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The MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, New York City, received $6,300 to support the acquisition of Jerome Foundation-supported films and videos by emerging artists for the Museums permanent collection. As early as 1935, the Museum of Modern Art embraced motion pictures as an art form. In 1939, it began regular screenings to share works with the public. The Department of Film combines preservation with exhibition. Its collection is made publicly accessible through ongoing programs of classic and contemporary films that range from retrospectives and historical surveys to introductions of works by independent and experimental film and video makers. Since 1996, the Museum has received modest annual support, which it uses to purchase film and video works funded by the Jerome Foundation through its New York City and Minnesota Film and Video Grant Programs. The titles are chosen by Department of Film curators.

HARLEM STAGE/AARON DAVIS HALL, New York City, received $24,500 to support emerging artists' commissions within the 2008-09 Fund for New Work. The mission of Harlem Stage is to foster the creation and development of new works by performing artists of color; provide a forum for culturally diverse artists, community-based performing arts organizations and regionally significant arts groups; present performances for the residents of Harlem at affordable prices; and institute education initiatives for the metropolitan area's young people. Through the Fund for New Work, Harlem Stage provides direct support to emerging and established artists. This includes commissions, subsidized rehearsal space, technical and administrative assistance, mentorship opportunities, productions and brokered relationships to facilitate other presentation opportunities. The Jerome funded portion of the Fund focuses on emerging artists exploring new directions.

EMILY HADDAD, Stillwater, Minnesota, received a grant for a short experimental documentary titled Artist in the Margin, which explores the world of artist Pierre Prevost. It examines the questions: What impulse compels an artist to create, and Does an artist intend to affect his society and his environment? Haddad will explore how the special world created by Pierre Prevost demonstrates answers to these questions and how this modern artist can be related to prehistoric artists of the famous caves located in the same region of southern France where he lives. Haddad first entered the world of Pierre Prevost nine years ago. His home of Combarel (little hollow) is on several acres of forested land in the little-known region of Aveyron. Just a few miles away are the caves of Lascaux and Peche Merle, where prehistoric artists painted their environment and their imaginings, much like Prevost creates sculptures, drawings, paintings, and other forms of art from discarded objects he finds in junkyards and flea markets of surrounding villages. Haddad will examine his unique world, with an emphasis on its alignment with the similarly austere worlds of the cave artists of Lascaux and Peche Merle.

A grant was awarded to HOSSEIN KESHAVARZ for Dog Sweat, a narrative film about the schism between six young Iranians and their more conservative elders, in a country where over two-thirds of the population is under thirty. The film aspires to show the real Iran, a portrayal neither sanctioned by the government nor seen by the outside world. An Iran where young people drink alcohol, party, socialize with members of the opposite sex and cautiously allow themselves to be gay, all behind closed doors and blackened windows. The young actors in this fictional film, which was shot in Iran on HD video, put themselves at great risk to participate. The risk was worth taking in their view in order to tell the stories of this film.

ADAM MCKINNEY, New York City, will travel to Israel to continue exploring the connections among dance, movement, and healing with Ethiopian-Israeli communities. McKinney is the co-founder of DNA WORKS, an organization dedicated to furthering artistic expression and dialogue, focusing on issues of identity, culture, class and heritage. McKinney pursues the use of dance and movement as healing catalysts toward systemic change in communities where social and political violence have prevailed.

MARLO PORAS, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Thailand to research the idea of making a documentary film about Christina Arnold, who escaped the Children of God Cult when she was 21 years old and now leads a nonprofit organization that is focused on preventing human trafficking. To gain a more personal understanding of the anti-trafficking movement, Poras will attend the summer study program in Thailand sponsored by Arnold through the Prevent Human Trafficking Institute (PHT). This will provide him with the time to experience Arnold in action and understand the focus of her work as the basis for his intimate film portrait of her.

JENNIFER STOCK, sound artist, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Hauterives, Chartres, and Chambourcy, France, to study three important outsider architecture sites as inspiration for future sound and video installations and to attend the Sonar Festival in Barcelona, Spain. Her installations and live performances combine instrumental music, video and field recordings to create illusionistic landscapes.

Adia Tamar Whitaker, Brooklyn, New York, will attend a summer dance intensive in Kingston, Jamaica, where she will study Jamaican folklore in performance, culture and contemporary contexts. She will then travel to Ghana to study the Dahomean roots of Afro-Haitian dance in Ewe culture. In her choreographic work, Whitaker combines these traditional influences with hip-hop and modern dance vocabularies. She wants to study these forms at their source.

BOOKLYN, Brooklyn, New York, received $8,000 to support publication of three chapbooks of works by emerging New York City writers in the ABC series. Booklyn promotes artist books as an art form and educational resource; provides educational institutions and the public with programming involving contemporary artist books; publishes innovative books uniting the fields of literature and art; and assists artists and writers in publishing, exhibiting and distributing their work. Launched in 2005, the ABC (Another Booklyn Chapbook) series features new writing with fresh book design in an affordable, attractive book format. The series reflects a variety of literary genres including poetry, prose and creative nonfiction.

BLACKLOCK NATURE SANCTUARY, Moose Lake, Minnesota, received $21,560 in support of the Emerging Artist Fellowship Program. Blacklock is dedicated to preserving undeveloped land and providing artists with uninterrupted time and space to develop new work. It fosters creative growth through direct experience, study and interpretation of nature. Its retreat center includes an all-season house, two studios, hiking trails, space for temporary installations and a photographic darkroom. The Emerging Artist Fellowship Program provides artists working in the performing, visual and literary arts with significant periods of uninterrupted residency time for research and creative exploration in a quiet natural setting. Two and four-week residencies are provided at the Sanctuary in Moose Lake and the Nadine Blacklock House on Lake Superior.