Past
Grantees

GAYLA MARTY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Tunisia, North Africa, to conduct research for a book about identity, culture, and community change over 30 years, with a focus on shared meals, immersion in Arabic language, visits to archaeological sites, and interviews. Marty will interview people she met over 30 years ago while a journalism exchange student. She became a creative writer as a result of her stay. Marty believes that her past experience, coupled with a contemporary trip, will add a richness and complexity to her writing, which may take the form of a second full novel, a collection of essays, short stories, or a memoir, a logical sequel to her memoir about the transformation of US agriculture in the 20th century.

MEGAN MAYER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to New York for an intensive workshop with American postmodern choreographer, Douglas Dunn, studying his highly eclectic approach to dance, which uses humor, props, and text. Mayer is interested in the resonance between Dunns work and her own use of nuance and humor. She will also attend performances in the City to provide a context for her own work.

ANDREA MILLER, New York, New York, will travel to Madrid, Spain and Santander, Spain, to conduct research on speech patterning, tonal inflections, and the physical body language of Spanish Jewish communities. She is studying how cultural experience is embedded in verbal and physical language to inform the choreography of her newest project, Lengua (meaning both tongue and language). She grew up in an American Jewish community with a Spanish mother and is researching ways to integrate questions arising from her personal history into her artistic process.

The MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN (MCAD), Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $80,000 in support of the 2010-11 Jerome Fellowships Program for emerging artists. The College is an independent, accredited institution that educates individuals to be professional artists and designers, effective leaders, and active citizens. Through this work and other activities, it advances the cultural life of its community. The MCAD/Jerome Foundation Fellowship Program for Emerging Artists provides artists with fellowship funds to explore and produce a focused body of work. It supports five Minnesota visual artists selected by a three-member jury from proposals submitted in response to an open call. Fellowship stipends may be used for, but are not limited to, experimenting with new techniques and materials, working or studying with a mentor, purchasing equipment to facilitate an aesthetic or technical investigation, studio rental, time to work in the studio, supplies, technical support, exhibition or education opportunities, and travel. In addition, the program provides opportunities for the artists to learn and receive significant recognition through conversations with visiting critics, an exhibition, and a catalog publication.

The MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $20,000 for the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program (MAEP), a curatorial department dedicated to exhibiting and supporting artists living and working in Minnesota. The Institute enriches the community by collecting, preserving, and making accessible outstanding works of art from the worlds diverse cultures. This encyclopedic art museums collection reflects 6,000 years of the range and diversity of human civilizations and imaginations. In existence since 1975, MAEP is a creative partnership in which an elected artist panel, representing the Minnesota artist community, selects artists to exhibit work in two large galleries. Annual programming includes exhibitions, artist-led tours, lectures, panel discussions, and web-based activities. The program is open to application from any Minnesota artist.

The MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $40,000 to support the participation of emerging artists in the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program. The Institute enriches the community by collecting, preserving, and making accessible outstanding works of art from the worlds diverse cultures. Its the Upper Midwests premier encyclopedic art museum with more than 80,000 works of art in its permanent collection. It annually welcomes approximately 500,000 visitors and serves a membership base of over 20,000 households. The Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program is a curatorial program of the Institute dedicated to exhibiting and supporting artists living and working in Minnesota. An elected artists panel representing the states artist community selects fellow artists. Annual programming includes gallery exhibitions, artist-led tours, lectures, panel discussions, and web-based interviews.

The MINNESOTA CENTER FOR BOOK ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $43,000 in support of the Jerome Book Arts Mentorship and Fellowship Programs. Founded in 1983, the Center is dedicated to nurturing artists engaged in creative expression through the book form, celebrating and preserving the traditional arts of bookmaking, and showcasing the book in all its contexts. In the first year of the grant period, support will be offered to talented emerging artists from other media to explore the book form with mentoring assistance from a master book artist. Selected by an independent panel, artists will work for a year with the products of their mentorship exhibited at the Center. Participants will have the opportunity to take classes, interact with their peers, and work with Center staff. In year two, an independent panel will award fellowships to book artists. The fellows will develop their works in a collegial environment, receiving full and unlimited access to the Center's studio. Critique sessions and a culminating exhibition will take place.

