Past
Grantees

MATT RUSKIN received funding for The Warriors, an hour-long documentary about an international group of eco-warriors. In 1997, they began occupying the Glen of the Downs Nature Reserve in Ireland, in an attempt to protect old growth trees that were threatened by a road widening plan.

A grant of $5,000 was awarded to SASE: THE WRITE PLACE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the administrative coordination of National Poetry Slam 2002, to be held in the Twin Cities in August 2002. This is the 13th Annual Slam, an event that draws over 2,000 artists from across the country.

S.A.S.E.: THE WRITE PLACE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received three grants, designed to support new initiatives in the art of spoken word and to supplement a previously awarded grant for S.A.S.E./Jerome Fellowships. A supplementary grant of $16,000, over two years, will increase the level of the S.A.S.E./Jerome project grants for emerging writers. S.A.S.E.: The Write Place received a sum of $20,550 to initiate an artist regrant program for spoken word artists, the Verve fellowships. This pilot will provide subsidy for the professional development of spoken word artists, through individually designed proposals reviewed by a nationally recognized spoken word artist.

S.A.S.E.: THE WRITE PLACE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received three grants, designed to support new initiatives in the art of spoken word and to supplement a previously awarded grant for S.A.S.E./Jerome Fellowships. A supplementary grant of $16,000, over two years, will increase the level of the S.A.S.E./Jerome project grants for emerging writers. S.A.S.E.: The Write Place received a sum of $20,550 to initiate an artist regrant program for spoken word artists. This pilot will provide subsidy for the professional development of spoken word artists, through individually designed proposals reviewed by a nationally recognized spoken word artist.

ST. JOHNS UNIVERSITY, Collegeville, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $54,000 in support of the Emerging Artist in Residence Program at the St. Johns Pottery. Under the direction of master potter Richard Bresnahan, the Potterys program embodies the philosophy and practices of sustainable living, integrating indigenous resources into the creative process. The Emerging Artist in Residence Program supports three artists each year. The Program provides opportunities for artists from different fields within the visual arts to expand their creative abilities and to study and use indigenous materials in the clay preparation process. The two-month residencies provide room and board, travel and living stipends, use of materials, and full access to the studio and firing of work.

Digital video producer ELEANOR SAVAGE was awarded a grant to spend one week in Macon, Georgia, where she will research, interview, and collect experimental footage for a video project about how growing up during the cultural wars of the 1960s and 70s influenced her identity as an organizer and artist invested in community building. The origins of her efforts to create social change sprang from radical childhood experiences. Authority figures in her childhood promoted irrational hatred about the very emotional, intellectual, and developmental convictions that inspired her.

3 Legged Race Executive Director Bonnie Schock and Artistic Director David Moore, Jr., Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant to work with a consultant to learn how to develop a long-range plan for 3 Legged Race. The two directors will explore strategies to maximize their working partnership in order to create a more stable organizational infrastructure. 3 Legged Race intends to evolve its management style from founder driven to shared leadership.

3 Legged Race Executive Director BONNIE SCHOCK and Artistic Director DAVID MOORE JR., Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant to work with a consultant to learn how to develop a long-range plan for 3 Legged Race. The two directors will explore strategies to maximize their working partnership in order to create a more stable organizational infrastructure. 3 Legged Race intends to evolve its management style from founder driven to shared leadership.

The Jerome Foundation Board approved a grant of $13,600 to the JAMES SEWELL BALLET, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the Ballet Works Project. The mission of the Company is to create and perform an exceptionally diverse and appealing repertoire based in the ballet idiom in an effort to broaden access to dance and to advance the art form. The Ballet Works Project focuses on the creation, acquisition and presentation of choreography within the company structure. Jerome funding was authorized for workshops in which three emerging choreographers will create new pieces on the company. The grant will subsidize two company members, Sally Rousse and Penelope Freeh, and independent choreographer Chris Aiken. There will be a studio performance of the works after their completion; however, this project is about the creative process not the finished product.

