Past
Grantees

Playwrights Horizons, New York City, received a two-year grant of $33,500 in support of playwright development activities. Founded in 1971, Playwrights Horizons is dedicated to the support and development of new American playwrights, composers and lyricists, and the production of their work. The theater provides writers with skilled and talented collaborators, and the time and freedom to take risks during the development of their works. There are five developmental and production programs which shape the theater's artistic profile.

The Playwrights' Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, has received subsidy from the Jerome Foundation since 1976 to support Jerome Playwright Fellowships and the developmental Laboratory program. A two-year grant of $98,000 will support five annual Jerome Fellows-in-Residence and the Laboratory development of their work. In addition, the Foundation made a two-year grant of $30,000 in support of the Many Voices program, which encompasses a variety of technical assistance, service and stipend activities for playwrights of color. The Center fuels the contemporary theater by providing services that support the development and public appreciation of playwrights and playwriting. It is committed to artistic excellence; diversity of aesthetic, culture, age and gender; playwright leadership in governance; advocacy of playwrights' work; and freedom of expression.

A grant of $9,000 was authorized for the Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of Crepsucule in Powderhorn Park II, conceived and organized by Douglas Ewart, a composer, visual artist and musician who will compose a suite for a 100-piece orchestra comprised of professional and amateur dancers, musicians, poets, martial artists and visual artists.

Red Eye Collaboration, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $32,000 in support of its work with emerging creative artists. This theater specializes in interdisciplinary performance. It is regarded as a creative laboratory, functioning as a producer and developer of experimental art. Collaborations are forged among directors, performers, filmmakers, writers, choreographers, video artists, composers and sculptors.

Jennifer Reeves received support toward Read-Along Storybook, an experimental narrative film that tells the story of a 25 year old woman recovering from a mental disorder spanning ten years, beginning in rural Pennsylvania and concluding in New York City. The film will focus on personal history, diversity, friendships and recovery. The film will attempt to explore a more complex existence of someone living with mental illness.

Repertorio Espaol, New York City, received $8,000 to support the continued development of its New Playwrights Program. Repertorio Espaol produces Spanish language drama, presented in rotating repertory in approximately 14 productions each year of Spanish classics, contemporary Hispanic-American works and Latin American master works and musicals. The New Playwrights Program will allow the organization to add to its repertoire by locating and developing new playwriting talent.

Writer, critic and curator MASON RIDDLE received subsidy to spend 27 days in Paris and Nancy, France, and Genoa and Venice, Italy, to research historic and contemporary glass art. This trip will allow her to study, firsthand, the aesthetic connections between European glass traditions and contemporary American, European, Australian and Japanese artists working with glass. She will build a more significant historical context in order to write about glass artists and art, and to curate exhibitions of local, regional and national contemporary glass artists from a more critical position than what is currently being accomplished.

Adriana Rosas, Milwaukee, WI, $3,000 (Encouragement). A Vow of Silence. An experimental video documentary exploring the world of traditional machismo behavior in the Latin family, specifically her Colombian mother's and grandmothers relationships to their abusive husbands.

A grant of $10,500 was authorized for the Hungry Mind Review, a publication of the Hungry Mind Bookstore, St. Paul, Minnesota. The Review offers support and professional development opportunities to emerging writers by giving them review and essay assignments, and by providing an intensive editing experience in which they actively participate. Jerome subsidy was authorized specifically for the work of emerging writers in the publication.

S.A.S.E: The Write Place, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $20,000 for programming and operating expenses. S.A.S.E. provides affordable, quality programming for writers of all backgrounds to develop their craft, and present or publish their works.

The St. Louis County Heritage and Arts Center, Duluth, Minnesota, received $15,000 to continue the Lake Superior Writers' Series, an effort which Jerome has supported since 1981. The Writers Series, founded in 1978, generates support for and community among contemporary writers, both regionally based and national. The Series provides local writers with the opportunities to hear published authors; attend lectures, workshops and support groups; and participate in a writers competition which offers small awards and readings.

AL SANTANA received support for Journey 1000, an experimental film/video work which is loosely based on experiences Santana had in 1973 while traveling in The Peoples Republic of China. Santana will focus on the cultural gap in understanding in East/West relations, and the manifestations of that gap. Journey 1000 will juxtapose images made in China in 1973 with footage shot in the United States today, and will present a cross-section of African-Americans and Chinese in a variety of urban and rural settings.

The James Sewell Ballet, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $9,000 to support a 1996 Choreographers Workshop, through which it will share dancers and a studio. By making his company available to emerging choreographers, Sewell will not only contribute to the strengthening of their work, and the larger dance community, but also give productive exposure to the company dancers, resulting in creative challenges for them.

Choreographer, writer and performer, LINDA SHAPIRO will spend two weeks in Chicago, Illinois, to work with Liz Lerman and the Dance Exchange on a series of workshops and performances with a multi-cultural group of Polish, Greek and Latino-Americans.

Peter Sillen received funding to produce Bernstein, a portrait of Steven (Jesse) Bernstein, a deceased and celebrated Seattle poet. Bernstein's angry, surprising fresh and lyrical writings are about sensitive souls, drifters and drug addicts, people alienated by a society that refuses to understand them. He peeled back the ugliness of life on the fringe to expose human feelings. His unique rhythms, filled with humor and pain, were especially exciting when he read and sang in a gravely voice in theaters, bars and cafes. This living documentary is intended to not just eulogize but try to invoke the vibrant spirit of Bernstein as it lives in his work and in the memories of those he inspired, subtly questioning a society where so many people seem to fall through what little safety net exists.

Funding of $16,000 over two years was awarded to the Igor Foundation, New York City, acting as fiscal agent for Sarah Skaggs Dance. The monies will support the creation and presentation of new work. Skaggs brings seemingly different vocabularies and voices together, to create dance events that stretch boundaries among popular, concert, traditional and modern dance forms.

Mary Slaughter, Iowa City, IA, $9,500 (Production). White Calf. A 25-minute personal video documentary that addresses questions of spiritual desire in 20th-Century American culture. Slaughter was one of the five applicants unanimously appreciated by the panel.

The No Name Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $12,000 for its 1995 and 1996 program. This Gallery is dedicated to supporting new and emerging artists, and to enhancing the public's understanding and appreciation of their artistic expressions. No Name uses a variety of selection processes to identify artists for its exhibition, film/video and performance programming.

MICHAEL SOMMERS, a multidisciplinary theater artist, received a grant to spend five weeks in Mexico to study the work of Mexican puppeteer, teacher and revolutionary Roberto Lago. He also intends to create a theater show which he, his wife and three children will perform in exchange for information he gets from theater artists in Mexico.

Song Celebration, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a grant of $7,000 which it will use to support the commissioning and development of a new opera by composer Craig Carnahan. He will create a one-act work based on a libretto by noted poet and filmmaker James Broughton.