Past
Grantees

LOUIS A. ABELMAN received support for Heal My People, a feature-length documentary film that addresses the ongoing epidemic of sexual violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. It portrays the lives of women recovering from rape. The war that has gripped the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed an estimated four million people since 1994, when one million Hutu exiles fled into the country following the Rwandan genocide. The conflict's scars run deep, but perhaps none more so than those inflicted by the campaign of sexual violence waged against Congo's women and girls. In the past five years there have been tens of thousands of rapes, reported by girls as young as five, and women as old as 85. This is their story.

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $234,000 in support of the Jerome Composers Commissioning Program for emerging Minnesota and New York City composers. In conjunction with this commitment, the Foundation authorized the re-purposing of a previous grant awarded for Performance Outreach Grants to be used for a new program, titled Subito, aimed at emerging Minnesota composers. The American Composers Forum links communities with composers and performers, encouraging the making, playing and enjoyment of new music. The Forum's goals are to provide direct support to composers at every stage of their careers and to develop markets for composers and their music. Since 1979, the Jerome Foundation has provided support to the Forum for a Commissioning Program, targeted to composers at emerging levels in their careers. This Program empowers composers to take the initiative in developing their own creative vision and pursuing the creation of new work, rather than relying on performers to generate opportunities. Subito grants are quick turnaround, career advancement grants for composers and composer-performers of new music. It's a program that encourages composers and sound artists working in diverse genres via grants ranging from $500 to $2,000.

The ANDERSON CENTER FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES, Red Wing, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $31,000 in support of the residencies of emerging artists. Since its founding in 1995, the Center has grown both as an artists' community and a regional cultural center. Its residency program has enabled 300 artists, writers and scholars to advance their work during stays of two to four weeks. The Program provides quiet uninterrupted time for artists and scholars to work. Jerome subsidy is directed toward emerging artists from Minnesota and New York City.

APERTURE FOUNDATION, New York City, received a two-year grant of $30,000 in support of a pilot program titled First Books. Aperture operates an active program of publications, exhibitions, and education initiatives. It has one of the most comprehensive publication libraries in the history of photography with nearly 450 titles, of which more than 200 are currently in print. The First Books initiative publishes major volumes dedicated to the work of accomplished but previously unpublished emerging photographers. The extensive work of its editorial advisory committee and curatorial staff facilitates the organization's introduction to emerging photographers. Jerome support will assist, in part, with the release of volumes by Katy Grannan, An-my L, and Gillian Laub.

ART IN GENERAL, New York City, received a two-year commitment of $38,000 in support of the Commission Project, exhibitions, residencies and artists' services. Each year, Art in General supports an average of 100 artists exhibiting in group and solo exhibitions, residencies, site-specific installations, and sound installations. Jerome dollars are directed toward the engagement of emerging artists in several programs. The newest is the Commission Project, which responds to changes in contemporary artistic practice by welcoming artists' use of nontraditional processes or unconventional art materials, work that requires extensive field research, and work that is dependent on the creation of social networks or the investigation of new technologies. The conceptual ground for the first year of the Commission Project is the premise of trade, broken down into three aspects related to artistic processes and interpretations: investment, value, and subjectivity.

BANG ON A CAN, Brooklyn, New York, received a grant of $10,000 in support of the commissioning of new work from three New York City emerging composers, through the People's Commissioning Fund, for performance by the Bang on a Can All-Stars. The ensemble performs a repertoire that reflects a multiplicity of musical genres and traditions. Jerome commissions will go to Annie Gosfield, Yoav Gal, and John Hollenbeck.

SIGNE BAUMANE received support for Birth, a 10-minute animated short that addresses the universal fear of childbirth, which is a transforming experience for every birth-giving woman. This will be a traditional hand-drawn animated film on textured paper with watercolored backgrounds. The film will be a visual poem, equating fear of childbirth with the universal fear of change.

