Past
Grantees

The ZENON DANCE COMPANY AND SCHOOL, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $25,000 in support of commissions for emerging New York City and Minnesota choreographers to create, develop, and set new works on the Zenon Company. Zenons mission is to sustain an artistically excellent, professional repertory dance company by presenting the commissioned works of emerging and locally, nationally, and internationally recognized modern and jazz choreographers to the broadest and more diverse audiences and communities possible. It accomplishes this through performance, education, and outreach. Jerome dollars enable Zenon to identify and commission three emerging choreographers each year to produce new works for the company. The choreographers benefit from individually designed residencies that focus on their needs and the services they require to create and set new works.

JOSHUA ZUCKER-PLUDA, New York, New York, will travel to Tokyo, Fujiyoshida, and Narusawa, Japan, to conduct research and interviews for an experimental documentary film on Aokigahara Jukai, a forest in Japan where people go to commit suicide. Zucker-Pluda has arranged to work with Professor Shinichi Nakazawa, Director of the Institute for Art Anthropology at Tama Arts University, who specializes in religious studies and folklore and their impact on contemporary culture, and Dr. Takahashi Yoshimoto, a scholar and researcher on the phenomenon of Aokigahara Jukai and Deputy Chief at the Department of Psychology at the Tokyo Institute of Psychiatry. This research will be used for a new film, The Sea of Trees, about the relationship among memory, sleep, dream, and death.

JOHN AKRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant for Walker and Driver, an animated feature comedy musical about what happens when cars get a little too important. Walker, one of two central characters in the film, is a race car ace who grew up in the grandstands of a motor raceway and was born to drive. After a tragic accident during a big race, he gives up driving and secretly walks from place to place for transportation. His wife, Penny Driver, the other central character in the film, writes copy for automobile advertising. She seeks to transcend her daily life by creating advertisements that strive to convey the sensation of the absolute perfect driving experience. As world traffic jams increase, Walker has to try harder and harder to hide his secret life as a pedestrian. His wife is close to discovering his secret when a series of car crashes incapacitate most of her body. But her head is preserved, which allows her continue to develop automobile advertising that inspires the world to continue dreaming about ideal automobiles. When all the cars of the world smash into a massive Wreckage Mountain, it is up to Walker, who has found a spot on top of the mountain, to teach the rest of the world how to walk again. This animated tale is a direct expression of the filmmakers personal viewpoint as a pedestrian who often feels like an outsider in a world occupied by cars.

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, received $97,000 in support of the Jerome Composers Commissioning Program, the Minnesota Emerging Composers Award, the Subito program, and consulting services to composers. The Forum enriches lives by nurturing the creative spirit of composers and communities. It provides opportunities for composers and their music to flourish and engage communities in the creation, performance and enjoyment of new music. Much of the grant supports the Jerome Composers Commissioning Program, which subsidizes the creation of new musical works by emerging composers, composer/performers, improvisers and sound artists. The Program welcomes applications in all musical genres including jazz, experimental, classical, improvised, sound art and international styles. A proactive initiative designed to increase commissions for composers working in a more diverse range of musical styles and genres will be undertaken by the Forum, using a rotating nominating process. Portions of the commitment from Jerome Foundation will also support the Subito program for Minnesota emerging composers and consulting services offered by Forum staff to composers. Subito provides small grants to composers for a variety of purposes such as recording expenses and extra rehearsal time to improve performance quality of new work.

THE ANDERSON CENTER FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES, Red Wing, Minnesota, received $14,400 in support of emerging artists residencies. The Anderson Center is a regional cultural resource that provides an environment for the pursuit of creative projects by artists and writers while advancing appreciation of the arts by presenting cultural programs and events for residents of the Red Wing area and its surrounding communities. Residencies of two to four weeks in duration are offered from May through October of each year. Jerome support is directed toward the residencies of emerging artists from New York City and Minnesota, enabling the artists to advance works-in-progress and initiate new works. Independent panels composed of artists and curators review applications and select artists for residencies.

Composer, bassist, and educator JIM ANTON, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Havana, Cuba, to study all aspects of Cuban music with master musicians, thereby increasing the authenticity of his approach and advancing his confidence and creativity for the composition of future works incorporating a strong Latin influence.

