May 2012 General Grants Program Press Release

The Jerome Foundation Board of Directors met on May 11, 2012, to review 377 applications and the renewal of two programs that award grants to individuals.  Directors authorized 19 grants and one membership in the General Grants Program for a total of $821,550, as described below.  Directors also committed funds totaling $415,000 for the 2012-13 New York City and Minnesota Film and Video Programs.  Directors authorized 32 Travel and Study grants totaling $134,271 and nine grants totaling $130,000 in the New York City Film and Video Program.  Press releases on the Travel and Study grants and the Film and Video grants are posted on the Foundation’s website.

Harvestworks, New York City, received $17,000 in support of the creation, development, and production of new works created by emerging digital media artists in the Creative Residencies Program.  The mission of Harvestworks is to support the creation and presentation of experimental artworks achieved through the use of new and evolving technologies.  Its goals are to create an environment where artists make work inspired and achieved by electronic media; bring together innovative practitioners from all branches of the arts collaborating in the use of electronic media; create a responsive public context for the appreciation of new work by presenting finished work; and advance the art community’s and the public’s agenda for the use of technology in art.  The Creative Residencies Program commissions artists and supports them through the production process.  Artists are given stipends, access to first-rate equipment, and expert artist/engineers to help them produce their work.

The Camera Club of New York, New York City, received $14,000 in support of solo exhibitions in the Darkroom Residency Program.  The Camera Club is a home for photographers to develop their craft, providing both a hands-on, working facility and a collegial environment for discussion and the exchange of ideas.  Its mission is to promote the art and science of photography through exhibitions, lectures, classes, residencies, a blog, newsletter, and special events.  It provides low-cost workspace to members.  The Darkroom Residency Program provides full-year access to darkroom facilities, a shooting studio, and two digital scanning stations.  The Program supports the work of outstanding emerging photographers based in New York City by offering them free workspace with stipends and a culminating solo exhibition in a nurturing, photo-friendly environment.

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), New York City, received a two-year grant of $46,000 in support of the Workspace Program.  LMCC is an advocate and service provider to artists and arts groups downtown and is deeply committed to the relationship among art, culture, and quality of life.  Workspace offers free individual studios for nine months to talented, emerging artists through an open call and panel review process.  Up to 30 emerging visual artists and writers are given the space, time, and resources to develop new work.  Artists receive stipends, opportunities to network within the arts community, and access to additional resources and services to help strengthen their careers.  Artists participate in a weekly Salon Series, which presents valuable opportunities to gain feedback from and share their work with leading curators, gallerists, museum directors, critics, agents, publishers, and educators. 

Cave Canem, Brooklyn, New York, received $18,000 in support of the participation of emerging New York City-based writers in two writing workshops.  Cave Canem is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets.  The organization was founded on the premise that African American poets deserve and benefit from having a place of their own in the literary landscape.  Jerome funds will support a fall 2012 workshop titled Worth Repeating, which will consider the uses of repetition from a variety of angles in eight sessions.  In the spring of 2013, Cave Canem will offer an eight-session workshop titled Writing across Cultures, open to emerging poets of color and Arab American poets.  Participants will be encouraged to push beyond their comfort zones; experiment with new forms, grammars, and vocabularies; and consider cultural inflections on poetics.

The Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), Brooklyn, New York, received $10,000 in support of its Artists in Residence program.  BAX’s mission is to encourage artistic risk-taking and stimulate dialogue among diverse constituencies by providing a nurturing, year-round performance, rehearsal, and educational venue.  From residencies leading to award-winning work, to low-cost
space rental, to classes for the very youngest aspiring artists, BAX has purposefully constructed programs that support the full trajectory of artistic development.  The Artist-in-Residence program is an urban residency extending over two years.  It is tailored to meet each artist’s needs, process, and artistic practice.  Each artist receives 250 hours of rehearsal space per year and an annual stipend.  The residency includes consultations with the artistic director, group meetings with the six resident artists, and opportunities to present works at BAX.

