Past
Grantees

ART IN GENERAL, New York City, received a two-year grant of $40,000 to support the participation of emerging artists in the exhibition program and to offer professional services to emerging artists. Art in General exhibits work by local, national and international artists. The organization presents gallery exhibitions, sponsors an artist-in-residence program, commissions sound/audio works, presents video screenings and shows work in its ground floor window. Exhibitions include a few touring projects, site-specific commissioned work, one-person residencies, group thematic exhibitions and guest organized shows. Funding for the current year will support ten temporary sited public works and interventions in honor of the organizations 20th anniversary.

ART IN GENERAL, New York City, has received annual support from the Jerome Foundation for its exhibition program and for a Minnesota artist residency program. A supplemental grant of $5,000 was authorized to enable Art in General to provide direct services to individual emerging artists. Services include SMart TOOLs Sessions, which are seminars to propel career development. The funds will allow for individual meetings with artists, review of portfolios, the further development of the artist resource room and on-line services.

ASIAN AMERICAN RENAISSANCE, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a grant of $35,000 in support of the Artist Career Development Program and other programs serving artists. By boosting the Asian-American network of artists and audiences, a sense of Asian-American community is fostered through the collective self-recognition of culture and identity. The Career Development Program is a re-granting effort open to individual, emerging Asian-American artists working in any arts discipline and residing in Minnesota. Projects are individually designed and reviewed by an independent panel. Asian American Renaissance also sponsors workshops and master classes taught by nationally recognized Asian-American artists.

Dancer AMY ELAINE BEHM received funding to spend 19 days attending an intensive workshop at EDAM in Vancouver, British Columbia. EDAM is a contemporary dance school that investigates improvisational movement. Behm has spent the last 15 years studying with and being influenced by many mentors and choreographers. She enjoyed this time, but it was often more about accommodating or interpreting others work than exploring her own movement. This workshop will provide Behm with the opportunity and time to explore her own unique vision and movement style.

Photographer SUSAN BOECHER received a grant to travel to numerous towns throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin to conduct research and integrate findings via photographic works. Boecher is working on a series of black and white infrared photographs that examine the concept of quality free time and how contemporary society chooses to use it. She will travel to tourist sites, public social events, and family gatherings. Boechers photographs capture moments of personal isolation and reflection.

Choreographer DJOLA BRANNER and drummer AARON BARNELL were awarded a grant to study Haitian dance and folklore for four weeks in New York City. As one of the very few Haitian dance instructors/choreographers in the Twin Cities, Branner sees a need to study with teachers in other parts of the country to challenge himself as a student. Branner will study Haitian dance with Mona Estime, one of his mentors. Branner and Barnell work together collaboratively. Barnell will study rhythm and drumming with John Amira.

Writer TESSA BRIDAL, Albertville, was awarded a grant to spend four weeks in Uruguay where she will conduct interviews with now adult children adopted after their parents disappeared during the 1970s and 80s when Uruguay was under military rule. Six South American countries were involved in this illicit adoption scheme known as the Condor Plan. Bridal was born and raised in Uruguay. After finishing her investigation, Bridal plans to write a nonfiction book about these adopted children and their families.

The BRONX COUNCIL ON THE ARTS, Bronx, New York, received $30,000 over two years for the Longwood Cyber Studio Fellowship Program. This initiative serves artists exploring cyber technology as a creative tool. The purpose is to provide opportunities for artists to work privately or collaboratively to create new work within a supportive and creative environment. The program provides access to fully equipped computers, software and the Internet. It also provides consultants and an honorarium for each Fellowship winner. Works are presented in the Longwood Cyber Arts Gallery.

Composer JEFFREY BROOKS received funding to spend six days in New York working with Bang on a Can All-Stars on the further development and rehearsal of his latest work Skeleton Crew. The work will premiere at Merkin Concert Hall in New York in late June. Bang on a Can All-Stars is a progressive new music ensemble. Collaboration with the group will improve the quality of this performance and advance Brooks recognition as a composer.

THE PLAYWRIGHTS CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for playwright CARLYLE BROWN, was awarded a grant of $10,000 in support of the production of Browns The Masks of Othello. This multimedia performance piece traces the journey of the play Othello, The Moor of Venice, by William Shakespeare, through the centuries. This play about a play highlights the famous actors and moments in the original plays production history and the popular, critical, and social reactions it has prompted over time.

LINDA BRYANT & LAURA POITRAS received funding for Flag Wars, a cinema verite documentary about the conflicting issues in a working class black neighborhood when white gays and lesbians move into the area.

