Past
Grantees

The MINNESOTA CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $28,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists in the 2007 exhibition season and the provision of services to artists. The Center has presented over 125 exhibitions featuring works by over 1,400 artists. Its mission is to promote the creation and appreciation of the photographic arts. In its main gallery space, the Center mounts group exhibitions, often including emerging artists from New York City and Minnesota. In its Minnesota Projects Gallery, the Center mounts one-person shows featuring experimental, artist-driven work by photographers living in Minnesota. Services to artists include portfolio reviews, classes, workshops and lectures.

Founded in 1990, the MINNESOTA CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $66,300 in support of the Minnesota Projects Gallery. The Center is dedicated to the creation and presentation of photography in the Upper Midwest. The Minnesota Projects Gallery is an artist-driven space that explores new ideas and investigates new directions in an individual's work. To provide a compelling opportunity for Minnesota photographers and to encourage exploration and experimentation, the Center designed a new Minnesota Projects Gallery program that includes exhibition honoraria; subsidies of up to $3,000 for collaborators, rental of equipment, special installation needs, materials and other creative expenses that strengthen the works exhibited; and allocations of up to $2,000 in enrichment funds, which may be used for such purposes as publishing a catalog or brochure, commissioning an essay from a noted critic or curator, and traveling to present the work to galleries elsewhere in the country. This in-depth engagement allows the Center to support emerging artists in substantive ways. Some funding provided through the grant will support the participation of emerging artists in main gallery exhibitions and educational and technical assistance services for emerging artists.

The MINNESOTA COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $6,750 and a membership and general support grant. The Council provides substantial service to itsmembers and to the general public, and promotes responsible and effective philanthropy.

LIZE MOGEL, New York City, will travel to Shanghai and Shenzen, China, to research World Fair sites as a jumping-off point to create work about globalization. She will see the construction site of Expo 2010, the World's Fair under development on the Huangpu Riverfront in Shanghai, and a new factory city in Shenzen where 400,000 workers will produce goods for global consumption. This would be her first opportunity to visit a World's Fair site during its planning and construction phases. This trip will yield rich source material to continue her mappamundi body of work in which she conflates real and imaginary geographies.

Support was awarded to MOON MOLSON for MEADOWLANDZ, a narrative short about a crew of four black street kids who find a drunken African passed out in the hallway of their tenement building. When it is revealed that the drunk is actually the father of Marquis, one of the four teens in the crew, the young men find themselves on a rag-tag journey through the urban darkness in search of a place for the unconscious man to sleep. As the night dwindles on, tensions flare and a final explosion of street codes, machismo and youthful pride threaten to make the place they find for the drunken man to sleep, the bottom of a swamp between New York City and New Jersey-the murky, reed-clotted depths of The Meadows. Although MEADOWLANDZ is a hip-hop neo-noir, instead of glorifying the street culture of violence and misogyny typical of this urban youth culture, the film indicts it as a dangerous code of conduct found in terminal machismo values. The film is a parable on the dangers of peer pressure and humiliation.

The WALKER ART CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $40,000 in support of the Momentum Series. The Walker is a catalyst for the creative expression of artists and the active engagement of audiences, examines the questions that shape and inspire individuals, cultures and communities. The Walker emphasizes the visual, performing and media arts. Funding will be used to commission, develop and present new contemporary dance works by emerging Minnesota choreographers. The new works created will be presented within the festival Momentum: New Dance Works, curated and co-presented by the Walker and The Southern Theater in Minneapolis. Choreographers benefit from the production services offered by these two major presenting institutions and by receiving commissioning funds early in the process to assist in the development of new works.

The Jerome Foundation Board authorized a grant of $12,000 to MOVEMENT RESEARCH, New York City, in support of the publication of dance and movement criticism in the Performance Journal. Movement Research supports emerging ideas and those dance/movement-based artists who engage in such investigations. First published in 1990, the Performance Journal is a forum fostering the exploration and evolution of written and graphic languages that engage current issues of dance and performance. Each issue is conceived by an Artist Editorial Team around a specific topic or structure, and includes contributions from artists, writers, scholars and others.

A two-year grant of $46,000 was awarded to NAUTILUS MUSIC-THEATER, St. Paul, Minnesota, in support of the Composer-Librettist Studio. Nautilus Music-Theater explores the dynamics of individual and communal integrity with artists dedicated to the creation, development and production of new operas and other forms of music-theater, including innovative productions of existing work. The Composer-Librettist Studio is an intensive two-week studio focusing on the process of collaboration through a series of exploratory assignments that deal with the challenges of writing for the music-theater form. The studio is not intended as a developmental activity for existing pieces but concentrates more on the collaborative process, nurturing relationships and suggesting ways that artists can work together.

NEW DRAMATISTS, New York City, received a two-year grant of $80,000 in support of the New Works Process and the Composer-Librettist Studio. Founded in 1949, New Dramatists is dedicated to the playwright. Its mission is to find gifted playwrights and give them the time, space and tools to develop their craft, so that they may fulfill their potential and make lasting contributions to the theatre. New Dramatists offers playwrights an artistic home and self-guided laboratory for seven years in the company of their peers. The New Works Process consists of the Playwrights Lab, a writer-driven readings and workshop series, and Playwright Services, which include symposia, craft discussions, international playwright exchanges, retreats, fellowships, grants, script duplication, writing facilities, a script library, advocacy and other efforts. The Composer-Librettist Studio, undertaken in partnership with Nautilus Music-Theater under the direction of Ben Krywosz, is a two-week studio that focuses on music-theater development and the principles of collaboration. It matches five writers with five composers and five performers to develop new works.

