Past
Grantees

NORTHERN LIGHTS.MN, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $128,000 in support of the Art(ists) On The Verge Fellowship Program. Northern Lights.mn is a roving, collaborative, interactive media-oriented arts agency from the Twin Cities for the world. It 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 artwork and more broadly between citizens and their built environment. The intentions of Art(ists) On The Verge are to challenge emerging artists to incorporate contemporary technologies as a way to expand their practice and to support emerging artists already working in this intersection. Five artists will be selected through a competitive, open process by a jury. Commissions to underwrite new works will be given to the five artists. A mentorship component will allow the artists to meet with mentors on a regular basis. Technical support will be provided. Monthly group meetings will support professional development.

KEVIN OBSATZ received $15,000 for Crazy Horse, a 15-minute narrative film about the journey of a father and son across the Great Plains to a home in foreclosure, and their attempt to navigate the aftermath of a family-rending crisis. One of the films two central characters, Spencer, did really well in the 1990s working as the Creative Director of an ad agency in Minneapolis. Now hes unemployed, broke and divorced, but still drifting along in life through the sheer force of inertia oblivious and in denial. This short film will capture a specific chapter in his road trip where he reconnects with his teenage son, Jonas. Their journey takes him back to a home that is no longer his, a beautifully restored farmhouse that his ex-wife now struggles to defend from foreclosure. The father and son, along with the sons friend Cameron, cross the Great Plains under the watchful gaze of the Mount Rushmore presidents, traversing the ruins of the American Empire, helped along the way by a few generous and tolerant blue-collar locals.

XAVIER MARRADES ORGA received $14,000 for TRANS TIME, a personal reflection of the filmmakers seven years in New York City. According to Orga, New York is a place that shaped his development as a person and artist and his entry into adulthood. He arrived in the city in his early twenties. It was the fulfillment of his teenage dream to move to New York, not only to realize his artistic ambitions, but also to nurture his developing sexuality as a gay man. The chance to leave behind the otherness that enveloped so much of his pre-New York years had finally arrived. He would also finally have a real chance to connect with others. What happened in the ensuing seven years was a rite of passage, moments of lost innocence, gains in maturity, brushes with mortality. This film is an open search and meditation about personal change in the transitional city of excellence. It will unfold as a trip through time, which Marrades Orga looks within himself and travels on a journey of discovery through others.

ERIN ORR, puppetry artist, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Estonia to research the folklore of the Island of Hiiumaa, particularly tales of humans taking on animal forms as inspiration and research for a new puppet theater piece. Orr plans to attend a symposium on supernatural places at the University of Tartu, as well as doing visual research as a means of finding new ideas for her puppetry work.

PALISSIMO COMPANY, New York City, received a grant of $8,000 to support the production of Parts II and III of The Painted Bird Trilogy. Palissimo is a New York City-based performance company under the direction of choreographer Pavel Zutiak. Its mission is to attain artistic liberty and pursuit of communion/dialogue with the audience through live performances, research, and teaching. Zutiak is choreographing and directing a trilogy of live performances titled The Painted Bird, inspired by a Jerzy Kosinski novel set in wartime Eastern Europe in which a brilliantly painted bird is killed by its own flock for seeming an imposter. Jerome support is directed to Parts II and III of The Painted Bird trilogy, which invites audiences to experience the themes of migration, displacement, and resettlement through contextual representation and as an allegorical journey from one space to the next.

JASON PEARSON, photographer, Rochester, Minnesota, will travel to Stockholm, Sweden, to conduct research at the Mauritz Stiller film archives at The Swedish Film Institute and National Library of Sweden. Pearsons work of constructed autobiography and exploration of the self, as framed and seen through the window of family/personal history, will be fed and enhanced by his research into the life of a distant relative, Mauritz Stiller. He intends that the research will present artistic possibilities and imbue his tableaux with new life

PERFORMANCE SPACE 122, New York City, received $4,000 to support commissions to emerging artists for the creation and production of new work. P. S. 122 provides contemporary audiences with extraordinary experiences in contemporary performance. It focuses on ideas, creativity, risk, quality, artistic process, and critical public engagement. Commissions, a cornerstone of P. S. 122 programming, are part of a comprehensive package of support for the artists and the development of their new works. Jerome Foundation dollars will support commissions for Newyorkland by Temporary Distortion and Painted Bird III by Palissimo.