Musician DAVID B. BURK received a grant to spend ten days attending the fifth annual Arabic Music Retreat at Mount Holyoke College in Springfield, Massachusetts. Burk will study with master Arabic musicians. He will focus his study on the oud, a Middle Eastern instrument; the maqam, a complex system of scales used in Arabic music; Arabic rhythmic theory; and the development of traditions and regional differences in Arabic music.

CHRYS CARROLL, education coordinator at Franklin ArtWorks, was awarded a grant to spend two weeks in New Zealand gathering information about alternative spaces and the incorporation of Maori art into exhibition and educational programming. She will investigate effective programs that may strengthen her organizations programming in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis.

CAVE CANEM, New York City, operates several programs designed to advance the work of emerging African American poets. This is an organization that recognizes and supports talent and potential, and has developed nurturing yet rigorous methods for advancing the quality of the work of African American writers. Jerome Foundation funding of $25,000 will support the participation of emerging poets in the annual summer workshop/retreat, a New York City writers workshop, a Minnesota writers workshop and a Minnesota Master Class.

A grant award of $10,000 was authorized to The CENTER FOR HMONG ARTS AND TALENT, St. Paul, Minnesota, an organization that nurtures and develops Hmong artists, provides opportunities and leadership training, educates the general public to better understand and appreciate Hmong arts and advocates for its community through the arts. Jerome dollars will support the publication of two issues of Paj Ntaub Voice, a literary arts journal focused on Hmong art and culture, containing original literary work, visual art and cultural criticism. Calls for submissions are issued twice a year. An advisory/editorial board and editor Mai Neng Moua read and select works for publication. Paj Ntaub Voice blends old with new, reflecting the artistic soul of the Hmong-American community. It helps Hmong writers and artists move forward an oral culture with little written literary identity. In addition to publication, the Jerome Foundation grant will support a writing workshop to assist Hmong writers with the craft of writing.

CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT ARTISTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $10,000 in support of Zaraawar Mistrys new work The Tragedy of Sohrab and Rustum. It is a solo piece based on the legend of the warrior Rustum and the unfortunate circumstances under which he killed his son Sohrab. Mistrys play intertwines elements of the ancient epic with the tragi-comic story of a contemporary Zoroastrian family from Bombay. It incorporates traditional rituals, object transformation, and stylized movement to tell a story of individual dreams and passions set against a backdrop of the zenith, decline, and now preservation of the Zoroastrians. Center for Independent Artists nurtures artistic vision and fosters diverse cultural perspectives by providing resources and services to independent artists.

A grant was awarded to PAUL CHAN in support of Happiness (Finally) After 35,000 Years of Civilization, an experimental animated film that reinterprets the drawings of outsider artist Henry Darger and utopian socialist Charles Fourier to explore the Western conception of Utopia.

CHEAP THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $5,000 for its 2001 New Play Series, the primary vehicle for advancing the mission of the company as a producer of new plays. The playwright is considered the final word on director selection, dramaturgical selection if required, interpretation and design choices. Two works by emerging playwrights will be produced this spring, The Primitive by Todd Irvine, co-presented with The Playwrights Center in its newly renovated theater space; and First Lady by Erica Christ, in a co-production with Hidden Theatre.

THE CHERRY LANE ALTERNATIVE, New York City, received a grant of $30,000 to continue its Mentor Project. The Project provides emerging playwrights the opportunity to develop new plays and work one-on-one with master playwrights. Five emerging playwrights are paired with three mentors. After a period of script development, three of the five emerging playwrights will have their works produced in a showcase. Cherry Lane is committed to the development of emerging playwrights within an environment that nurtures, challenges, and offers unlimited potential for artists and audiences alike.

IL PICCOLO TEATRO DELLOPERA/CREATE!, Brooklyn, New York, submitted a request as fiscal agent for THE DANCERS CO-OP, the company of choreographer Gabri Christa. Jerome Foundation Directors authorized $10,000 to support the development of new work by Christa for The Dancers Co-Op. Her style of movement is a blend of her Caribbean/European heritage, African Diaspora religions and popular culture. An ongoing theme is the exploration of social and cultural displacement and how populations are able to negotiate the differences between community and identity. Funding was authorized for The Winti Project, in which Christa will focus on former and present Dutch colonies and the results of the colonial influence in the Dutch Caribbean and Suriname. She is particularly interested in the Sarammacan culture, which reflects one of the Surinames largest Creole populations.