A grant of $17,100 was awarded to ART IN GENERAL, New York City, in support of the participation of emerging artists in the 2009-10 New Commissions Program. Founded in 1981, Art in General assists artists with the production and presentation of challenging new work and engages the public with that work. It organizes and presents exhibitions, hosts artists residencies and offers public and educational programs. Since 2005, its exhibition program has focused on the commissioning of new work from artists. The New Commissions Program supports five to seven emerging artists each year by providing honoraria, production support for the works, technical and logistical assistance, exhibitions and publications. Artists are invited to submit project proposals in response to an annual open call. Independent panels evaluate the more than 350 proposals received each year and select artists for studio visits by staff curators, who make the final selections. Each project unfolds according to its own timetable. Selection criteria for the commissions are artistic quality, creative and imaginative approaches to content and form, exploration that is challenging in terms of practices and strategies and the potential for artistic growth.

THE FIELD, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for DAELA/KIMBERLY BARTOSIK, received $7,200 in support of the development and production of a new evening-length project, The Materiality of Impermanence. Bartosik has been presenting choreographic work since 1999. Her choreographic interests are based, in part, on the relationship of architectural space to the architecture of the body. Her work is greatly influenced by literature and cinema. The title of her new work is taken from an article on Tacita Dean, whose 16mm films have been a creative inspiration to Bartosik. As the title suggests, the project looks at a complex architectural structurethe homewhose essence is an accumulation of shifting meanings created from the human dramas and material belongings of the occupants. The concept of home has been radically altered in this era of epic foreclosures, as it has become permeated with the constant threat of loss. Bartosiks interest is in the ramifications of ones deep attachment, over time, to the idea of ones living space and the ways in which traces of ones home are materially erased once the interior life and inhabiting bodies are removed.

MARY BILLYOU received a grant for GUN, HAT, an experimental film in five sections that the maker describes as a compendium of narrative film using only its iconic elements: a gun, a hat, low-key lighting, screams, and a sexy lady. Shot on black and white 16mm film, GUN, HAT recalls film noir and its surrounding fantasies of nostalgic return. Shot on location in New York City's Chinatown, The Bowery, Central Park, and Fifth Avenue, the film follows the close-up action of hands wielding guns and heads wearing Fedoras. Other sections of the film will focus on different soundtracks of screams and a sexy lady dressed in a sequined gown who stands on a bare stage in front of a large curtain. Lighting will be used to great effect in the film to not only recall the film noir aesthetic, but also in conjunction with the film's other elements, to illustrate the Godard directive that in order to make a film, all you need is a girl and a gun.

BLACKLOCK NATURE SANCTUARY, Moose Lake, Minnesota, received $19,800 for Emerging Artist Fellowships. Founded in 1994, Blacklock Nature Sanctuary is dedicated to preserving undeveloped land and providing artists with uninterrupted time and space to develop new work. The Sanctuary fosters creative growth through direct experience, study, and interpretation of nature. The Sanctuary developed a Moose Lake retreat center with an all-season house, two studios, hiking trails, space for temporary installations, and a photographic darkroom. Jerome Foundation funding will be directed to a program that provides emerging artists working in the performing, visual, and literary arts with residencies for research and creative exploration in a quiet natural setting. Artists submit applications in response to an open call for review and selection by independent panels.

A grant was awarded to LISA BLACKSTONE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of Grappling Girls, an intimate hour-long documentary about girls and women who defy preconceived notions and societal disapproval as they pursue the worlds oldest sport. One of the central characters in the film, a 13-year-old girl named Audra, readies herself for a major competition. Her skintight outfit is red. Her eyes are watchful. A man and a woman whisper advice in her ears. She bounces in anticipation of the battle ahead. What Audra is about to do is perfectly legal, not particularly well known, and often frowned upon by those who have encountered it. Audra is about to engage in a wrestling matchan old-fashioned, get-down-on-the-mat, competitive, mano a mano wrestling match. Audra is a grappling girla female wrestler. Grappling Girls is an intimate look into the thoughts and lives of Audra and other girls and women who pursue a passion for wrestling.

THE BRONX MUSEUM OF THE ARTS, Bronx, New York, received $18,000 in support of the 2009-10 Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) Program. Founded in 1971, The Bronx Museum of the Arts is a primary center for contemporary art and a vital cultural and educational resource for the borough and the City. The Museum is committed to presenting new ideas and voices in a larger, global context and making contemporary art a vital and relevant experience for students, families, community residents, artists, art patrons, and museum visitors. The AIM Program provides professional development, a venue for exhibition, a catalog, and educational workshops to 36 emerging artists each year. Artists attend 12 two-hour seminars on such topics as financial management, gallery representation, tax law, and self-promotion, led by guest experts and the Museum's experienced staff. AIM offers emerging artists real-world skills to navigate the art market and the confidence to transition to more seasoned artists.