Ruth peyser received $15,000 for I Am Here Its Me Can You See, an animated and live-action film that explores the effect of chronic illness on our lives. This is a very personal project for Peyser in that it explores the theme of chronic illness through the stories of two women who are close to her: her Aunt Laura, whom she knew as a young child, and Pam, a close friend she has known most of her adult life. Both women were struck and inalterably changed by Parkinsons Disease. Peyser will explore their stories in different ways her aunt through animated sequences as seen through the eyes of a child, and her friend Pam through live-action footage featuring, among other things, interviews of Pam and her children. Peyser hopes that these stories will impart a thought-provoking journey, exposing in a touching and compassionate way the qualities that make us human.

MARGARET PEZALLA-GRANLUND, visual artist, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Flagstaff, Arizona and Los Angeles, California, to explore observation, speculation, and wonder by visiting three sites: the archives of astro-photographer Earl Slipher who documented evidence of canals on Mars; the Velaslavasy Panorama, which depicts a fantastical arctic landscape on a shoestring budget; and the Museum of Jurassic Technology, which specializes in speculation and wonder. The research will inform new two- and three-dimensional work examining a fantastical Martian landscape and the search for proof in the ambiguous.

Jerome Foundation elected to renew its associate membership in and general support of PHILANTHROPY NEW YORK, New York City, at the level of $1,000. Philanthropy New York is the principal professional community of philanthropic foundations based in New York State. It enhances and increases the grantmaking activities of organizational and individual philanthropists. It supports meaningful collaborations and knowledge sharing among funders; promotes effective, strategic philanthropy through programs, services, and resources; and informs and advances public policies that support affective philanthropy and a productive nonprofit sector. It also fosters effective communications about the value of philanthropy, the philanthropic sector, and the larger community.

PILLSBURY HOUSE THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $36,500 in support of the 2011 Non-English Speaking Spoken Here: The Late Nite Series. The Theatres mission is to create challenging theater to inspire choice, change, and connection. The Theatre illuminates the differences that make each person unique and the similarities that bring people together, within an artistically engaging context that promotes understanding and leads to positive action. Non-English Speaking Spoken Here: The Late Nite Series is under the artistic direction of Laurie Carlos and e.g. bailey. Commissioning new works by emerging artists, especially artists of color, continues to be the primary focus of Late Nite, described as 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 commissions and presentations of the works-in-progress are intended to provide genuine support for artistic exploration. Emerging artists from the disciplines of dance, music, poetry, theater, performance art, and interdisciplinary practice explore new ideas and push the boundaries of art forms.

PILLSBURY HOUSE + THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $36,500 in support of the 2012 Naked Stages Program. The Theatres mission is to create challenging theater to inspire choice, change, and connection. Launched in 1992, it is a professional arts institution committed to the Settlement House tradition of creating art in collaboration with community. Naked Stages provides seven months of intensive support for emerging artists to develop new work, culminating in showcase productions. The program includes monthly artistic and production meetings, seminars fostering constructive critical dialogue, workshops, enhancement of skills, and greater knowledge of marketing and promotion. Four artists are selected through an open call and competitive panel review.

THE PLAYWRIGHTS CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $179,000 in support of the 2012-13 and 2013-14 Jerome Fellowship Program and the 2012-13 Many Voices Program. The Center champions playwrights and plays to build upon a living theater that demands new and innovative works. It is a national resource for script development and provides a range of services for writers at all stages of their careers. Since inception in 1976, the Jerome Fellowship Program has supported emerging American playwrights through the provision of funds and services to aid in the development of their craft and careers. Initiated in 1994, the Many Voices Program for playwrights of color provides grants, education, and opportunities to develop new works. The program focuses on emerging artists interested in developing their playwriting skills and creating theater in a supportive artists community.

POETS HOUSE, New York City, received $25,000 in support of the Emerging Poets in Urban Residence Program. Poets House is a national poetry library and educational literary center that invites poets and the public to step into the living tradition of poetry. Together with partnership sites across the country, Poets House provides a welcoming home for anyone interested in poetry established poets, the general public, and emerging poets. The Emerging Poets in Urban Residence Program will support New York City-based emerging writers by providing excellent instruction and mentoring, fostering a peer community in the special environment of the Poets Houses living poetry library, and deepening artistic practices. The program will cultivate focused and rigorous peer support and offer a robust professional network of contacts and advisors assisting each emerging writer with his or her artistic development and career. Participants will be selected from open call submission process. The program will encompass workshops, mentoring sessions, guest speakers, free access to Poets House events and resources, and culminating final projects.