ANDREW BERENDS received a grant in support of a feature-length documentary, The Blood of My Brother: A Story of Death in Iraq, set against the violent backdrop of war and the religious texture of Shia Islam. It tells the story of a family's grief after the killing of the oldest son and breadwinner. After years of hard work, Ra'ad, an Iraqi portrait photographer, saved enough money to open his own shop. On the night of the opening, while volunteering to guard the ancient Imam Kadhim mosque in the Shia neighborhood of Kadhimiya, he was shot and killed by an American patrol. Longing for revenge, Ra'ad's brother Ibrahim dreams of joining the Shia uprising against the American occupation. But as the only male left in the family, he must take on the role of breadwinner. This is his and his family's story.

The NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, New York City, as fiscal agent for choreographer LARRY GOLDHUBER, received $8,000 in support of a new work titled Julius Caesar Superstar. The New York Foundation for the Arts is a nonprofit arts organization that provides grants and services and offers a range of programs that support the creative evolution and development of individual artists. Choreographer Lawrence Goldhuber is making new work under the auspices of BIGMANARTS. Julius Caesar Superstar is a dance theater work focusing on ballet star Robert La Fosse as the tragic leader, surrounded by nine 300-pound men as the conservative senators who represent the bloated state, and who eventually murder him. The show will move from Roman times through the McCarthy hearings in the U.S. Senate of the 1950s, to the present, highlighting the pervasive themes of ambition, power, and betrayal still at work today.

Support was awarded to HISHAM MUHIEDDINE BIZRI for Al-Qahera (Cairo), a narrative feature that records a single day in the lives of two men in contemporary Cairo, Ahmad and Daoud. Ahmad is a Muslim poet who leaves his lodgings after a confrontation with a fellow countryman and an American smuggler of antiquities. Daoud is a middle-aged Copt (Egyptian Christian) who is forced to leave his house after he learns that his wife plans to bring a man into their bed later that day. Daoud and Ahmad wander the streets of Cairo aimlessly. They are a father and son in search of one another. The film chronicles their nightmarish journey in a city that no longer recognizes its own inhabitants. Like the Phoenician Odysseus, they undergo many trials and tribulations before they make a final decision to leave together to another country.

A grant was awarded to VIRGILIO BRAVO in support of Estilo Hip Hop, a feature-length documentary that chronicles a youth-led movement throughout Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Cuba that utilizes hip hop to respond to and organize against repressive dictatorships, racist educational systems, police brutality, and faltering economies. Through the compelling lives of four characters, the viewer learns how hip hop takes the role of an active vanguard for black and indigenous youth.

CAVE CANEM, New York City, received $15,000 in support of four New York City workshops in the 2005-06 program year. Founded in 1996, Cave Canem offers to emerging African-American poets opportunities to develop the skill and confidence needed to pursue their writing. Current programs include an annual summer workshop/retreat, regional poetry workshops, the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, readings, and publications. Two tiers of workshops open to competitively selected emerging African-American poets will be held at The Poets House and at locations in New York City boroughs other than Manhattan. Sessions will be offered twice per year and will range in length from six to ten weeks. The workshops, led by master writer/teachers, focus on the development of professional skills and practices.

H.T. CHEN DANCE COMPANY/MULBERRY STREET THEATER, New York City, received a two-year grant of $20,000 in support of the Ear to the Ground commissioning series for emerging Asian American choreographers. The organization, founded in 1978, promotes contemporary dance and Asian American expression through artistic creation, arts education and presentation. Since 1994, the Jerome Foundation has provided support that enables the Company to commission new dance works from emerging choreographers, provide rehearsal and performance space, and produce video documentation of the works. Choreographers may apply to the program or be nominated; and their applications are reviewed by independent rotating panels. For many emerging choreographers, this series functions as a springboard for the development of and greater attention for their work.

