Past
Grantees

CLAUDIA BITRAN received support for TITANIC a deep emotion, a 194-minute experimental remake/reinterpretation of the film Titanic by James Cameron. This project was born from Bitran’s genuine obsession with the film, but also from her more general fascination and interest in pop culture and pop productions. She strongly believes that pop culture is the most sincere mirror and the most accurate and expressive portrait of humanity. In this project, she wants to explore the ways in which she can compel spectator responses using the same mechanisms that pop uses, but switching and reinventing the production values, the messaging and moral values of her version of TITANIC. She wants to achieve the same intense experience of being in a theater watching a mainstream film, but with an entirely reconstructed language.

Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), Brooklyn, New York, received $22,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists in the 2015-16 Artists in Residence Program. The mission of BAX is to provide a nurturing and year-round performance, rehearsal, and educational venue that encourages artistic risk-taking and stimulates dialogue among diverse constituencies. BAX is a place that connects people and provides a rigorous forum for ideas and creativity. The Artists In Residence Program is tailored to meet each artist's unique needs, process, and artistic practice. Its structure develops peer support, collaborative problem-solving, and constructive criticism. Artists In Residence receive rehearsal space and an annual stipend. They have opportunities to present works-in-progress and/or finished works with full production and marketing support. They meet as a group for the purpose of professional development and consult regularly with BAX Artistic Director Marya Warshaw.

BURKLUND, JON / STUELPNER, ILANA, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Berlin, Germany, to further their research into improvised, cross-disciplinary performance. Stuelpner and Burklund plan to use this trip to advance their ongoing research and engage in cross-cultural artistic exchange with international artists working in their specific area of experimental performing arts. This, in turn, will allow them to make technical and creative progress in their distinctive performance style.

CARROLL, ERIC WILLIAM, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, and the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute in Rosman, North Carolina, to continue his exploration of the visual culture of science and obsolescence. As an artist, his work examines science and nature and how humans have visually represented their understanding of these ideas throughout history. He will concentrate on Fermilab’s investigations into particle physics and the Pisgah Institute’s collection of glass plate astronomical studies. This exploration will inform and inspire his studio practice.

THE FIELD, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for a canary torsi, Brooklyn, New York, received a grant of $10,000 in support of the development and production of CAST. The Field firmly believes that art and artists are a vital part of a healthy, functioning and engaged society. The Field exists, like a small business incubator, to give artists the tools, resources and guidance that they need in order to add their dynamic voices to the marketplace. a canary torsi creates site-adaptable, installation-based performance projects. Formed in 2009 by New York choreographer Yanira Castro, a canary torsi invites audiences to participate in work that is anchored in live performance and extends into other media and online platforms. Ranging from formal movement and immersive audio installations to fictional Twitter feeds and interactive websites, a canary torsi explores the relationship between audience and event, developing scenarios where the audience’s presence dramatically impacts the work.

CAVE CANEM FOUNDATION, Brooklyn, New York, received $20,000 in support of two multiple session workshops serving emerging poets based in New York City during the fall of 2015 and spring of 2016. The fall workshop, Grabbing Poetry by the Throat, led by poet, performer and scholar Tracie Morris, considers how sonic intent and exploration can be cultivated as a way to create page-based and physically-embodied poems. The course consists of conventional and experimental poetry, free writing, body work, play, writing, revision and live presentation of new work for the community. The spring workshop, Writing across Cultures, led by Cathy Park Hong, challenges poets to push beyond their aesthetic comfort zone, writing in whatever ways the poem needs to be written—prayer, form, lament, ode, ars poetica, etc. — with the goal of developing an individual toolbox of language, image, voice and rhythm.