The MINNESOTA COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $5,555 as a membership and general support commitment. The Council is an association of family, independent, community, public, and corporate foundations and giving programs. As a community of grantmakers, the Council embraces philanthropy's role in a civil society. It advocates for public policy to sustain robust philanthropy. Its members work strategically through grantmaking and other means to improve the vitality and health of communities.

MIXED BLOOD THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $18,600 to subsidize the creation, development, and production of four works by three emerging playwrights. Mixed Blood is a professional, multi-racial company that promotes cultural pluralism and individual equality through artistic excellence, using theater to address the artificial barriers that keep people from succeeding in American society. The Theatres vision is to be the definitive destination where theater artists and audiences representing the global village can create and share work that spawns a ripple effect of social change and revolutionizes access to theater. Mixed Blood, a founding member of the National New Play Network, is known not only for the commissioning of new works but for the presentation of first, second, and sometimes third productions of original plays.

MOMENTA ART, Brooklyn, New York, received a grant of $7,200 to support four exhibitions of new video installation works by emerging artists. Momenta Art is an artist-run charitable organization that promotes emerging and under-represented artists. It seeks to expand the dialogue of art by showing work that is not well represented in commercial galleries because of its form or content. It promotes artists of all ages, races, and ethnicities. In particular, it promotes work that explores the nature of aesthetic experience balanced with social engagement. Each exhibition will begin with an artists introduction to his or her work, followed by a discussion with the artist and a short program of other artists work chosen by the featured artist. There is an open process for submissions of rsums and work samples, which are reviewed by curatorial staff.

MOVEMENT RESEARCH, New York City, received a grant of $25,000 to support six emerging New York City-based choreographers in the creation and development of new work through the Artist-in-Residence program. Movement Research is a laboratory for the investigation of dance and movement-based forms. It is dedicated to the creation and implementation of free and low-cost programs that nurture and investigate discourse and experimentation. It values the individual artist, the creative process, and the vital role of the artist within society. This is an open application process with a panel review. The program provides commissioning funds, free and subsidized rehearsal space, exchange opportunities, and other formats for investigative discourse. The design of the program goes beyond standard commissioning by providing a supportive and rigorous environment for the creation of new work.

A grant of $22,500 was authorized for MU PERFORMING ARTS, St. Paul, Minnesota, to support Phase II of the Jerome New Performance Program. Now in its 18th year, Mu Performing Arts is a Pan-Asian performing arts organization whose mission is to produce great performances born of arts, equality, and justice from the heart of the Asian American experience. In keeping with its demonstrated desire to develop new works by emerging Asian American writers and contribute to the Asian American canon, Mu initiated the first Jerome New Performance Program in 2006-07, then identifying seven artists who were commissioned to create new works. Through a series of readings and workshops, Mu eventually produced three of those works. In 2009, Jerome supported Phase I of the second New Performance Program, focusing on four emerging Asian American writers. Phase II of the program supports further development of two of their pieces, through workshops, and finally, the full production of one in the 2010-11 season.

The Jerome Foundation awarded a two-year grant of $80,000 to NEW DRAMATISTS, New York City, in support of the Playwrights Lab and the Composer-Librettist Studio. The mission of New Dramatists is to find gifted playwrights and give them the time, space, and tools to develop their craft in the company of their peers, so that they may fulfill their potential and make lasting contributions to the theater. While in residence at New Dramatists, a member playwright has an artistic home for seven years during which time she or he has complete creative authority over the work developed at New Dramatists; unlimited access to workspaces; and an artistic community of peer playwrights, staff, collaborators, and alumni. The Playwrights Lab offers programs that provide writers with invaluable resources throughout each stage of the play development processfrom idea, to page, to reading, to workshop, and to production. The Composer-Librettist Studio, two weeks in length, is conducted in partnership with Nautilus Music-Theater, St. Paul, Minnesota, and focuses on music-theater development and the principles of collaboration. It teams five New Dramatists writers with five composers and five performers to develop new works.

