Past
Grantees

THE SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for artist KAREN SHERMAN, received $12,000 in support of the creation, development and production of copperhead, a new work to be produced in the fall/winter of 2008. The Southern Theater cultivates artistic exploration by providing a vibrant home for performance, fostering a multiplicity of voices, and catalyzing connections among artists and audiences. Karen Sherman is a choreographer and performance artist whose work is known for its commentary, both humorous and dark, on the human emotional landscape. copperhead explores violence and the relationship among victim, aggressor and place. Excerpts of performance material for copperhead will be workshopped before the 2008 premiere.

Photographer XAVIERA SIMMONS, New York City, will travel to Istanbul, Turkey, to study the history of that country's women's rights movement with a focus on birthing and child bearing practices, through meetings with women's advocacy and health organizations. Simmons expects the journey to enrich, enlighten and encourage her artistic pursuits. Her photographs explore a non-fixed and multiple self.

THE SOAP FACTORY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $30,000 in support of the participation of emerging New York City and Minnesota artists in the 2007 Exhibition Program. This alternative space is dedicated to the production, presentation and promotion of emerging contemporary practice across the visual arts. Committed to experimentation and risk taking, The Soap Factory encourages a wider understanding of and appreciation for artists and their work. The 2007 program began with the Art Shanties project on Medicine Lake. It continues with a Circuit Bending Festival and a group exhibition curated from submissions to the annual open call. Curatorial processes are designed to insure a variety of viewpoints and aesthetics. Independent curators bring exhibition concepts and new artists to the mix. Each season, The Soap Factory serves approximately 100 emerging artists and is steadily increasing its visibility and reach.

GABRIELLA SPIERER received funding toward the production of Raising Inmate 3851, a documentary that takes a look at the practice of prosecuting children as adults in the United States, a phenomenon that has put thousands of children behind bars with adult criminals. It unfolds in segments, using personal stories to illustrate different aspects of the problem. The idea of the film is to offer glimpses into the lives of children who committed crimes, their parents and the authorities, in order to raise questions about and provide perspectives on the real consequences of judicial and legislative policies.

LAURA SPLAN, New York City, will travel to Chicago, Illinois; Washington, D.C.; London, England; and Rome and Florence, Italy; to study the history of medical instruments, imaging and procedures, particularly the unique histories behind instrument invention and development within their respective cultural and scientific contexts. Splan is interested in the cultural relationships between form and function. These investigations will inform her conceptually and research based work, which attempts to represent the complex cultural histories within science.

Artistic Directors DAWN STOPPIELLO and MARK CONIGLIO, New York City, will travel to Berlin, Germany, to work closely with dramaturge Peter Salis on Troika Ranch's next evening-length hybrid performance piece and to study German in an immersive class in Berlin. Working with Salis will be the first time that the two Artistic Directors of Troika Ranch have included a dramaturge during the formative stages of a new work. Salis previously worked with them on examining how viewers will read iconic images in different ways depending upon the practices established in the piece itself. The three weeks of study will enable the artists to analyze images and narratives, clarify themes, edit images and gain a greater understanding of creative processes and narrative choices.

The Foundation made a grant of $21,000 to STREB@SLAM/RINGSIDE, Brooklyn, New York, in support of a pilot Emerging Artists Commissioning Program. Elizabeth Streb has developed a lexicon of action, a way of moving, that investigates and deconstructs many notions about dance such as the nature of grace, the camouflage of gravity, the presence or absence of transitions, gender distinctions, the investigation of spatial and temporal dimensions and the incorporation of action-sound and specifically structured equipment into theatrical presentations. The new home of the company, SLAM, provides a space for multidisciplinary experimentation. The Emerging Artists Commissioning Program will use the space as a site for investigations. An open call will invite artists to apply for commissions, production subsidies and access to space and equipment to develop new works. Applicants will be asked to state why their work can best be developed within the special environment and resources of SLAM.

KELLY STUART and EMRAH KANISICAK, New York City, will travel to Turkey to interview, transcribe and translate songs and stories of The Dengbej Singers, and then use this material to create a music-theatre piece. Their collaborative work will focus on the act of translation, and loss of a culture, specifically Kurdish culture in Turkey. The Dengbej Singers carry cultural stories through music and oral literature. Their study will be assisted by a connection with the Dicle First Culture Center and by a connection with singer Shoe Shiner Seyidxan.

The TEXTILE CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $16,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists in the Exhibition Program, intensive seminars and workshops, and access to the dye lab. The Textile Center honors textile traditions and promotes excellence and innovation in fiber art, which encompasses a wide range of forms including weaving, quilting, knitting, sewing, needlework, lace making, basketry and beading. Jerome support for emerging professional textile artists, given annually to the Center since 1995, is applied to three program tracks: the participation of emerging artists in the Exhibition Program, advancing the professional development of emerging artists through intensive seminars and workshops, and providing access to the well equipped and state-of-the-art dye lab.