Performance Space 122 (P. S. 122), New York City, received $25,000 in support of three commissions, residency fees, and administrative costs for the commissioning program.  P. S. 122 is dedicated to supporting and presenting artists whose work challenges the traditional boundaries of dance, theatre, music, and performance.  Committed to exploring innovative form as well as material, P. S. 122 is steadfast in its search for pioneering artists from a diversity of cultures and points of view.  The result is robust, innovative, and diverse commissioned work produced during fall and spring presenting seasons and COIL, a winter festival of contemporary performance.  P. S. 122 starts the commissioning process with the artist, not the project.  A long-term commitment gives artists the freedom and security they need to take the aesthetic risks that will hone their artistic voice and practice and lead to art works that garner the attention of fellow presenters and funders, thus furthering careers.  P. S. 122 is working to increase the level of the commissioning fees, add creative residencies, provide additional production support, and secure adequate funding for rehearsal and presentation weeks.  Jerome support will underwrite three commissions and creative residencies leading to production.

The Playwrights’ Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $90,000 in support of an expanded Many Voices Fellowship Program.  The Center champions playwrights and new plays to build upon a living theater that demands new and innovative works.  The Many Voices Program is designed to increase cultural diversity in the contemporary theater, both locally and nationally, to competitively selected playwrights who are given stipends, educational support, peer connection, and opportunities to develop new works with theater professionals.  The Center redesigned the Many Voices Program to address the themes of mentorship, visibility, and impact.  The fellowship component of the program is receiving additional support to raise the stipend level and increase the development funding available for new works.  The fellowship will be open to national applicants who are willing to relocate to Minnesota for the duration of the fellowship year.  A mentorship track will serve primarily Twin Cities-based applicants but will be open to any emerging playwright who wishes to relocate to take advantage of the opportunity.  The objective of the mentorship track is to create a safe and supportive community in which Many Voices playwrights can begin to formulate a career trajectory, learn and practice their craft, take artistic risks, and develop new relationships with peers and mentors.

The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $182,300 in support of the MCAD-Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Emerging Artists.  The Minneapolis College of Art and Design educates individuals to be professional artists and designers, pioneering thinkers, creative leaders, and engaged global citizens.  Since 1982, MCAD has partnered with the Jerome Foundation to support emerging Minnesota artists through a fellowship program.  Artists eligible for these fellowships may work in a variety of visual art media.  An open call and panel review process awards $10,000 grants to five artists each year.  During the 12-month fellowship period, artists receive studio visits from professional critics, access to technical assistance, a culminating exhibition at the MCAD gallery, a catalog with critical essays on each artist’s work, and an opportunity to take part in a public panel discussion of their work.

Franklin Furnace, Brooklyn, New York, received a two-year grant of $80,000 in support of the Franklin Furnace Fund.  The mission of Franklin Furnace is to present, preserve, interpret, proselytize, and advocate on behalf of avant-garde art, especially forms that may be vulnerable due to institutional neglect, their ephemeral nature, or politically unpopular content.  It serves artists by providing both physical and virtual venues for the presentation of time-based visual art, installation art, performance art, and variable media art.  The Franklin Furnace Fund awards grants to emerging artists, allowing them to produce major works in New York.  A panel of artists reviews proposals and selects recipients.  Grants range between $2,000 and $10,000.  Jerome funding supports artists who live in the five boroughs of New York City.  

ETHEL’s Foundation for the Arts, New York City, received $16,000 in support of the HomeBaked Commissioning Program.  Jerome support will subsidize the offering of three commissions to emerging New York City-based composers.  ETHEL invigorates contemporary concert music with imaginative programming and exceptional artistry.  The string quartet is renowned as a passionate interpreter of today’s most exciting music, and as an initiator and incubator for string quartet repertoire.  The HomeBaked program commissions innovative emerging composers to create compositions that challenge the ensemble as musical artists and expand their reach to an ever-evolving compositional scene and a diverse contemporary audience.

