Past
Grantees

MARIA BUYONDO, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to her birthplace, Moscow, Russia to conduct cultural research on her African and Russian roots. He father left her Russian mother when she was five. The research is the foundation for a new film about finding her father, who studied at Patrice Lumumba University and was from Uganda.

THE FIELD, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for choreographer YANIRA CASTRO, received $8,000 in support of the development and production of a new work. Founded by artists for artists, The Field provides services to thousands of performing artists in New York City and beyond. From fostering creative exploration to stewarding innovative fundraising strategies, it helps artists reach their fullest potential. It frequently acts as fiscal sponsor for independent artists' proposals. Formed in 2009, a canary torsi is the name under which New York director/choreographer Yanira Castro makes work alone and collaborates with others. It is engaged in the creation of multidisciplinary interactive environments that have multiple facets: each acts as a stand-alone work and connects to a live performance. Jerome support is directed toward Wilderness, a site-adaptable installation, a dark field within which all elements of the event-audience, performers, and crew-are contained.

CAVE CANEM, New York City, received a grant of $17,000 to support writing workshops taking place in the fall of 2010 and the spring of 2011, each consisting of eight sessions. Cave Canem is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets. Its grown from an initial gathering of 26 poets to become an influential movement with a renowned faculty and high-achieving national fellowship of 314. The workshop Writing Down the Music will explore poetry about music, particularly the music of the African Diaspora. Participants will read essays and poems from various authors, listen to musical compositions, respond to weekly assignments that bring the energy of music into their poetry writing, and engage in constructive critique. Writing Across Cultures will be open to all poets of color and Arab American poets. The workshop will encourage participants to push beyond their comfort zones, experiment with new forms, and consider cultural inflections on poetics.

THE CEDAR CULTURAL CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $20,000 in support of a pilot commissioning program for emerging Minnesota composers. The mission of The Cedar is to promote inter-cultural appreciation and understanding through the presentation of global music and dance. It presents 150 to 200 events each year. The Cedar will commission new compositions from emerging Minnesota composers to be presented as part of the 416 Club. The goals for the program are to facilitate collaborations between artists and the creation of new works, help audiences discover new music, increase exposure for local emerging artists, and foster and develop creativity.

THE CENTER FOR FICTION, New York City, received a grant of $25,000 in support of a re-granting program that will provide space, services, and financial support to emerging New York City fiction writers. The Center is dedicated to celebrating and supporting the creation and enjoyment of fiction. With all of its resources, including an exceptional book collection, a beautiful reading room, expanding website, and ever-growing array of creative programs, 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 Center is a place where writers can work, exchange ideas, and find community. The program is designed to make a difference to fiction writers at critical points in their careers. It includes an honorarium to underwrite time to write, writing space in the Studio, access to Collections, free admission to Center events, discounts on tuition to writing workshops, the option to engage in a mentorship with a freelance editor, two public readings, and the opportunity to publish new work in an online magazine. There will be an open call for applications, which will be reviewed by a selection panel of experienced writers who will select the participants

RAQUEL CEPEDA received support for SOME GIRLS, a feature-length documentary that follows a group of troubled Latina teens from a Bronx-based suicide prevention program who are transformed by an exploration of their roots via the use of ancestral DNA testing, followed by a trip to the seat of the Americas. On that journey to modern-day Dominican Republic, told from the director Raquel Cepeda's viewpoint, the white supremacist narratives about American history they've been taught are challenged, leaving them free to reconstruct their own respective identities. What does it really mean to be American? And, more importantly, what does that look like in today's socio-political and cultural landscape?

CLUBBED THUMB, New York City, received a grant of $15,000 to support the development and production of new works by emerging New York City and/or Minnesota playwrights, including the New Play Boot Camp and SummerWorks. Clubbed Thumb commissions, develops, and produces funny, strange, and provocative new plays by living American writers. It supports the work of emerging playwrights through commissioning, development, and production. It identifies emerging artists and produces innovative new plays, cultivating relationships among theater artists and nurturing artists and their works. The New Play Boot Camp is a two-week development workshop in which three playwrights produce three drafts of a script in four sessions, concluding with a public reading of the works-in-progress. SummerWorks is an annual festival of new work, encompassing plays rehearsed for a month, fully-produced, and running for one week.

