Past
Grantees

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $282,000 for composers commissions, performance outreach grants and the provision of technical assistance to composers. The Forum links communities with composers and performers, encouraging the making, playing and enjoyment of new music. It develops programs that educate todays and tomorrows audiences, energize composers careers, stimulate entrepreneurship and collaboration, promote musical creativity and serve as models of effective support for the arts. The Composers Commissioning Program requires a joint application from a composer and either a performer or presenting organization with a commitment to premiering the proposed work. The CCP empowers composers to take the initiative in developing their own creative visions and pursing the ensembles of their choice. In 1997, the Forum established the Performance Outreach Grants, a pool of funds to encourage performers to give multiple performances of their newly commissioned works, particularly before audiences that may be relatively unfamiliar with new music. Finally, Jerome funding was authorized for the provision of direct services to emerging composers.

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS ORCHESTRA, New York City, presents a wide spectrum of contemporary American orchestral music. It has programmed over 450 works by over 400 composers, including 104 world premieres. It produces an annual subscription season at Carnegie Hall. Central to its mission is the development of new work and the promotion of composers whose work is little known or infrequently played on the national stage. Jerome Foundation made a grant of $15,000 in support of commissions, orchestral readings and services to emerging composers from Minnesota and/or New York City.

AMERICAN OPERA PROJECTS, Brooklyn, New York, received $20,000 to support the participation of emerging composers and librettists in the First Chance Program. American Opera Projects develops, nurtures and produces new American operas and innovative projects in music theater. It commissions new works from composers and librettists and presents the pieces in workshop settings. The First Chance Program provides composers and librettists with an opportunity to hear their works performed before audiences in semi-staged productions.

The ANDERSON CENTER, Red Wing, Minnesota, received $32,900 over two years in support of residencies of emerging Minnesota and New York City artists. The Anderson Center provides a residence community for writers, artists, scientists and humanists, situated on 330 acres of farm and forest land comprising the Tower View Estate. The Center, which recently became a fully accredited member of the National Alliance of Artists Communities, issues an open call for proposals from artists working in any discipline and conducts a competitive review process, using the expertise of an independent review panel. Jerome funds are restricted to those artists who are eligible both in terms of their career level and their geographic base.

Musician MARC ANDERSON received a grant to spend one month in Beijing, China, studying percussion and Chinese temple music with Li Zhen Gui at the Central Conservatory of Music. He is interested in a formal, firsthand cultural investigation of Chinese music to appreciate fully the art form. Ultimately, Anderson intends to make a recording of temple songs.

ART IN GENERAL, New York City, has received annual support from the Jerome Foundation for its exhibition program and for a Minnesota artist residency program. A supplemental grant of $5,000 was authorized to enable Art in General to provide direct services to individual emerging artists. Services include SMart TOOLs Sessions, which are seminars to propel career development. The funds will allow for individual meetings with artists, review of portfolios, the further development of the artist resource room and on-line services.

ART IN GENERAL, New York City, received a two-year grant of $40,000 to support the participation of emerging artists in the exhibition program and to offer professional services to emerging artists. Art in General exhibits work by local, national and international artists. The organization presents gallery exhibitions, sponsors an artist-in-residence program, commissions sound/audio works, presents video screenings and shows work in its ground floor window. Exhibitions include a few touring projects, site-specific commissioned work, one-person residencies, group thematic exhibitions and guest organized shows. Funding for the current year will support ten temporary sited public works and interventions in honor of the organizations 20th anniversary.

ASIAN AMERICAN RENAISSANCE, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a grant of $35,000 in support of the Artist Career Development Program and other programs serving artists. By boosting the Asian-American network of artists and audiences, a sense of Asian-American community is fostered through the collective self-recognition of culture and identity. The Career Development Program is a re-granting effort open to individual, emerging Asian-American artists working in any arts discipline and residing in Minnesota. Projects are individually designed and reviewed by an independent panel. Asian American Renaissance also sponsors workshops and master classes taught by nationally recognized Asian-American artists.

Dancer AMY ELAINE BEHM received funding to spend 19 days attending an intensive workshop at EDAM in Vancouver, British Columbia. EDAM is a contemporary dance school that investigates improvisational movement. Behm has spent the last 15 years studying with and being influenced by many mentors and choreographers. She enjoyed this time, but it was often more about accommodating or interpreting others work than exploring her own movement. This workshop will provide Behm with the opportunity and time to explore her own unique vision and movement style.

