for pioneering artists from a diversity of cultures and points of view.  The result is robust, innovative, and diverse commissioned work produced during fall and spring presenting seasons and COIL, a winter festival of contemporary performance.  P. S. 122 starts the commissioning process with the artist, not the project.  A long-term commitment gives artists the freedom and security they need to take the aesthetic risks that will hone their artistic voice and practice and lead to art works that garner the attention of fellow presenters and funders, thus furthering careers.  P. S. 122 is working to increase the level of the commissioning fees, add creative residencies, provide additional production support, and secure adequate funding for rehearsal and presentation weeks.  Jerome support underwrites three commissions and creative residencies leading to production.

"COLE PERRY, writer, Bovey, Minnesota, will travel to the border between Mexico and the United States, visiting four paired cities: Laredo, Texas/Nuevo Laredo, Mexico; El Paso, Texas/ Cuidad Juares, Mexico; Tucson, Arizona/Nogales, Mexico/ San Diego, California/Tijuana, Mexico, to investigate the collateral effects of drug-related violence and global apartheid on the migratory communities from Laredo, Texas to San Diego, California. Perry plans to create a detailed record of the voices, landscapes, and cities of this nebulous and violent frontier as the basis for a novel."

MICHAEL J. PETERSON received support for Insectula!, a feature-length sci-fi horror comedy about a giant alien mosquito-type insect that is drawn to earth in search of blood by high levels of carbon dioxide pollution in the planets atmosphere. The films protagonist, Dell, is a government EPA agent who loses loved ones to the creature and is on a personal vendetta. Dell attempts environmentally friendly methods to dispatch the creature, but his methods and control are eventually replaced by a military solution. The military option also fails to kill the creature, and Dell realizes he must sacrifice himself in the end. The films antagonist is a mad scientist working with Dell, who is captivated by the creature and attempts to help it cleanse the earth. The scientist postulates that since mosquitos are attracted to carbon dioxide, earths increased global levels of it have drawn the large alien creature. He also believes modern mosquitos are actually descendants of an earlier invasion. He is raising a mosquito hatchling to prove his theory as he works to subvert Dell. He views the giant creature as pure and humans as polluters who are the true pests. The beautiful lab assistant of both scientists is caught in the middle of this mess and plays a crucial role in helping the audience discover the true nature of the lead characters as well as provide tense moments of peril and suspense.

Jerome Foundation renewed its affiliate membership in and general support of PHILANTHROPY NEW YORK, New York City, through a commitment of $1,200. Its 290 member organizations provide support to thousands of nonprofit organizations around the world. Its mission is to enhance and increase the ability of organizational and individual philanthropists, whose missions focus on New York, the United States, and around the globe, to serve the public good. It supports meaningful collaboration and knowledge sharing, promotes effective and strategic philanthropy, informs and advances public policies that support effective philanthropy, fosters effective communications about the value of philanthropy and the philanthropic sector, and develops a diverse and capable group of future philanthropic leaders.

PILLSBURY HOUSE + THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $36,500 in support of the 2012 Non-English Speaking Spoken Here: The Late Nite Series. The Theatres mission is to create challenging theater to inspire choice, change, and connection. Late Nite enables emerging artists working across disciplines to develop new work and to share it with an audience. Late Nite weaves together text, music, spoken word, sounds, and images in a celebration of new voices and new art. Artists explore the crosscurrents of social change, community, and identity.

Pillsbury House + Theatre also received a grant of $6,000 in support of the development and commissioning of new work by emerging playwrights from Minnesota and New York City. These activities take place within the context of an annual season that includes mainstage productions, new play development, a reading series, and commissions.