Jerome Foundation authorized a grant of $18,000 to COFFEE HOUSE PRESS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, to support the editing, design, printing, and marketing of three books by emerging writers based in New York City and Minnesota, and to provide support for author advances. The mission of Coffee House Press is to publish exciting, vital, and enduring authors of our time; to delight and inspire readers; to contribute to the cultural life of our community; and to enrich our literary heritage. It produces books that celebrate innovation in the craft of writing, the infinite possibilities of the imagination, and the many authentic voices of the American experience. Since 1984, Coffee House has published 52 first time authors, solidifying its commitment to discovery.

The COUNCIL OF LITERARY MAGAZINES & PRESSES (CLMP), New York City, received a grant of $46,000 for the FACE OUT program, which provides publishers and emerging authors with the tools to work together successfully in order to market and promote each authors book to its greatest potential. CLMP supports and promotes noncommercial literary publishing to ensure that readers and writers are well served by a strong and vibrant literary culture. As a service and advocacy organization for independent literary publishers, CLMPs services and resources are designed to develop each members publishing capacity through increased marketing and organizational skills, while promoting communication and shared learning across the field The first year in the current two-year FACE OUT cycle focused on pre-publication marketing and publicity, and included technical assistance workshops and one-on-one meetings for publishers and their authors. Year two will focus on post-publication marketing activities and supporting emerging author/publisher relationships, including author tours and author-focused marketing initiatives. There will be workshops and evaluation sessions as well as a published monograph designed to share lessons learned.

The COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS, Arlington, Virginia, received a grant of $10,550 in support of its 2010 program and as Jerome Foundations membership for the year. The Council is a national nonprofit association of approximately 2,000 community foundations, corporate grantmakers, independent foundations, family philanthropies, and global philanthropic entities. Its members commit to the principles of stewardship, accountability and transparency, diversity and inclusiveness, good governance, and respect for applicants. The Council's program encompasses leadership, networking, legal information, professional development, public policy, and staff support services.

EYEBEAM ART + TECHNOLOGY CENTER, New York City, acting as fiscal sponsor for independent artist MELANIE CREAN, received $7,000 in support of the development and exhibition of Creans new media project, The Shape of Change. Eyebeam is dedicated to supporting the creation and presentation of art works produced with digital technologies and demonstrating new media as a significant genre of cultural production; expanding the publics appreciation of new media art through public programs for all ages; improving artists access to digital tools; and researching and developing new technologies that catalyze the creation of these tools and artworks. Creans The Shape of Change is a series of projects that look at how speech acts bring about political change, investigating these acts for their ability to express desire, conflict, and the need for transformation. This social sculpture project explores the nature of change through dialogue, in the forms of art, conversation, and writing.

DANSPACE PROJECT, New York City, received a two-year grant of $65,000 to offer commissions to emerging choreographers presenting work under the auspices of the PLATFORM curatorial and presentation concept. Danspace Project nurtures emerging artists as an essential component of fulfilling its mission to support a diverse range of new work and to encourage experimentation. The organization seeks distinct and singular artistic voices who are under-recognized and for whom support can make a significant impact on careers through financial subsidy, rehearsal space, feedback, and increased public recognition for their work. Providing commissions helps emerging artists pay dancers and collaborators, rent rehearsal space, leverage additional funds, receive attention from major dance critics, and introduce new audiences and presenters to their work.

LATASHA DIGGS, New York, New York, will travel to Cuzco, Arequipa, and Ica, Peru to conduct cultural and linguistic research examining the revolutionary Micaela Bastidas and Afro-Andean history and to draw inspiration and ideas from the Peruvian landscape to inform her latest collection of poetry and spoken word texts. Diggs identifies with the historical figure of Bastidas as a woman of African Indigenous heritage living in a culture not her own. Her work uses rhyme, ritual and electronic music. The sound of language is critical to her investigation and she plans to study and do field recordings of the Andean language, Quechua.

