Past
Grantees

A special, one time grant of $10,000 was authorized to the SOUTHERN THEATER FOUNDATION, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of a unique collaborative opportunity for CHRIS AIKEN, who has drawn together five expert contact improvisation choreographers and dancers. The group includes Steve Paxton, a seminal figure in dance and the creator of what is known as contact improvisation; Kirstie Simson, one of the most respected dance teachers and performers of dance improvisation in Great Britain; Ka Rustler, known in Europe for her innovative work as co-director of a center for new dance, Tanzfabrik; and Ray Chung, a performer and choreographer with whom Aiken has worked before. The drawing together of this group of exceptional artists working collaboratively with Aiken will challenge and expand his own work. From the perspective of audiences, it will be an incredible opportunity to see the best contact improvisers. A residency at Jacobs Pillow will launch the project. The artists will then travel to Minneapolis for a week of teaching and performances at the Southern Theater in October of 1998.

A grant of $15,000 was authorized for the ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER, New York City, in support of a New Choreographers Initiative. Six dancers within the company will be given the opportunity to choreograph new pieces for workshop presentation this year. Artistic Director Judith Jamison will then select one of those choreographer-dancers and commission him or her to create a new work for the Ailey season. This should be a valuable experience for those emerging choreographers who will benefit from having exceptionally skilled dancers available to them and the artistic support of Judith Jamison.

DOUG AITKEN received funding for Eraser, a process-based experimental film that follows a perfectly linear path, from North to South, for exactly six miles, exploring the effects of the Soufrieres volcano on the small Caribbean Island of Monserrat. In the process of making this journey, however, viewers will encounter a transformation that takes them from a tranquil garden island, to a landscape that reaches a point of complete abstraction, and ultimately reductive silver-gray landscape absent of any light, form or human activity-a void of absolute emptiness and neutrality.

Omonike Akinyemi - Nelly's Bodega, a 25-minute, color, 16mm drama that details the development of a friendship between Fatima, a twelve-year-old African-American girl, and Nelly, a physically abused Latina woman. It is through Fatima that Nelly realizes she must look to the literal and spiritual child within her for happiness and leave a marriage riddled with battery. When Nelly comes to this realization the entire neighborhood in which she lives begins to heal as well.

THE ALTERNATIVE MUSEUM, New York City, received a grant of $10,000 to support two group exhibitions featuring works by emerging artists in the 1998-99 program year. The Museums goals are to provide a professional showcase for artists, leadership with an artist perspective within the Museum profession, and an atmosphere in which ideas can be presented and challenged. The Museum shifted its program from issue oriented art to programs which use technology to enhance or extend aesthetic communication, often about cultural issues. Programming concentrates on media-based arts such as photography, video, computer generated works of art, interactive electronic works and electronic installation.

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a grant of $15,000 to support a pilot commissioning program for Sonic Circuits. The Forum links communities with composers and performers, encouraging the making, playing and enjoyment of new music. Sonic Circuits started in 1993 as a means of showcasing electro-acoustic music in Minnesota. Three complementary presenting series were merged in order to develop a Sonic Circuits festival as a venue for composers working with technology. With Jerome subsidy, the Forum will commission three new works to expose artists compositions to their full potential in the festival.

Percussionist MARC ANDERSON will spend four weeks in Accra, Ghana, studying traditional Ghanaian music. Anderson fuses traditional African with electronically produced sounds.

The MINNESOTA DANCE ALLIANCE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for ARENA DANCES BY MATHEW JANCZEWSKI, received a two-year grant of $20,000 in support of the creation and production of new works. Janczewski began professionally presenting his choreography in 1993, while dancing with Jazzdance. The first full evening of his choreographic works took place in 1996. Jerome Foundations two-year commitment follows two annual grants the Foundation made toward his choreography in 1996 and 1997. For the next two seasons, Janczewski will schedule several smaller performances, and begin work toward a major McKnight Theater season early in the year 2000. Hes planned an extensive rehearsal schedule, with periodic two-month breaks, to develop new work over a longer period of time.

ART IN GENERAL, New York City, received a grant of $14,000 to support the second Minnesota Artist Residency. Founded in 1980 by artists, Art in General supports and stimulates the creation of contemporary art work. Its aim is to present a window on the creative process and to serve as a guide to the richness of contemporary cultural production. Two years ago, the Jerome Foundation supported a pilot in which a Minnesota artist was brought to New York City for eight weeks to create an installation in an Art in General gallery and to benefit from the opportunity to be in New York City working, building a network and receiving technical assistance and support from Art in General staff. Based upon the success of the first residency, the Jerome Foundation elected to continue its commitment for a second residency.