No Press Release Information on this Grant

RAY TINTORI received a grant for Glory at Sea!, a narrative short that takes place in 2008 New Orleans after another Katrina-like storm. The story's hero, Jake, and his girlfriend Tess sink into the clutches of Hell-not a fiery inferno, but an expanse of condemned souls planted like cornstalks at the bottom of the ocean. As Tess sinks into the sand, Jake is suddenly spat back up toward the surface. He emerges from the water, half alive, and finds himself in a mangled, dystopic American landscape. He begins constructing a raft out of the rubble of the city, planning on going to sea alone to rescue Tess. As he builds, survivors who also have loved ones lost in the underwater Hades begin to emerge from the bombed-out wasteland. Defying a clergy that declares Jake a pariah and his mission an affront to God's will, a community of fierce and devastated people join him in his epic task, seemingly doomed to failure. Jake's raft slowly transforms from a mere vehicle into a sprawling shrine of memorials and sentiments dedicated to the victims lost beneath the water. Driven by longing, desire, and their refusal to accept the idea that their loved ones were meant to die, they set sail to stage a veritable prison break from death itself. Glory at Sea! Is a film about love, loss, and hope, built from the rubble that still blankets every corner of New Orleans.

Performing artists, creators and clowns GALEN TREUER, NOAH BREMER, MEGAN ODELL AND VANESSA VOSKUIL, Minnesota, will travel to Campinas, Brazil, to attend two weeks of intensive study with the Lume Teatro company. Coinciding with the Carnival season, Lume's intensive workshops encompass clowns, butoh, dance and theater practices. The four artists expect to be artistically and physically challenged and will return to Minnesota with new skills to enrich their art making and teaching.

TROIKA RANCH, New York City, received a grant of $10,000 to support the creation and development of a new work. Troika Ranch is the collaborative vision of artists Dawn Stoppiello and Mark Coniglio. They create and produce live performances, interactive installations and digital films, combining traditional aspects of these forms with advanced technologies. Jerome is supporting the creation and development of Loop Divers, which is conceived as a metaphor for the repetition experienced by all maturing human beings. The form of the work stems from two omnipresent features of contemporary popular music: looping and sampling. The artists will explore stability, turbulence and instability in this work.

TU DANCE, St. Paul, Minnesota, received $12,000 to support the creation and production of new works in 2007. Founded by Co-Artistic Directors Uri Sands and Toni Pierce-Sands, the mission of TU Dance is to create, produce and deliver dance performances that excite diverse audiences. This commitment by the Jerome Foundation marks the fifth year of support.

VOCALESSENCE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $25,000 in support of the 2007 Essentially Choral Program. VocalEssence explores the interaction of voices and instruments through innovative programming of music, past and present. Its audiences expect the unexpected. The purpose of Essentially Choral is to support the development of new works by emerging composers, explore diverse compositional styles, cultivate the career development of emerging composers, break traditional boundaries of composition and provide new repertoire for the choral music field. The program includes informational seminars, professional development opportunities, two rehearsals of the composers' works with the chorus under the direction of Philip Brunelle, group and one-on-one sessions with conductor Brunelle and a senior composer mentor, critique sessions with peer composers and a culminating reading rehearsal that is recorded for the composers' use.

VOICE & VISION, New York City, received a two-year grant of $20,500 in support of the ENVISION Retreat and Lab. Voice & Vision was founded in 1990 to develop and produce vibrant theater works with women artists at the core. It offers emerging female theater artists from all cultures, disciplines and backgrounds opportunities to develop their voices and visions in a professional theater context. Through a competitive submission process, six to eight projects are selected each year for the summer Retreat. After that concludes, the structure and content of the ENVISION Lab are determined, and plans for future development of the works are discussed. The Lab may involve readings, workshops and research.

Composer JEREMY R. WALKER, Minnesota, will travel to New York, New Orleans, and East Lansing, Michigan, to participate in intensive study of composition and piano with acknowledged jazz masters. Walker is transitioning from a saxophonist to composer/pianist because of health problems that prevent him from playing the saxophone. He will study with Ted Nash and Frank Kimbrough in New York, travel to Michigan to study with Wessel Anderson and then move to New Orleans to study with Ellis Marsalis.

Bedlam Theatre Artistic Director MAREN WARD, Minnesota, will participate in the Cornerstone Institute for community-based theater in Holtville, California. This is part of a six-month study and exploration of various techniques and processes for creating original theater with community. She seeks to understand her own work in a larger context, expand her creation tool box and, ultimately, strengthen the quality and impact of the performances she creates.

Composer and performer JENNIFER WEIR, Minnesota, will travel to Seoul, Korea, to study traditional Korean Samulnori drumming, specifically the hourglass shaped changgo drum. Weir is a founding performing member of Mu Daiko in Minneapolis and a member of the all-women's ensemble JoDaiko. Weir's purpose, in this trip, is to integrate Korean and Japanese musical influences in her taiko compositions, and better reflect her identity in her art. The travel will inspire a new composition, tentatively titled Unknown Home. She will study Korean drumming with Dong-Won Kim in Seoul.

LUCI WESTPHAL was awarded support for All's Well and Fair, an hour-long documentary that gives a unique perspective on growth and identity, choice and consequence, through portraying three punk rock mothers and their children over a ten-year interval of life on the fringes of society. Giving voice to the three mothers as well as to their five children, All's Well and Fair questions the stereotypes of welfare moms and alternative culture. It also examines the pitfalls of capitalism and mass market culture and living on the cusp of poverty. Do these women lead lives of integrity outside of the mainstream system, or have they just subjected themselves and their children to living in poverty and feeding off the system? And did they actually have a choice? The documentary ultimately focuses on the idea of knowing and being yourself.