Four Way Books, New York City, received $15,000 in support of the publication of two volumes by emerging New York City authors and their tours to promote the books.  Four Way Books is an independent literary press publishing both poetry and fiction.  It seeks to please and expand the literary audience and to nurture the gifts of talented adult writers, representing a wide range of geographic, cultural, and economic backgrounds.

Mabou Mines, New York City, received $30,000 in support of the Suite Resident Artist Program for emerging artists in New York City.  Mabou Mines is an artist-driven experimental theater collective generating original works and re-imagined adaptations of classic plays through multidisciplinary, technologically inventive collaborations among its members and a wide world of contemporary composers, writers, musicians, puppeteers, and visual artists.  The Resident Artist Program offers emerging artists the opportunity to experience the long-term, process-oriented method of developing work practiced by Mabou Mines.  The program is open to small companies and individual artists in all fields who are interested in investigating compelling performance ideas.  The program offers emerging artists mentoring from the artistic directors of Mabou Mines, stipends, rehearsal and performance space, and administrative and technical assistance.  Participants attend monthly meetings, creating an artistic community through shared ideas, and show their work at the program’s culmination. 

Danspace Project, New York City, received a two-year grant of $65,000 in support of commissions to emerging New York City and/or Minnesota-based choreographers for the presentation of new works in the Danspace Project season.  Danspace Project supports a vital community of contemporary dance artists in the historic St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery.  Danspace supports a diverse range of choreographers in developing their work, encourages experimentation, and connects artists to audiences.  Its commissioning initiative is the foundation of its mission.

Soho Repertory Theatre, New York City, received a two-year grant of $30,000 in support of the creation, development and production of new works by emerging playwrights or performance ensembles based in New York City.  Soho Rep, a hub for innovative contemporary theater, is dedicated to artistic excellence by supporting distinctive, diverse, and pioneering theater.  Jerome dollars will support new play development programming, which includes a Writer/Director Lab that fosters ongoing relationships between early career writers and directors in the creation of new plays.  The Studio is a commissioning and development program that is project specific, and strengthens theatrical works in development, constituting the engine behind the mainstage.  Soho Rep produces annual seasons that include works by emerging playwrights.

In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $18,000 in support of PuppetLab, a laboratory for the development of emerging puppet and mask theatre works.  Drawing inspiration from the world’s traditions of puppet and mask theatre and its lively roots in transformative ritual and street theatre, In the Heart of the Beast creates vital, poetic theatre for all ages and backgrounds.  PuppetLab is an intensive seven-month workshop process engaging four emerging artists or artist teams in extending their artistic vision.  It culminates in performances of the artists’ new puppet-based work.  Artists are selected from an open call and panel review process.

VSA Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $38,000 in support of Project Grants for Artists with Disabilities and developmental programs and services provided to professional artists with disabilities.  The mission of VSA Minnesota is to create a community where people with disabilities can learn through, participate in, and access the arts.  The purpose of the Project Grants is to encourage the creation of new artistic work by emerging Minnesota artists with disabilities.  Grants may fund the creation and production of new work, travel to research and present new work, professional documentation of new work, purchase of supplies or equipment to create new work, professional development, and rental of space to create and present new work.  An open call and panel review process determine the annual selection of Project Grant recipients.

For further information about these grants, please contact Jerome Foundation Program Director Robert Byrd, Program Officer Eleanor Savage, or President Cynthia Gehrig at 651.224.9431 or 1.800.995.3766.  Visit the Jerome Foundation on the Web at www.jeromefdn.org.

The Jerome Foundation, created by artist and philanthropist Jerome Hill (1905-1972), seeks to contribute to a dynamic and evolving culture by supporting the creation, development, and production of new works by emerging artists.  The Foundation makes grants to not-for-profit arts organizations and artists in Minnesota and New York City.