A small supplementary grant of $850 was authorized for ART IN GENERAL to assist its staff in offering an informational workshop in Minnesota on its residency and installation program in which a Minnesota artist is invited to create a new work for its New York City exhibition space

THE ASIAN AMERICAN WRITERS WORKSHOP, New York City, was founded in 1991 to facilitate the creation, publication and dissemination of Asian American literature and to serve as a center for its growth and maturation. It offers a variety of activities and services that support the development of the Asian American writer and the audience for Asian American literature. Programs include creative writing workshops, the Poetry Caravan Reading Series, panels and discussions, the Asian Pacific American Journal, a newsletter, the Asian American Book Seller, the publisher Asian American books, book signings, fellowships, literary contests, technical assistance to artists and access to facilities. Jerome subsidy of $30,000 over two years will support those activities serving emerging artists in 1998 and 1999.

THE UNIVERSITY OF SAINT THOMAS, St. Paul, Minnesota, acted as fiscal agent for composer WILLIAM BANFIELD in his request for a grant to develop a master for a CD. A grant of $15,000 was authorized for this established, mid-career composer who is making a new push in his career toward developing his credentials and his work as a jazz musician and composer. He will put together a collection of his best jazz and popular music compositions heard within the recording/performing framework of a small jazz chamber orchestra/ band. While the recording of a master is no guarantee that a CD will be forthcoming and will be distributed effectively, it is a necessary first step. Funding was authorized to support this initiative based upon Banfields reasoned proposal, and the recognition that this was, professionally and creatively, a significant time in his career development.

BANG ON A CAN, New York City, founded by composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe in 1987, has worked with over 175 composers to make new music accessible and welcoming to a broad public, through a variety of programs. A resident ensemble, the Bang on a Can All Stars, provides significant performance opportunities to emerging composers through its concerts in New York City and on tour. Jerome Foundation subsidy over two-years, in the amount of $40,000, will contribute to The Peoples' Commissioning Fund, monies directed to commissioning new works by emerging composers. Contributions to this fund have ranged from $9 to $5,000. Jerome's institutional support should encourage additional individual contributions. An open call for submissions draws composers from throughout the country.

INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acted as fiscal sponsor for independent artist ERIK BELGUMs request for a grant to support two CD projects. Belgum is a writer, composer and sound artist working in fiction, nonfiction, radio, performance art and opera. This grant will support recordings on compact disc of two works created for radio broadcast. The works can also be used on the Internet, in concerts of electroacoustic music and for home CD play. The first, titled Blodder, is comprised of four related stories arising from the robbery of a convenience store. The texts are arranged for five speaking voices. The second work PHON:E:ME is an elaborate multimedia hypertext created for the World Wide Web by Belgum and Mark Amerika. It is a story about cyberspace, Jewish mysticism

Zoe Beloff - Where Were There Where, an interactive film on CD ROM which is centered around the play "Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights" by Gertrude Stein, in the sense of finding a contemporary formal equivalent in digital media for the radical restructuring of the 1938 text. Also, as a playful philosophical investigation of the relationship between electricity, logic and language games that Stein's work inspires. Thus opening the text up to parallel radical perspectives in the work of I.P. Pavlov, Alan Turing and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

The BLACKLOCK NATURE SANCTUARY, Moose Lake, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $38,000 to support emerging artists residencies. The Blacklock Nature Sanctuary, founded in 1994 by the Blacklock family, encompasses 278 acres and provides residency programs for artists in the performing, visual and literary arts, and for nonprofit arts administrators. The aim is to provide a significant period of uninterrupted residency time for research, reflection and field work. An independent selection panel reviews all applications. Jerome subsidy is primarily dedicated to emerging artists receiving month-long residencies and stipends of $2,700 per recipient. There are also opportunities to apply for short-term residencies of seven to ten days.

LAUREL BRADLEY is the Director of Exhibitions and Curator of the College Art Collection at Carleton College in Northfield. She received funding to travel to Australia for two weeks for the purpose of learning first-hand about contemporary Aboriginal art and meeting artists to discuss their work in preparation for an exhibition that will tour four Midwestern college galleries.

Artist DJOLA BRANNER is developing a new work titled Mighty Real, a piece chronicling the life and times of the flamboyant singer/songwriter Sylvester in the form of a solo performance piece. This grant of $13,000 was awarded to INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor of the Branner production. The piece will explore Sylvesters contribution to contemporary music, his effect on popular culture as a champion of the progressive gender movement and his public and private struggles as an openly Black, gay male. The piece will open its run in June of 1999.

The Jerome Foundation has supported the Artist in the Marketplace program at THE BRONX MUSEUM OF THE ARTS, Bronx, New York, since 1989. The Museum presents exhibitions that highlight contributions of minority populations to culture and history, public programs that make art more accessible to the community, and a cooperative art education program with schools to enhance curricula. The Artist in the Marketplace is a comprehensive program that provides artists with guidance in such practical and essential areas as self-promotion and financial management. It provides a forum for learning and social interaction as well as information sharing and networking. Each year, 36 artists participate in one of two 12-week programs that culminate in a group exhibition at the Museum, accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalog. This program is designed to advance the careers of emerging artists. A two-year grant of $30,000 was authorized.

A grant was awarded to playwright CARLYLE BROWN to spend four weeks on St. Helena Island in South Carolina, researching and studying the Sea Islands and Gullah Culture, of which Brown is a descendent. He will use this information to develop a new work.