ROULETTE, Brooklyn, New York, as fiscal sponsor for Maria Chavez, Brooklyn, New York, received $12,000 to support the creation and recording of Chavez’s Tactile Peripheries #1-3, an interactive album/sculpture that can be listened to and viewed in different ways: as regular playback material, as a DJ tool, and as a sound sculpture. Composer, sound artist, and abstract turntablist Maria Chavez is influenced by improvisation and contemporary art. Her compositions, sound installations, conceptual objects, and live turntable performances focus on the benefits of accidents and chance. Roulette’s mission is to provide opportunities for innovative composers, musicians, sound artists, and interdisciplinary collaborators to present their work in accessible, appropriate, and professional productions. 

The Chocolate Factory Theater, Long Island City, New York, received $32,000 in support of the commissioning of three emerging New York City-based choreographers to create, develop, and present new work within the 2015-16 season. The three choreographers are Silas Riener, Heather Kravas, and Beth Gill. Since 2005, The Chocolate Factory Theater has supported the development and presentation of new work by local, national, and international artists working in dance, theater, performance, and multimedia. Artists invited to work at The Chocolate Factory receive exclusive development and performance residencies and are encouraged to put space and technical resources to use in imaginative ways.

CHONG, CECILE, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Ecuador to take a tagua workshop with master artisans, build community with local artists, and reconnect with her culture and country of birth. She will explore the art, craft, and history of tagua, a vegetable ivory or ivory nut, which can be carved. It is being cultivated as a sustainable alternative to ivory harvested from elephant tusks to discourage poaching and maintain the elephant population. Its use also helps prevent deforestation. This research trip will enhance Chong’s practice and serve as the beginning of a long-term plan to build community with local artists and artisans in Ecuador.

COFFEE HOUSE PRESS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $21,000 in support of the publication of three books by emerging writers. Funds will support author advances, editorial and artistic development, production, and promotion. Two of the emerging writers are based in New York City and one in Minnesota. The mission of Coffee House is to publish exciting, vital, and enduring authors of this time; to delight and inspire readers; to contribute to the cultural life of its community; and to enrich literary heritage. By building on the best traditions of publishing in the book arts, the Press produces books that celebrate imagination, innovation in the craft of writing, and the many authentic voices of the American experience.

COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS, Arlington, Virginia, received a commitment of $14,600 to renew Jerome Foundation’s membership in and general support of the organization through 2016. Founded in 1949, the Council on Foundations is an association of grantmaking foundations and corporations in the United States and abroad. Its member organizations have combined assets of nearly $300 billion and make grants of $20 billion. The Council's mission is to provide the opportunity, leadership, and tools needed by philanthropic organizations to expand, enhance, and sustain their ability to advance the common good. Members include community foundations, corporate foundations and giving programs, private foundations (independent, family, and operating), and international foundations. The Jerome Foundation has been a member of the Council on Foundations since 1975.

COVINGTON, SARITA, New York, New York, will travel to Denmark to engage in an exploration of forgiveness as it pertains to culture, race, and legacy through poetic theater. Covington intends to incorporate what she gleans from this rich learning experience into a full-length performance piece, called Forgiveness, which she is developing in collaboration with B3W Performance Group.

The Cultural Data Project, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received $12,000 in support of the operation of the Cultural Data Project (CDP) in Minnesota and New York City. The mission of CDP is to empower the nonprofit arts and cultural sector with high-quality data and resources in order to strengthen its vitality, performance, and public impact. CDP accomplishes its mission by equipping arts and cultural organizations with the means to collect, learn from, and use data effectively; by building critical infrastructure for the sector and being a trusted source of high-quality data and knowledge that advance cultural initiatives; and by creating a national partnership and platform for cultural data, dedicated to collective learning, leadership, and action.

DE LA RIVA, YADIRA, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Madrid and Melilla, Spain, to investigate the local dynamics of the Spanish and Moroccon border, looking at the differences and similarities to that of the U.S. and Mexico. De La Riva’s work focuses specifically on the role that women play in strengthening the hand of the labor movement against transnational corporations. De La Riva plans to write and produce a trilogy of theater pieces that use local stories to educate and humanize the experiences of immigrants and border women.

