Jerome Foundation Announces $4.15M in Grants to 62 Arts Organizations in Minnesota and New York City

The Jerome Foundation is honored to announce the 62 recipients of grants totaling $4,150,334 through its Arts Organization Grants program. These grants support ongoing services, programs and activities in Minnesota and New York City for early career artists who create new works. Funded programs serve artists in dance, film/new media, literature, music, theater and/or visual arts.

Through an open call, the Foundation received more than 300 preliminary inquiries and invited 174 Letter of Intent proposals. Of these, 101 organizations were invited to submit full applications. Separate discipline-specific peer panels composed of leaders in each artistic field reviewed the applications and recommended a roster of grantees to the Jerome Board.

While grants were originally designed to support one or two years of support specifically for programs and services benefitting early career artists, the Foundation at its Board meeting on March 29 decided to give all grantees the option of using the first year of funding for general operating support, if necessary. President Ben Cameron stated,

“With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many arts organizations are facing very real questions about their longer term viability and surival. The Jerome Board of Directors recognizes the long-term impact of these programs the critical role these organizations play in their communities and their deep dedication to artists. They and staff agree that extending flexibility in a spirit of ‘radical trust’ to organizations will ultimately prove the best way to ensure that both programs and organizations will survive these challenging times.”

Program Director Eleanor Savage stated,

“We are deeply grateful to the artists and arts leaders that served on the selection panels for sharing their experience and strategies for supporting early career artists. Their thorough and well considered conversations and respectful deliberations guided our support of these vibrant arts organizations and their dynamic work with early career artists.”

The panels assessed each applicant on four criteria:

• The merit of the proposed programs;
• The organizational feasibility and capacity of the organization to deliver these programs;
• The merit of artists served and the potential impact of the programs for participating artists and for the larger field; and
• The applicant’s demonstrated achievement in and alignment with Jerome’s core values of diversity, innovation/risk, and humility.

Grantee organizations are as follows:

Abrons Arts Center / Henry Street Settlement, New York, for early career New York City-based performing artists in the AIRspace Residency for Performing Artists program.

Brooklyn Arts Exchange, New York, for early career New York City-based dance, theater and performance artists in the Emerging Artist Residencies program.

Danspace Project, New York, for early career New York City-based artists in the Commissioning and Residency Program.

Gina Gibney Dance, Inc., New York, for early career New York City-based artists in the Spotlight Program.

Harlem Stage (aka Aaron Davis Hall, Inc.), New York, for early career New York City-based artists of color in the Fund for New Work program.

The Cowles Center, as fiscal sponsor of Momentum: New Dance Works, Minnesota, for early career dance artists/collectives/collaboratives in the Momentum: New Dance Works program.

Movement Research, New York, for early career New York City-based artists in the MR Artist-in-Residence program.

Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!) and program partner Pepatián, New York, for early career New York City-based artists of color and/or Bronx-based dance artists in the Dance Your Future: Artist & Mentor Collaborative Residency.

Asian American Writers’ Workshop, New York, for early career New York City-based Asian American writers in The Margins Fellowship.

Cave Canem Foundation, Inc., New York, for early career New York City-based poets of color in fall writing workshops and the spring Writing Across Cultures Workshops.

Coffee House Press, Minnesota, for the publication of new books and related activities by early career New York City and Minnesota-based authors.

Kundiman, New York, for early career New York City-based writers in the Kundiman Mentorship Lab for Asian American Writers.

Loft, Inc. (The Loft Literary Center), Minnesota, for early career Minnesota-based writers in the Loft Mentor Series and for early career Minnesota-based writers of color/indigenous writers in the Mirrors and Windows Mentorship program.

Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, Minnesota, for early career incarcerated Minnesota writers over two years in the Mentor Program.

Poets House, New York, for early career New York City-based poets in the Emerging (Early Career) Poets Fellowship.

The Feminist Press, New York, for early career New York City-based authors in the Emerging Feminist Writers Program across three initiatives: publishing, touring and a professional development training program.

The Poetry Project, LTD, New York, for early career New York City-based writers in the Emerge — Surface — Be fellowship program.

Bronx Documentary Center, New York, for early career documentary filmmakers in the BDC Films Fellowship to create new documentary work.

The Eyebeam Atelier, Inc., New York, for early career New York City-based artists in the Eyebeam Residency program.

Firelight Media, Inc., New York, for early career New York City-based filmmakers of color in the Next Step Media Fund to help complete their first feature-length documentary.

Rhizome Communications, Inc., New York, for early career New York City-based artists in the Commissions Program.

St. Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), Minnesota, for early career Minnesota-based artists in in the New Angle program.