CHERRY LANE THEATRE, New York City, received a two-year grant of $58,000 in support of the Mentor Project. The Mission of Cherry Lane Theatre is to cultivate an urban artists' colony whose established and emerging talents perpetuate a ground-breaking Off-Broadway heritage and engage audiences as partners in creating theater that illuminates contemporary issues and transforms the spirit. Jerome Foundation has supported the Mentor Project at Cherry Lane for six years. A national Nominating Committee of theater professionals recommends emerging playwrights for consideration. Three playwrights are selected to be nurtured by three recognized and experienced playwright mentors who guide the playwrights through an intensive developmental process consisting of meetings, readings, and showcase productions. The Mentor Project is a developmental journey that builds confidence, encourages distinct writing styles and perspectives, and leads to professional recognition.

THE CIVILIANS, New York City, received $10,000 in support of the creation and production of new work by its core artistic group and continued development of two existing pieces, Nobody's Lunch and Gone Missing. The Civilians is an artist-run company that creates works from investigations into real life, using methods that combine documentary and artistic practices. Its shows illuminate the interplay between individual experience and the larger cultural landscape. Jerome subsidy will be directed toward the development and production of new works in the 2005-06 season. Escaping the Modern World, a project led by Jenny Schwartz and Anne Kauffman, is based on a series of interviews with individuals and communities that resist modern technology. The Evangelical Christianity Project is a collaboration between The Civilians and Z Space Studio, San Francisco, derived from an immersion residency within an evangelical Christian church community. The idea for this piece stems from the belief that the role of religious values in a democratic society is deeply unresolved and of pressing importance.

CLUBBED THUMB, New York City, received a two-year grant commitment of $20,000 in support of several programs serving emerging playwrights. Clubbed Thumb's mission is to develop and produce funny, strange, and provocative new plays by living American writers. It's committed to providing opportunities for women in the theater. Three of its ongoing programs, Summerworks, New Play Boot Camp and Productions, constitute the programming supported by Jerome Foundation. Funding assists emerging playwrights in the creation, development and production of new works. Summerworks sets the agenda for the theater's new work creation. Many of the plays initiated there go on to productions after the festival. The New Play Boot Camp is an intensive developmental workshop in which playwrights are given full access to a theater, cast and director, with culminating public readings.

A grant was awarded to MARTHA COLBURN, for Wild Eastern, part animated documentary, part essay and part dramatic film exploring the living visual mythology of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and theories that have surfaced in their wake. Divided in three main sequences with inserted interviews/dramas by contemporary artists, Wild Eastern will use a cross fertilization of the traditionally fictive medium of animation and factual material such as photographs, interviews and stock footage, to pose questions of visual authenticity. The body of the film will be filmic meditations on psychological states and actual events (for which there is no visual documentation). Wild Eastern will shine a light on different aspects of the current power struggles, while embracing art, irony and beauty as tools to explore them.

THE COLLAPSABLE GIRAFFE, New York City, received $10,000 in support of the creation and development of two works. This collaborative company of theater artists is committed to the creation of new experimental performances. The first, Letters from the Earth, originally inspired by Mark Twain's novella, which imagines a set of letters sent by the archangel Satan to his friends, the archangels Michael and Gabriel. Twain's novella is a biting satirical critique of religious dogma and human reason. The second piece, Dead End Places, will explore human ecstatic experience. The point of departure for this project begins with the work and friendship of poet-artist-visionary Brion Gysin and writer-icon William Burroughs.

The Jerome Foundation Directors approved continuing membership and general support grant to the COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS. This organization is a membership entitiy promoting responsible and effective philanthropy.

THE PLAYWRIGHTS' CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for independent playwright/director LISA D'AMOUR, received $8,000 in support of the production of This Story May Not Be True. The Center's mission is to fuel the theater by providing services that support playwrights and playwriting. Lisa D'Amour is a playwright, performer, director and teacher. She was a Jerome Fellow at The Playwrights' Center in 1997-98. She is constructing a multidisciplinary theatrical experience based upon the Stone Arch Bridge, which serviced the thriving mills on the Minneapolis riverfront and St. Anthony Falls. She's working with a team of creative collaborators and cooperating with a number of organizations in the immediate area toward the goal of 27 hours of continuous performance and installation-a large-scale visual and aural concert incorporating video, movement and music.