Photographer SUSAN BOECHER received a grant to travel to numerous towns throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin to conduct research and integrate findings via photographic works. Boecher is working on a series of black and white infrared photographs that examine the concept of quality free time and how contemporary society chooses to use it. She will travel to tourist sites, public social events, and family gatherings. Boechers photographs capture moments of personal isolation and reflection.

Choreographer DJOLA BRANNER and drummer AARON BARNELL were awarded a grant to study Haitian dance and folklore for four weeks in New York City. As one of the very few Haitian dance instructors/choreographers in the Twin Cities, Branner sees a need to study with teachers in other parts of the country to challenge himself as a student. Branner will study Haitian dance with Mona Estime, one of his mentors. Branner and Barnell work together collaboratively. Barnell will study rhythm and drumming with John Amira.

Writer TESSA BRIDAL, Albertville, was awarded a grant to spend four weeks in Uruguay where she will conduct interviews with now adult children adopted after their parents disappeared during the 1970s and 80s when Uruguay was under military rule. Six South American countries were involved in this illicit adoption scheme known as the Condor Plan. Bridal was born and raised in Uruguay. After finishing her investigation, Bridal plans to write a nonfiction book about these adopted children and their families.

The BRONX COUNCIL ON THE ARTS, Bronx, New York, received $30,000 over two years for the Longwood Cyber Studio Fellowship Program. This initiative serves artists exploring cyber technology as a creative tool. The purpose is to provide opportunities for artists to work privately or collaboratively to create new work within a supportive and creative environment. The program provides access to fully equipped computers, software and the Internet. It also provides consultants and an honorarium for each Fellowship winner. Works are presented in the Longwood Cyber Arts Gallery.

Composer JEFFREY BROOKS received funding to spend six days in New York working with Bang on a Can All-Stars on the further development and rehearsal of his latest work Skeleton Crew. The work will premiere at Merkin Concert Hall in New York in late June. Bang on a Can All-Stars is a progressive new music ensemble. Collaboration with the group will improve the quality of this performance and advance Brooks recognition as a composer.

THE PLAYWRIGHTS CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for playwright CARLYLE BROWN, was awarded a grant of $10,000 in support of the production of Browns The Masks of Othello. This multimedia performance piece traces the journey of the play Othello, The Moor of Venice, by William Shakespeare, through the centuries. This play about a play highlights the famous actors and moments in the original plays production history and the popular, critical, and social reactions it has prompted over time.

LINDA BRYANT & LAURA POITRAS received funding for Flag Wars, a cinema verite documentary about the conflicting issues in a working class black neighborhood when white gays and lesbians move into the area.

Musician DAVID B. BURK received a grant to spend ten days attending the fifth annual Arabic Music Retreat at Mount Holyoke College in Springfield, Massachusetts. Burk will study with master Arabic musicians. He will focus his study on the oud, a Middle Eastern instrument; the maqam, a complex system of scales used in Arabic music; Arabic rhythmic theory; and the development of traditions and regional differences in Arabic music.

CHRYS CARROLL, education coordinator at Franklin ArtWorks, was awarded a grant to spend two weeks in New Zealand gathering information about alternative spaces and the incorporation of Maori art into exhibition and educational programming. She will investigate effective programs that may strengthen her organizations programming in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis.

CAVE CANEM, New York City, operates several programs designed to advance the work of emerging African American poets. This is an organization that recognizes and supports talent and potential, and has developed nurturing yet rigorous methods for advancing the quality of the work of African American writers. Jerome Foundation funding of $25,000 will support the participation of emerging poets in the annual summer workshop/retreat, a New York City writers workshop, a Minnesota writers workshop and a Minnesota Master Class.

A grant award of $10,000 was authorized to The CENTER FOR HMONG ARTS AND TALENT, St. Paul, Minnesota, an organization that nurtures and develops Hmong artists, provides opportunities and leadership training, educates the general public to better understand and appreciate Hmong arts and advocates for its community through the arts. Jerome dollars will support the publication of two issues of Paj Ntaub Voice, a literary arts journal focused on Hmong art and culture, containing original literary work, visual art and cultural criticism. Calls for submissions are issued twice a year. An advisory/editorial board and editor Mai Neng Moua read and select works for publication. Paj Ntaub Voice blends old with new, reflecting the artistic soul of the Hmong-American community. It helps Hmong writers and artists move forward an oral culture with little written literary identity. In addition to publication, the Jerome Foundation grant will support a writing workshop to assist Hmong writers with the craft of writing.