NEW GEORGES, New York City, received a two-year grant of $30,000 in support of the development and production of new works by emerging playwrights based in New York City. This includes the Germ Project, a commissioning and production program for new work by emerging writers. Since its founding in 1992, New Georges has produced innovative, ambitious new plays and served as a productive home for promising and accomplished women theater artists. New Georges sparks relationships and opportunities that push adventurous artists and their works forward into the world. It operates on two tiers: production and play/artist development. Its multi-use work space is home to readings, small-scale workshop presentations, rehearsals, and artist/community gatherings

NEW RADIO AND PERFORMING ARTS, Staten Island, New York, received support of $32,000 over two years to support commissions for emerging artists based in New York City and/or Minnesota to create networked art for Turbulence in 2010 and 2011. This organization fosters the development of new and experimental work for radio, sound, and net arts. The Turbulence website commissions, exhibits, and archives works that explore networked technologies. The commissions enable artists to explore the networked medium using existing technologies and developing new applications to originate innovative work. Since 1996, the organization has commissioned over 176 original networked art projects. Turbulence intends that the commissions reflect the diversity of contemporary networked art.

DANCE THEATER WORKSHOP, New York City, received a grant of $32,500 for emerging choreographers commissions for the creation and production of new works. The mission of Dance Theater Workshop is to serve the broader dance community with a commitment to identify, present, and support independent contemporary artists and companies and to advance dance and live performance in New York and worldwide. Central to this mission is a dedication to providing independent artists with production programs and resources designed to nurture their creativity and growth over time, directly addressing the needs of performing artists at all stages in their careers. The commissions provide critical support to offset the costs of creating new work to premiere at Dance Theater Workshop.

NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP, New York City, received a grant of $20,000 to support the participation of emerging New York City and Minnesota-based playwrights in the 2010-11 Artist Development Activities program. New York Theatre Workshop is a contemporary theatre company committed to the development of innovative theatre by supporting theater artists at all stages of their careers and providing an environment where work can be created free from the artistic compromise and forbidding financial demands often associated with commercial ventures. The Workshop is dedicated to exploring and presenting theatrical experiences that reflect, respond to, and invigorate the world in which we live and work. The Workshops Artist Development Activities represent a commitment to supporting emerging playwrights, the larger New York City artistic community, and the process of creating new work. Activities include approximately 100 readings a year, small-scale studio productions, artist residencies, fellowships, a cultural exchange program, and numerous free rehearsal space opportunities.

The mission of the NORTHERN CLAY CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $26,500 for the 2011 Ceramic Artist Project Grants Program, which will provide three $6,000 project grants to emerging ceramic artists from Minnesota for activities in 2011-12. The Centers 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. The applicants identify the content and purpose of their projects. Typically, this includes a range of activity from the purchase of equipment to facilitate an aesthetic or technical investigation to the provision of an honorarium to allow uninterrupted work time and studio rental. The project grant year concludes with a group exhibition at the Northern Clay Center.

CHRISTINA A. OLIVARES, New York, New York, will travel to Cuba to deepen her understanding of Cuban Santera for a series of poems she is writing, and to immerse herself in contemporary Cuban poetry, which will strengthen and inform her writing in English and in Spanish. She is writing a series of poems that hold Babalu Aye, the Cuban Santera orisha (akin to a saint) responsible for sickness and healing, as the driving metaphor. The poems explore the story of one member of her family, born in Cuba, who migrated to the United States in the mid-1960s and soon after became schizophrenic. She will visit museums and the Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba, meet with the highly regarded Cuban poet Domingo Alfonso and other poets, take an intensive class at the University of Havana in advanced Spanish, attend local poetry readings, and visit sites that will teach her more about Santera. This will enable her to bring this series of poems to completion.

PANGEA WORLD THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $32,000 in support of the participation of emerging playwrights in Alternate Visions. The mission of Pangea World Theater is to illuminate the human condition, celebrate cultural differences, and promote human rights by creating and presenting international, multidisciplinary theater. Jerome funding will assist Pangea in developing new works by providing participating emerging artists with dramaturgy, workshops, and public readings to prepare their performances for mainstage productions. Pangea hosts discussions between artists and audiences and facilitates public dialogues on issues raised in each of the plays. Over the course of two years, five emerging Minnesota artists will receive Jerome support.