THE DEBATE SOCIETY, Brooklyn, New York, received $18,146 in support of a two-week residency at the Camargo Foundation to research and develop a new work, The Care and Feeding of Adults, through the Jerome@Camargo Program. The Debate Society is a company that creates new plays through the collaboration of writer/performer Hannah Bos, writer/performer Paul Thureen, and director/developer Oliver Butler. The Care and Feeding of Adults is based on a book by physician and medical historian Dr. Logan Clendening, who did much of his research in France. Research will be conducted on palliative care and the relationship of memory to nostalgia and architecture with two organizations in the region, Les Petits Frères des Pauvres and the Cassis Heritage Foundation. The inspiration for this work is highly personal for the company as the three generative company members are becoming caretakers. In addition to fieldwork research, The Debate Society will work on the writing of the script during the residency.

DIXON PLACE, New York City, received a grant of $30,000 in support of participating New York City-based emerging artists in the 2016 Mondo Cane! Commissioning Program and the Artist-in-Residence program. A laboratory for performing, literary and visual artists, Dixon Place is dedicated to supporting the creative process by presenting original works of theater, dance, music, literature and performance art at all stages of development. Dixon Place inspires and encourages artists of all stripes and callings to take risks and push personal and professional limits. The organization’s foremost priorities are to serve as a safety net for artists, providing technical and financial support, and to offer vivid experiences that stimulate the senses and imaginations of our audience.

THE FIELD, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for FAYE DRISCOLL DANCE GROUP, Brooklyn, New York, received a two-year grant of $32,000 in support of the development and production of Thank You For Coming: Play and Thank You For Coming: Space. The Field firmly believes that art and artists are a vital part of a healthy, functioning and engaged society. The Field exists, like a small business incubator, to give artists the tools, resources and guidance that they need in order to add their dynamic voices to the marketplace. Faye Driscoll is obsessed with a basic problem that we all encounter - that of being "somebody" in a world of other "somebodies" - and in her work she attempts to pull apart this daily performance of self. She does this by enacting it in excess, blowing it up to the extreme in order to reveal its edges and create more space, more possibility for who we can be. She draws on familiar images and archetypal scenes, such as poses from classical art, or the physicality of people in extreme states, from torture to religious rapture. She creates manically choreographed physical and aural scores from these scenes and images, filled with unpredictability, ambiguity and a mix of falsehoods and truths.

KELMAN DURAN received support for the feature-length (70-minute) film To The North part 1.  The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, home to the Lakota people, is a place that the filmmaker describes as an open-air prison. This experimental documentary uses the diary form to document housing conditions, native knowledge/myths, and the landscape of suicide on Pine Ridge. In 2011, the U.S. government cut $50 million in aid to Native American housing assistance. These cuts hurt the reservations most in need of such assistance, like Pine Ridge, the poorest reservation in the country. This film revolves around four Pine Ridge people who are all members of the same Lakota family: David, LeRoy, Crazy J, and Michelle. Told in chapters, the film documents their lives on the reservation, from the mundane to the mythic. Each chapter of the film will feature different methods of documenting the lives and conditions of its characters, and will use different formats such as 16mm, mini DV, DSLR cameras and iPhone footage to tell their fascinating stories.

ELDEBEK, HADI, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Lebanon to explore and research different genres and styles of Lebanese music (rural and urban), as well as the influences of Lebanese subcultures on various musical styles, such as Arabic, Armenian, Francophone, Gypsy, Kurdish, and more.

ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATER, New York City, received a grant of $20,000 in support of the EST/Youngblood Program, which provides emerging New York City artists with opportunities to write, develop, produce and evaluate work.  The Ensemble Studio Theatre, commonly known as "EST,” is a dynamic, expanding family of theatre people committed to the discovery and nurturing of new voices and the continued support and growth of artists throughout their creative lives. EST’s ensemble works together repeatedly over time to develop and produce original, provocative, and authentic new plays.