PALLAVI SHARMA DIXIT, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Edison, New Jersey, to gather information and details about the Indian Day Parade. Edison, a small suburban town, is home to thousands of people of Southeast Indian descent. The Indian Day Parade, now in its seventh year, marks Indias independence from Great Britain on August 15, 1947. The procession traditionally features a Bollywood star as the guest of honor and draws thousands of Indians from across the region. This detailed field research will help her craft several chapters in her novel that takes place at the parade.

Jerome Foundation Directors approved $29,000 for DIXON PLACE/OPEN CHANNELS, New York City, in support of the participation of emerging New York City-based artists in the Mondo Cane! Commissioning Program and the Artist in Residence Program. Dixon Place supports the creative process by presenting original works of theater, dance, music, puppetry, literature, and performance art at all stages of development. Dixon Place is dedicated exclusively to the development of new work. In Mondo Cane!, Dixon Place commissions six to nine artists or ensembles each year to develop and present new works of theater, music, dance, and performance art. Artists receive up to four months of rehearsal and workshop time. In the Artist in Residence Program, innovative emerging artists in theater, performance art, puppetry, and dance develop bold, new performance and interdisciplinary collaborations over time, culminating in runs of three to nine public performances. The program encourages risk-taking in a supportive, intimate, and professional environment.

SARAH DOHRMANN, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Iowa City and Des Moines, Iowa, to investigate the mental, emotional, and personal ramifications of women activists participation in the second-wave feminist movement in that state during the mid-to-late 1970s. This will inform a creative nonfiction memoir she is writing about the causes and remains of her mothers suicide in Des Moines in 1978. Her mother was an active Iowa feminist and a sociologist by profession. Yet, her progressive social justice work was largely unknown to her children. Dohrmann plans to interview Iowa women who participated in the movement during the 1970s, some who worked with her mother, to understand the unique pressures and anxieties of this time and place.

MARCIANO SILVA DOS SANTOS, Shoreview, Minnesota, will study Capoeira, contemporary dance, and the intersection of these forms at dance centers in Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Goiania and Santa Catarina, Brazil. Dos Santos is studying these diverse aesthetics and vocabularies to expand his choreographic language.

DULUTH ART INSTITUTE, Duluth, Minnesota, received a grant of $10,000 to support the participation of emerging artists in the 2010-11 Exhibition Program. The Institutes mission is to enrich daily life with dynamic, innovative arts programming that upholds excellence and promotes active community participation. It operates exhibition and education programs, provides artists services, and engages in partnerships to realize its mission. The Exhibition Program seeks to nurture the careers of regional emerging artists, to inspire through exhibiting exemplary work from outside its region, and to showcase the work of its regions seasoned professional artists.

The ELECTRONIC MUSIC FOUNDATION, New York City, received a grant of $17,250 to support commissions and technical residencies for three emerging composers based in New York City. The organizations mission is to explore the creative and cultural potential in the convergence of music, sound, technology, and science. It produces concerts, festivals, symposia, forums, and other events; provides services for artists; and maintains a worldwide network through which it circulates information, distributes materials, and collaborates with colleagues on international projects. The new EMF Creative Resource Center offers New York-based composers and performers a recording studio, as well as facilities for editing and processing sound. As part of the Creative Resource Center program, the Electronic Music Foundation will commission emerging composers to create new works. The Center will also assist and advise the selected composers in technical and artistic aspects of their work, present their works in suitable venues, document the works, and keep the documentation accessible on the organizations website.

ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE, New York City received a grant of $15,000 to support the Youngblood Program, which has served New York City-based playwrights under 30 years of age for the past 15 years. EST is dedicated to creating a vibrant community for the creation, development, and production of new works to replenish the American theater repertoire. Its vision pairs performance and director training and investigation with development of new works by playwrights. Youngblood playwrights are identified through a competitive selection process. Youngblood provides an array of opportunities designed to stimulate the creation of new works in a supportive peer environment, sustained by participation in this large and active membership theater with plentiful opportunities to see work by other artists.