American Composers Forum, Minnesota, for the creation of new work for Minnesota and New York City-based early career artists in the ACF Create commissioning program and for early career Minnesota-based artists in the Minnesota Emerging Composers Award program.

Arts for Art, Inc., New York, for early career New York City-based composers in the Jerome/AFA Creative Improvised Music Commission.

The Cedar Cultural Center, Minnesota, for early career Minnesota-based artists in The Cedar Commissions program.

International Contemporary Ensemble, New York, for early career New York City and Minnesota-based composers in its ICEcommons Artists-In-Residence program.

The Jazz Gallery, New York, for early career New York City-based artists in its Residency Commission Program.

Roulette Intermedium, New York, for early career New York City-based composers in its Jerome Commissioning Program and its Jerome Residency Program.

Zeitgeist, Minnesota, for the Emerging Voices program, providing commissioning, development and production of new work by early career Minnesota-based composers.

Dixon Place, New York, for early career artists New York City-based artists in the Commissioning Program.

HERE, New York, for early career New York City-based artists (or artist teams) in the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP).

Lark Theatre Company, Inc., New York, for early career New York City-based playwrights of color under 30 in the New Voices Fellowship.

Monkeybear’s Harmolodic Workshop, Minnesota, for early career Minnesota-based artists of color and Native artists in the creation of new work in the New Puppetworks program.

Musical Theatre Factory, New York, for early career New York City-based musical theatre teams in the MTF Makers program.

National Black Theatre, New York, for early career New York City-based Black playwrights in the I Am SOUL Playwright Residency program.

New Dramatists, Inc., New York, for early career New York City and Minnesota-based playwrights in The Playwrights’ Lab and in The Composer-Librettist Studio.

Pangea World Theater, Minnesota, for early career Minnesota-based artists of color in the Alternate Visions Fellowship.

Pillsbury House Theatre, Minnesota, for early career Minnesota-based performance artists in the Naked Stages program, for new play development for its Mainstage, and for early career Minnesota-based POCI and LGBTQ+ artists displaced by community-based arts organization closures in the Twin Cities.

The Playwrights’ Center, Minnesota, for early career playwrights in the Jerome Fellowships and for playwrights of color in the Many Voices Fellowships.

Open Eye Figure Theatre, as fiscal sponsor of Puppet Lab, Minnesota, for early career artists or teams in the Puppet Lab program.

Soho Repertory Theatre, Inc., New York, for early career New York City-based writers in the Writer/Director Lab and Studio programs.

The Public Theater, New York, for the Devised Theater Working Group for early career New York City-based devised theater makers.

Theater Mu, Minnesota, for early career Minnesota and New York City-based playwrights in the New Performances program.

All My Relations Gallery / Native American Community Development Institute, Minnesota, for Minnesota-based early career American Indian artists in the All My Relations Gallery Artists in Residency program.

Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Inc., Minnesota, for Minnesota or New York City-based early career artists in the Jerome Residency program.

Baxter St at The Camera Club of New York, New York, for early career New York City-based artists in the Workspace Residency.

The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, for early career New York City-based artists in the AIM (Artist in the Marketplace) program.

En Foco, Inc., New York, for early career New York City-based artists in DEEP FOCUS: En Foco’s Media Artist Residency program.

Forecast Public Art, Minnesota, for early career Minnesota-based public artists in the Project and Research Grants program.

Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc., New York, for early career New York City-based artists in The Franklin Furnace Fund program.

Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minnesota, for early career Minnesota-based artists in the Jerome Emerging Printmakers program.

Lanesboro Arts, Minnesota, for early career Minnesota or New York City-based artists in the Lanesboro Artist Residency program.

The Laundromat Project, New York, for New York City-based early career socially-engaged artists to create new work in the Create Change Artist Residencies program.

Lower East Side Printshop, New York, for early career New York City-based artists in the Keyholder Residency program.

Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minnesota, for early career Minnesota-based artists in the MCAD-Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Early Career Artists.

Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minnesota, for early career Minnesota-based artists in the MCBA Book Arts Mentorship and in the MCBA Residency Program.

PARTICIPANT INC, New York, for New York City-based early career artists in the Exhibitions and Public Programs program.

Springboard for the Arts, as fiscal sponsor for Public Functionary, Minnesota, for early career Minnesota-based artists of color in the PF Studio Residency program.

Queens Museum, New York, for early career New York City-based artists in the Fellowship for Emerging Artists.

Smack Mellon Studios, Inc., New York, for early career New York City-based artists in the Artist Studio Program.

The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, for early career New York City or Minnesota-based African and/or Latino descent artists in the Artist in Residence program.

Textile Center of Minnesota, Minnesota, for early career Minnesota-based fiber artists in the Jerome Fiber Artist Project Grants.