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A grant was awarded to CALEB WOOD in support of his experimental hand drawn animated film, MN: Animated Portrait of Minnesota, which focuses on Minnesotas diverse and unique landscapes, wild life, and humanity. The film will stagger back and forth from nature and wildlife to civilization and human behavior. The juxtaposition of these elements will present the year long observed relationship that Minnesotans have with their seasonal environment, ranging from oblivious to harmonious. It will also highlight the beauty of the state's designated and untouched wildlife. A balance between nature and humanity will be the underlying motif. The overall message of MN: Animated Portrait of Minnesota is to present a series of truths that the state of Minnesota holds. The film will be a didactic look at the environment, as well as a work aiming to push the boundaries of how hand drawn animation can be made and used to share experiences in life. This is not a narrative story with a clear conclusion, it is a collection of moments, found through personal exploration in art and environment, composed in a poetic manner.

GRAYWOLF PRESS, St. Paul, Minnesota received a two-year grant of $40,000 to support the publication of emerging artists titles in 1998 and 1999. For more than 21 years, Graywolf Press has been publishing creative literature by contemporary writers. It is committed to promoting promising literary authors who may be overlooked in other publishing environments. It publishes works in poetry, fiction, memoir, criticism and creative nonfiction. Now under the direction of Fiona McCrae, Graywolf published 16 titles in the 1996-97 program year; and hopes to expand that number over the next two years.

Playwright, actor and director T. MYCHAEL RAMBO received funding to travel to Rambo, Dallas and Austin, Texas, as well as Charleston, South Carolina; Los Angeles, California and Costa Rica. In 1856, Rambo, Texas was settled by Colonel Gale Rambo and his former slave Lydia, T. Mychael Rambos great, great grandmother. Through interviews with family members and others, he will create a multidisciplinary theater piece about the turn of the century in Rambo, Texas, a thriving community of Black Americans, known as the first Freedman City in East Texas.

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $282,000 in support of the Jerome Composers Commissioning Program, serving emerging New York City and Minnesota composers, the subito program and consulting services for emerging composers. The Forum nurtures the creative spirit of composers and communities. It provides opportunities for composers and their music to flourish. Since 1978, Jerome Foundation has supported the Composers Commissioning Program. Composers apply with a performer/performing ensemble or a presenting organization that is committed to premiering the new work. The subito program provides small grants to composers who have particular opportunities to advance their careers. This substantial commitment to the Forum supports many commissioning and professional development subsidies for emerging composers in the Foundation's two geographic regions.

The Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a grant of $10,000 to NEW DRAMATISTS, New York City, in support of the participation of emerging composers and playwrights in the 1998 Composer Librettist Studio. Scheduled for June of 1998, the Studio will be directed by Nautilus Music-Theater Artistic Director Ben Krywosz. This studio is a workshop for playwrights and composers seeking an introduction to the collaborative process of music-theater creation.

Zoe Beloff - Where Were There Where, an interactive film on CD ROM which is centered around the play "Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights" by Gertrude Stein, in the sense of finding a contemporary formal equivalent in digital media for the radical restructuring of the 1938 text. Also, as a playful philosophical investigation of the relationship between electricity, logic and language games that Stein's work inspires. Thus opening the text up to parallel radical perspectives in the work of I.P. Pavlov, Alan Turing and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

AARON DAVIS HALL, New York City, received a grant of $18,000 in support of commissions to emerging creative artists within the 2001 Fund for New Work. Aaron Davis Hall is entering its third decade of service as Harlems principal center for the performing arts. It presents a dynamic set of programs in theater, music, art, film and dance, programs reflecting the rich and diverse heritage and traditions of the Harlem community as well as New York City and the nation. The Fund for New Work is thematically and functionally tied to the program series New Faces/New Voices/New Visions. Jerome Foundation provides support for commissions that go directly to emerging artists to develop new works.

PHILIP RUKAVINA was awarded a grant to spend one and a half months in Basel, Switzerland, to study solo lute performance with Hopkinson Smith, one of the worlds most accomplished lutenists. Rukavina will also pursue performance opportunities in Europe.