Artist IAN BURNS of Brooklyn, New York, will travel to the Arctic Circle, north of the Svalsbard archipelago of islands, on a collaborative voyage with artists, scientists and educators. He believes that the landscape and natural environment will have an impact on his artistic sensibilities, as will engaging with the other passengers on the ship. He intends to investigate sculptural forms and language in the context of the voyage and bring back new methods to apply in his studio.

CAVE CANEM, New York City, received $15,300 to support writing workshops engaging emerging poets. Cave Canem is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional development of African American poets. The Cave Canem community has grown from an initial gathering of 26 poets to an influential movement with a renowned faculty and high-achieving fellowship of 289 poets residing in 34 states. Jerome support will cover two eight-week long poetry workshops in New York City. The fall workshop, Writing in Form, will be open to African American poets. The spring workshop, Writing Across Cultures, will be open to African American and Asian American poets. All participants will be emerging. The workshops will be led by a senior poet with strong teaching skills. Participants are chosen via an open application process and review by the poet instructor.

IAN CHENEY, was awarded support for The City Dark, a feature-length documentary about light pollution and the disappearance of the night. Posing the deceptively simple question-why do we need the night?-Cheney leads viewers on a quest to understand what is lost in the glare of city lights. Blending a humorous tone with majestic time-lapse footage of the night sky, Cheney creates what he calls an unprecedented portrait of our world after dusk, and a meditation on our relationship to the stars. It is a personal journey rooted in New York City, but bringing viewers as far afield as Shanghai, Paris, and Mauna Kea, The City Dark reveals how cancer studies, energy crises, and disrupted ecosystems are adding unprecedented urgency to astronomers' quest to darken our city lights.

CLUBBED THUMB, New York City, received $13,500 in support of the development and production of new works by emerging New York City and/or Minnesota playwrights. Clubbed Thumb commissions, develops and produces funny, strange and provocative new plays by living American writers. It is dedicated to supporting the work of emerging writers and does so by commissioning new work, offering a range of developmental programs, and mounting full productions. It provides each writer the resources to fully realize the particular world of his/her play and actively fosters an ever-growing artistic community. Jerome support will be directed to New York City and Minnesota-based emerging playwrights participating in the SummerWorks festival, mainstage productions, commissioning program, New Play Boot Camp and Under Construction.

COFFEE HOUSE PRESS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $18,000 in support of the publication of three books by emerging authors in its 2010 publishing year. Jerome funds are used for royalty advances, editing, design, printing, distribution, and promotion. The mission of Coffee House Press is to publish exciting, vital, and enduring authors of this time; to delight and inspire readers; to contribute to the cultural life of the community; and to enrich literary heritage. It publishes approximately 14 books per year and has published more than 300 books in its history, including 52 first-time authors. Coffee House produces books that celebrate innovation in the craft of writing, the infinite possibilities of the imagination, and the many authentic voices of the American experience.

The COUNCIL OF LITERARY MAGAZINES AND PRESSES (CLMP), New York City, received $45,480 in support of FACE OUT: Maximizing the Visibility of Emerging Authors. CLMP supports and promotes noncommercial literary publishing to ensure that readers and writer are well served by a strong and vibrant literary culture. As the service and advocacy organization for independent literary publishers, CLMP's services and resources are designed to develop each member's publishing capacity through increased marketing and organizational skills, while promoting communication and shared learning across the field. The FACE OUT program provides regrants and technical assistance to five competitively selected independent publishers and the emerging artists they are publishing. FACE OUT focuses on technical assistance workshops and one-on-one meetings for publishers and their authors. The learning that occurs is documented and made available to a broader circle of presses and writers.

The Jerome Foundation renewed its general support of and membership in the COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS, Arlington, Virginia, with a commitment of $10,547. The mission of the Council on Foundations is to engage its members in a commitment to the public good and to their individual philanthropic purposes. This national trade organization calls on its members to adhere to the highest standards of ethical behavior, stewardship, accountability and transparency, diversity and inclusiveness, sound governance and respect for applicants. The Jerome Foundation has been a member of and has supported the work of the Council on Foundations since 1975.

Artist ROBERT DE SAINT PHALLE, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Paris and Saint Phalle (Provence), France, to conduct research for a series of sculptures exploring his relationship to his cousin Niki de Saint Phalle, French painter and sculptor (1930-2002), and the complex role of gender in his family history and art. The goal is to create new work that engages the formal and psycho-linguistic framing of gender.