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We cultivate belonging as the generative space necessary for diverse people and communities to feel connected, valued, and empowered to contribute fully. Our aim is to foster a sense of abundance and agency where everyone can thrive. We intentionally nurture artists, culture bearers, and the arts leaders by actively listening and responding to the needs and concerns they share with us—both individually and through convenings and research. Beyond direct funding, we organize opportunities for engagement, problem-solving and field-building, and shared learning.
Jerome Foundation centers equity in our commitments and practices, acknowledging that our assets were derived from our founder Jerome Hill’s family company, the Great Northern Railway and its devastating impact on Native nations. We are committed to eliminating disparities and improving access and outcomes to ensure the long-term viability of artists, culture bearers, and arts organizations, recognizing the many ways that cultural narratives and practices have been historically, and presently are, excluded, underrepresented, and marginalized.
With inequity at the root of every injustice, we strive to acknowledge the historical barriers, extractive practices, and existing systems of power that perpetuate racism, bias, and other forms of oppression at individual, interpersonal, institutional, and systemic levels. Inequities are deep-rooted and persistent and involve the intersection of many dimensions of identity, including (but not limited to) race, ability, age, citizenship, discipline, economic status, tribal status, caste, education, gender, geography, and sexuality.
Our work towards equity guides us to take an intersectional approach in our grantmaking and the stewardship of our assets.
We are committed to:
- Understanding and acknowledging the root causes of inequities
- Dismantling barriers and closing access gaps and inequities in our grantmaking
- Equitably distributing funds and access to resources, connection, and economic strength to historically and currently underserved artists and culture bearers and their ecosystems
- Consciously embracing diversity in the broadest sense, supporting a diverse range of artists and organizations, working across multiple fields, including but not limited to those of diverse cultures, races, sexual identities, genders, generations, aesthetics, points of view, physical abilities, and missions.
- Transparently communicating the source of the Foundation’s assets and investing in funds that are mission and values aligned
- Developing systems and practices of accountability and responsiveness
- Engaging in relationship-building, community discourse, and trust-based and participatory practices for our grant programs
- Embracing intentional self-reflection and continual learning to change policies, practices, systems, and structures toward equitable grantmaking and investing
- Directly engaging artists in design and decision-making on all levels—staff, board, members, grantmaking, and investments
- Actively advocating on behalf of grantees for the systems change and support structures they identify as necessary for their work
- Engaging in storytelling to further the narrative change work required to illuminate the value and essential contributions of artists and culture bearers
We believe that a loving and nurturing environment is essential for people and ideas to thrive and for collective well-being to take root. We recognize the transformative power of love for creating connection and healing; inspiring empathy, compassion, and respect; and building relationships that make possible meaningful collaboration.
We acknowledge that learning is a lifelong journey that requires us to listen, embrace feedback, learn from mistakes, and remain flexible and adaptive. Grounded in our value of humility, we are committed to unlearning harmful or outdated ideas, embracing challenges as opportunities for growth, valuing diverse perspectives, questioning information rather than accepting it at face value, and openly admitting gaps in our knowledge. We strive to cultivate a culture of curiosity, growth, and understanding.
Storytelling is an essential means of celebrating the innovative work of artists and culture bearers and highlighting the value of their creative efforts and lived experiences. In addition to funding creative people, we feel it is important to share the impact of their work.
We want to intentionally create visibility for our grantees to encourage a deeper sense of community and foster openness, empathy, and connection. Storytelling provides platforms for imagining new futures; inspiring and sustaining change; reclaiming cultural knowledge; shifting perceptions; disrupting harmful stereotypes and misrepresentation; and building humane ecosystems of belonging and care.
The Foundation intentionally embraces risk-taking as an emergent strategy to discover and develop new ideas, methods, and approaches that may generate innovative or transformative outcomes. While we don’t define risk in a singular way, our understanding of it is framed by our practices of belonging, nurture, equity, love, respect, learning, and storytelling. We consider risk broadly, recognizing the ways in which artists are expanding, questioning, experimenting with, or imagining new forms, practices, and approaches.
We understand that not every risk-taking endeavor results in success and fully support the process of trying and failing as part of the creative journey. Unlike traditional definitions of risk that focus on avoidance and frame people as risks through the lens of racism and other forms of oppression, Jerome Foundation celebrates curiosity, learning, empowerment, and healing over punishment, hierarchy, extraction, and exclusion.
The Foundation encourages and supports artists in intentionally testing, pushing, questioning, and experimenting. We welcome artists to share how they are exploring creative risk. We recognize that fostering risk requires creating a respectful and nurturing environment built on trust. The uncertainty of risk can evoke a range of responses—from exhilaration to discomfort, anxiety, and fear—and we str
Innovation is the creation of value through the exploration of new processes, introduction of new techniques, re-imagining of existing ideas, contribution of solutions to challenges and problems, or establishing more equitable systems. Over the last decade, artists’ practices have evolved significantly, driven by social and political developments, expanded access to production and distribution for BIPOC/LGBTQ and other marginalized artists, as well as the evolution of artistic forms and technological advancements.
Artists are constantly adapting and helping us navigate our rapidly changing world through their innovations—ranging from placemaking and immersive, collaborative, interactive, and healing experiences to the integration of technology, the democratization of the creative process, and the growing emphasis on social justice, community engagement, and sustainability. Artists connect us with one another, help us find meaning and purpose, expand our understanding, invite us to think critically about the world around us, and imagine a more just and equitable future.
The Foundation understands its role is to listen and be receptive to the innovations of artists. Our goal is to create infrastructure and an organizational culture that is open and adaptive to new ways of working and responsive to change. This requires us to build trusting relationship with artists, remain curious learners, and embrace what we may not fully understand. We are committed to funding their work, advocating for their needs and desires, championing their innovations, and communicating the value of their efforts and contributions.
We work for artists, and we believe that artists, culture bearers, and arts leaders are the best authorities to define their needs and challenges. The Foundation seeks to support those who embrace their roles as part of a larger community of artists and citizens and consciously work with a sense of purpose and responsibility.
Guided by humility, we prioritize learning, listening, and collaboration over ego and self-interest. We respect the autonomy of artists, recognize the challenges they face, and engage with them collaboratively and flexibly. Our goal is to foster a more sustainable and empowering environment for artists, ultimately enhancing the vibrancy of the arts sector. We focus on 'doing right,' rather than 'being right,' which is essential for dismantling systemic racism and building inclusive, equitable communities.n.
Our eligibility is focused on early career artists and culture bearers who are generating and publicly presenting their own original work and who take creative risks, pursue innovative artistic approaches, and demonstrate a clear creative purpose and vision. We support artists working in or across the artistic fields of dance; film; literature; theater, performance, and spoken word; music; technology centered arts; and visual arts.
Jeong-Ae Neal, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theatre.