Past
Grantees

MARK WOJAHN, St. Paul, MN, was awarded funding for What America Needs 2002, an experimental documentary about the United States, a sequel to What America Needs 1994. The filmmaker will travel from Manhattan to San Francisco asking people the question, What do you think America needs?

The WOMENS PROJECT & PRODUCTIONS, New York City, received $22,000 to support the participation of emerging playwrights in the 2002-03 Developmental Theater Program. The Womens Project & Productions is dedicated to the development and production of new plays written by women. It fosters emerging artists through the Playwrights Lab, the Directors Forum, The First Looks Reading Series, workshops, and occasional commissions. The Playwrights Lab is led by Literary Manager Karen Keagle as a forum for early and mid-career playwrights to develop their work. The First Looks Reading Series typically presents between 15 and 20 rehearsed readings of new plays each season.

THE FIELD, New York City, acting as fiscal agent for ELLIS WOOD/WOOD DANCE, received a two-year grant of $20,000 to support the development and production of new work. In the first year, funding will support the creation and work-in-progress showing of A.F.E.W. Girls in the Mud, which will premiere during the second year of the grant period. A.F.E.W. highlights aspects of female identity as they relate to the elements of air, fire, earth and water. Wood creates dances that focus on womens issues, and in particular, gender politics.

KIMBERLY WOOD received funding for On My Knees, a narrative film that creates a portrait of Victorian maid-of-all-work Hannah Cullwick, drawing from 17 years of her diaries. Themes of class, race, and gender are explored vis--vis Cullwicks relationship to her employer and her upper class secret paramour.

The NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, New York City, acting as fiscal agent for artist YASUKO YOKOSHI, received a grant of $10,000 to support the developmental stage of Yokoshis new work Shuffle. Yokoshi creates highly performative dance works that deliver cutting edge theatrical drama by revealing the magic of transformation through multiple characters who have a cartoon-like clarity. Shuffle is a dance/theater/multimedia performance piece that will be constructed in several episodes. Some are based on true personal stories, and will be juxtaposed to an exploration of Kojiki, an ancient Japanese creation mythology. Shuffle will premiere in the spring of 2003 in New York City.

A grant was awarded to SUSAN SHIVA YOONESSI in support of The Classifieds: Vern, a quirky documentary that follows the story of a painter, Vern Koski, who was posthumously immortalized on canvas after a 24-year-old conceptual artist placed a classified ad looking for someone to "donate their ashes to art." Vern's wife (an aspiring actress) Marcia Koski answered the ad and offered the remains of her cremated husband. Never recognized for his art during his life, ironically, Vern Koski became "his on life's work."

The ZENON DANCE COMPANY AND SCHOOL, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $48,000 in support of the residencies of six emerging New York City and Minnesota choreographers who will create new works for the Zenon Company. Zenon sustains an artistically excellent, professional dance company that presents the commissioned works of emerging and locally, nationally and internationally recognized modern and jazz choreographers. Choreographers are selected by Artistic Director Linda Andrews and will include, during the duration of this grant, Wynn Fricke, Mark Haim, Keely Garfield, Tere OConnor and Mathew Janczewski.

Marina Zurkow was awarded a grant in support of Little Miss NO, an animated adult fairy tale about boundaries, bohemians, and spiritual materialism. Utilizing 1960's graphic design references, jazz fragments, and concepts of Buddhist philosophy and psychoanalysis, the project stitches together the family, fantasies and nightmares of a little girl who finds out for herself how to speak up and saynot scream"NO." Little Miss NO is vector animated in Flash, and will be distributed on both the Internet and via TV and festivals.

15 HEAD-A THEATRE LAB, St. Paul, Minnesota, received $20,000 to support the creation and production of new work in the 2001-02 season. 15 HEAD is an experimental theater company currently in its fourth season of production. It utilizes a collaborative process to produce plays, operas and musical works marked by highly physical performances and unusual visual styles. It is especially drawn to the integration of text and music. Jerome funding will be directed toward an upcoming production written and directed by Jon Leiseth and titled The Fairy Tale Project, and for Chad Sylvains The Velocity Project.

3 LEGGED RACE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $18,000 in support of the participation of emerging creative artists in Summer Blizzard, Field/Play, and Hand Driven. The mission of 3 Legged Race is to accelerate the invention of new theater and performance by investing in artists and pursuing with them the most compelling collaborative adventures. It supports work in dance, puppetry, theater, and circus arts. Summer Blizzard is a performance event that supports highly physical/spectacle-oriented works at various stages in their creative process. Field/Play will commission five artists, working in collaborative teams, to investigate the fool, the clown, and the buffoon in the development of new works. Hand Driven is a performance workshop devoted to puppetry/object theater. Three to five artists will be invited to work side by side on the development of new pieces for this workshop.

Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a grant of $10,000 to 3-LEGGED DOG, New York City, in emergency support following the destruction of 3-Legged Dogs office and the loss of its physical assets. 3-Legged Dog is an experimental, multidisciplinary group that produces original works in theater, performance, media, and hybrid forms.

A GATHERING OF THE TRIBES, New York City, was founded in 1991 as a venue for under-exposed literary artists, networking, and the development of new talent. It publishes a pan-disciplinary arts journal. A grant of $15,000 was made for the Writers-in-Residence Program. Eight emerging writers, four from New York City and four from Minnesota, will give public readings, make visits to local schools, and tape radio and/or television interviews. The residencies also provide subsidized time to write.

Jerome Foundation funding of $7,000 was granted to AFRICAN VOICES COMMUNICATIONS, New York City, in support of emerging artists' fees for African Voices magazine. African Voices Communications, Inc., a nonprofit arts organization, is devoted to documenting the literature, art and history of artists of color. Founded in 1992, African Voices publishes a national literary magazine and sponsors literary readings, a conference for women filmmakers, art exhibitions, and other cultural programs.

ALCHEMY THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $12,000 to support a reading series for emerging playwrights. Alchemy was founded in 1999 to introduce new audiences to the works of playwrights of African heritage through a monthly reading series. The readings are preceded by brief introductions providing the context for experiencing the works and are followed by audience discussion of the themes, topics and issues covered in the scripts. Jerome subsidy will be used to support New York and Minnesota based playwrights of African heritage.

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $282,000 for composers commissions, performance outreach grants and the provision of technical assistance to composers. The Forum links communities with composers and performers, encouraging the making, playing and enjoyment of new music. It develops programs that educate todays and tomorrows audiences, energize composers careers, stimulate entrepreneurship and collaboration, promote musical creativity and serve as models of effective support for the arts. The Composers Commissioning Program requires a joint application from a composer and either a performer or presenting organization with a commitment to premiering the proposed work. The CCP empowers composers to take the initiative in developing their own creative visions and pursing the ensembles of their choice. In 1997, the Forum established the Performance Outreach Grants, a pool of funds to encourage performers to give multiple performances of their newly commissioned works, particularly before audiences that may be relatively unfamiliar with new music. Finally, Jerome funding was authorized for the provision of direct services to emerging composers.

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $30,000 in support of the Sonic Circuits commissioning program. The Forum links communities with composers and performers, encouraging the making, playing, and enjoyment of new music. The Sonic Circuits Festival is a venue for composers working with technology. The Festival encompasses three series. Sonic Circuits is a program of tape, video, and live works selected by a peer panel. Art on the Electronic Edge is a curated program of new media works that include computer and Internet-based pieces and installations. Future Perfect extracts and develops electronica that includes trans, drone, and ambient styles. With Jerome subsidy, the Forum will commission six new works or collaborative exchanges by emerging composers.

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS ORCHESTRA, New York City, presents a wide spectrum of contemporary American orchestral music. It has programmed over 450 works by over 400 composers, including 104 world premieres. It produces an annual subscription season at Carnegie Hall. Central to its mission is the development of new work and the promotion of composers whose work is little known or infrequently played on the national stage. Jerome Foundation made a grant of $15,000 in support of commissions, orchestral readings and services to emerging composers from Minnesota and/or New York City.

AMERICAN OPERA PROJECTS, Brooklyn, New York, received $20,000 to support the participation of emerging composers and librettists in the First Chance Program. American Opera Projects develops, nurtures and produces new American operas and innovative projects in music theater. It commissions new works from composers and librettists and presents the pieces in workshop settings. The First Chance Program provides composers and librettists with an opportunity to hear their works performed before audiences in semi-staged productions.

The ANDERSON CENTER, Red Wing, Minnesota, received $32,900 over two years in support of residencies of emerging Minnesota and New York City artists. The Anderson Center provides a residence community for writers, artists, scientists and humanists, situated on 330 acres of farm and forest land comprising the Tower View Estate. The Center, which recently became a fully accredited member of the National Alliance of Artists Communities, issues an open call for proposals from artists working in any discipline and conducts a competitive review process, using the expertise of an independent review panel. Jerome funds are restricted to those artists who are eligible both in terms of their career level and their geographic base.

Musician MARC ANDERSON received a grant to spend one month in Beijing, China, studying percussion and Chinese temple music with Li Zhen Gui at the Central Conservatory of Music. He is interested in a formal, firsthand cultural investigation of Chinese music to appreciate fully the art form. Ultimately, Anderson intends to make a recording of temple songs.