CHRIS RAEL, composer, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Bulgaria, to study Bulgarian folk music, collaborate with Bulgarian folk master Theodosii Spassov, and research Bulgarian Sephardic music to begin creating new cross-cultural world music work. Rael has consistently blended rock and Indian music in his progressive, chamber, and film/theater compositions.

RED EYE THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $31,500 in support of the 2011 New Works 4 Weeks and an emerging playwrights commission. Red Eye is a multidisciplinary theater that supports the development and production of pioneering performance work. Innovative, experimental, and out of the ordinary, Red Eye is a passionate champion of new work for the stage. In addition to presenting its own multimedia theatrical productions, Red Eye is an incubator and producer of other artists works. New Works 4 Weeks is the presentation framework for two programs: Works-In-Progress and Isolated Acts. Works-In-Progress gives emerging artists access to space and other practical resources in order to develop ideas for performance. It brings together artists from different disciplines and points of view to develop their works and to respond to each others work. The program emphasizes the development of original pieces for performance, primarily in terms of conceptual development and staging. Isolated Acts is a curated, multidisciplinary program providing artists with access to space and resources, including critical response sessions, to support the development of new works in a creative laboratory setting. The works are then fully produced. Red Eye will also give an annual commission to an emerging playwright/theater creator to make a work for full production by the Theater.

The Jerome Foundation Board approved a grant of $14,000 to RHIZOME.ORG, New York City, in support of a commissions program for emerging artists. Rhizome is dedicated to the creation, presentation, preservation, and critique of emerging artistic practices that engage technology. Through open platforms for exchange and collaboration, its website encourages and expands communities around those practices. Initiated in 2001, the goal of the Rhizome commissions program is to support emerging artists by providing grants for the creation of significant works of new media art. New media art encompasses projects that creatively engage new and networked technologies and works that reflect on the impact of these tools and media in a variety of forms. Jerome funding is restricted to the participation of emerging artists based in New York City and/or Minnesota

YORUBA RICHEN was awarded support for a feature-length documentary, The New Black (working title), which uncovers the complicated and often combative histories and intersections of the African-American and LGBT civil rights movements. Specifically, the film examines homophobia in the black communitys institutional pillar the black church, and reveals the Christian right wings strategy of exploiting this phenomenon in pursuit of an anti-gay political agenda. The New Black goes from New York to Washington, D.C. to California to document the stories of the gay gospel singer Tonex, and Sharon Lettman, the head of the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), who are challenging homophobia in the black church and confronting traditionally white gay organizations around issues of race. The film also follows Bishop Harry Jackson, one of the leading anti-gay black ministers as he fights efforts to advance gay rights. Through these stories and other secondary characters, the film reveals a political alliance between members of the black church and the Christian right that has shaped the fight for gay rights over the last 20 years.

PEYTON SCOTT RUSSELL, graffiti artist, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to multiple locations in the United States: San Francisco, Kansas City, New York City, and Denver, to learn more about visual art and public murals that incorporate and emphasize graffiti art. He will meet with Graffiti Masters to further polish and sharpen his skills as a muralist and aerosol artist.

JOSHUA SANCHEZ received a grant for a feature-length narrative called Four. Written by Pulitzer Prize finalist playwright Christopher Shinn, the film juxtaposes the relationships of two couples struggling with their desires and demons on one Fourth of July evening. Theres Joe, a seemingly straight, middle-aged black man who carries on a closeted gay relationship with a white teenager named June. And theres Abigayle, a suburban, African-American teenage girl, and coincidentally the daughter of Joe, who is courted by a white teenage boy named Dexter. Dexter has designs of luring Abigayle into the bedroom, and although Abigayle knows she should resist him, she succumbs. As these four individuals move from strangers to intimates, their tolerance and acceptance of each other break down. When Joe returns home the morning after a night with June, he and Abigayle are forced to confront Joes secret and its impact on their relationship.