NEW RADIO AND PERFORMING ARTS, Staten Island, New York, received a two-year grant of $36,000 in support of emerging artists commissions to create networked art for Turbulence. This organization fosters the development of new and experimental work for radio and sound arts. Its website, Turbulence.org, was launched in 1996. Turbulence commissions, exhibits and archives works that explore networked technologies, and supports experimentation with distributed real-time multilocation performance events. . The goals are to support the creation of new works that provide meaningful experiences, provoke thought, facilitate dialogue and offer interactive and/or participatory experiences to audiences; and to encourage the dissolution of boundaries between artistic disciplines, artists and non-artists, artists and audiences, and art and science.

DANCE THEATER WORKSHOP, New York City, received $36,000 in support of the Bessie Schnberg/First Light Commissioning Program. Dance Theater Workshop identifies, presents and supports independent contemporary artists and companies to advance dance and live performance in New York and worldwide. Through residencies, commissions and community interaction, Dance Theater Workshop builds the context for work to be created, noted and discussed. Central to its 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 different stages in their careers. The First Light Commissioning Program seeds the creation of new works that are subsequently presented in one of DTW's several series. The commissions range in size from $2,500 to $5,000. Jerome Foundation has supported this commissioning program since 1980.

The NEW YORK MILLS ARTS RETREAT AND REGIONAL CULTURAL CENTER, New York Mills, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $32,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists from Minnesota and New York City in the Arts Retreat Program. The Arts Retreat at New York Mills, founded in 1987, provides a space for artists of all disciplines to work and share their creativity with the surrounding community. An open call draws applicants who request two or four-week retreat residencies. An independent jury reviews applications and selects the Retreat artists. They're housed in a one-bedroom home near the Center and have access to work space. In exchange for the residency, artists are required to devote eight to 15 hours of community service, sharing their knowledge and expertise with the community. The primary purpose of the Retreat is to provide focused time for artists to create new work and revise existing work.

Photographer JUSTIN NEWHALL, Minnesota, will travel to Churchill, Manitoba, reflecting on his craft while exploring the possibilities for a new body of work in, and on his way to, this area, the northernmost terminus of the Canadian Railway. Aesthetically, he is investigating light-the lack of it and its seemingly unended presence. Newhall will also explore imagery about the subject of North in a way that goes beyond simple documentation and becomes a meditation on the idea of place. He also seeks to reflect and grow in a place where stillness and solitude are still possible.

JILA NIKPAY received support for In Waiting, a short eight-minute 16mm experimental film exploring, from an intimate perspective, issues of dislocation. This autobiographical project follows Nikpay's desire to understand and discover the language of nomadic existence, the phenomena of moving between cultures. For inspiration, Nikpay draws upon fairy tales, poetry, political tract, and her own personal history living in self-imposed exile. In Waiting will be formally arranged, celebrating the female body and enticing the viewer to take pleasure in its sensuality. The presence of a female voice will contribute a subconscious counterpoint, portraying a deep desire for belonging, rooted in memory.

Support was awarded to RAMON ALBERTO NUEZ for Concrete Jungles: The True Story of Street Kids in America, a feature-length documentary that looks at the unsettling story of street kids (homeless, runaway, at-risk and outcast) in America. It will examine the invisibility in a largely apathetic society. It will also look at youth outreach programs, what they do, their importance to kids in need, and their struggles to remain operational in a sharply reduced funding environment. Nuez will employ stylistically unusual production elements to make his film both appealing and relevant to the very youth it examines.

INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for choreographer MARGO ABDO O'DELL, received $10,000 in support of the creation and production of the new work Collateral Damage. Intermedia Arts is a multidisciplinary art center whose mission is to build understanding among people through art. It selectively acts as fiscal sponsor for individual artists and their ensembles/companies. Collateral Damage is a three-woman, one-hour, multimedia theatrical presentation that highlights the plight of real women who, because of war or civil strife, face challenges that test their physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being.

Opera singer, performer and composer SUSAN OETGEN, New York City, will travel to Parris Island, South Carolina (USMC Recruit Depot), to observe and investigate the general history, character and culture of life on Parris Island; the command voice as demonstrated by USMC Drill Instructors; and Marine Corps cadence-its use as a physical training tool and its role in forging group identity. The experience will inform the creation of a chamber opera in which she will employ music, dialogue and dance to examine and explore the seeming impossibility of reconciling the social identities of artist and warrior.

Support was awarded to IAN OLDS for Watch it Burn, an hour-long documentary that follows Christian Parenti of The Nation magazine as he pursues a story on the state of Afghanistan five years after September 11th. What emerges is an intimate how the sausage gets made look at journalism in a war zone and, more importantly, a portrait of everyday Afghans trying to cope with the aftermath of America's forgotten war.

The ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE'S, New York City, received $8,000 to support commissions for new works by two emerging composers. These new works will be presented during the 2007 Notable Women festival and the 2007-08 Second Helpings series. The Second Helpings series presents repeat performances of recently written works and premieres of new works, many of those commissioned by St. Luke's. St. Luke's functions both as an orchestra and as a chamber ensemble, presenting a wide range of repertoire. It has premiered and recorded more than 100 new works by contemporary composers.

P.S. 1 CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER, Long Island City, New York, received a grant of $10,000 in support of the Special Projects program. P.S. 1 promotes and exhibits contemporary art in an environment of constant learning and experimentation. Its programs foster uninhibited artistic exploration and stimulate discourse on the complex and dynamic art of our time. The Special Projects program offers a place for emerging artists to work for extended periods of time on projects that develop and flourish within particular spaces. A Special Project may be an installation, a film or video project, or a presentation of paintings or drawings. Anything is possible, and the results usually defy categorization.