Knife maker EUGENE SHADLEY, Bovey, was awarded funding to spend ten days in Sheffield, England, where he will study with master knife maker Stan Shaw to improve his skills and acquire a deeper appreciation of his art form. Shaws specialty is multiple-blade folding knives. He is a member of the Little Mesters, official cutlers to the Monarchy.

The MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $15,000 in support of the publication of a book of photographs by PAUL SHAMBROOM, to be issued by Johns Hopkins University Press. This is an example of the two or three Foundation grants per year to established, mid-career artists who are facing significant opportunities to advance their work on national and international levels. Shambrooms book Face to Face with the Bomb: Nuclear Reality after the Cold War, his first published volume, represents the first comprehensive inside photographic look at the United States nuclear arsenal. He has visited more than 30 restricted military sites in 17 states and overseas during the last ten years and has been granted unprecedented access by Defense officials.

JEFF SHAMES and JOHNATHAN SKURNIK received funding for Stutter Step, an hour-long documentary about how Shames came to accept and even appreciate his lifetime of stuttering, after a childhood of frustration and shame. With humor and compassion, the filmmaker seeks to understand why he, and people like him, can't talk like everybody else.

The NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, New York City, also served as fiscal agent for choreographer BILL SHANNON, whose movement vocabulary merges an abstract neo medical sensibility with urban street style kinetics, extending into disability culture as reflected through a personal history of the use of crutches. Support of $10,000 was authorized for a new group work, evening-length, in which Shannon will blend a range of dance forms including break-dancing, popping and capoeira. It will explore a deeper range of connected movements among dancers, with special attention to footwork. Shannon will continue to develop his work with a core group of performers through a collaborative process.

RICHARD SHELTON, St. Paul, MN, was awarded a grant in support of The Coonhuntin Stories of Boo Larington, an animated narrative based on the stories of Boo Larington, an Iowa farmer. Larington is a raccoon hunter and mule trader in southern Iowa. He started hunting and trading over 40 years ago and has one of the best reputations in the Midwest. He is a man with history, who is very gifted in the tradition of storytelling. This animated film reveals those gifts.

SKEWED VISIONS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received funding of $12,500 in support of The Orange Grove Project. Skewed Visions is a performance company specializing in works that engage in and are engaged by their specific physical environment. The Orange Grove Project, written by company co-founder Gulgun Kayim, explores family, memory, language, culture, and migration. The play traces Kayims family journey from the troubled island of Cyprus to England.

Sculptor GERALD SMITH received funding to visit the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, where he will study the Museums collection of 1950s US satellites and review literature concerning the social, political, and military climate in the US during the early years of the space race. Smith wishes to address the cynicism in current attitudes about space exploration by looking at the origins of space flight and reconnecting to its hope and optimism. Smith constructs satellites and rocket noses using source information found in literature and photos. He needs to see the real thing.

Writer GARY SMOLIK was awarded a grant to spend seven days at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC., where he will take a rubbing of his friends name from the Wall. He will research his friends military history at the Veterans Administration Office. Smolik has a deep need to understand his friends military journey and the circumstances of his death. The experience will contribute to a personal essay to be included in Smoliks memoir.

SOHO REPERTORY THEATRE, New York City, produces new and experimental theater productions. It fully produces two to three plays per season plus numerous readings and workshops of new plays. It calls itself a hothouse for exuberant theatrical work. Craft, imagination, innovation, and an expansive artistic experience are valued above all else. A two-year grant of $20,000 was authorized in support of the development of new work by emerging playwrights.

A grant was awarded to photographer ALEC SOTH so that he may develop a monograph about the Mississippi River by driving 3,700 miles along the river and visiting particular spots and people along the way. Soth is looking at six locations along the river that capture the particularly American understanding of freedom he feels the river represents.

Funding was awarded to ALONZA RICO SPEIGHT in support of Where Are They Now?, a documentary portrayal of African-American and Black South African young people, now "twenty-somethings", that compares their political and cultural perspectives. This work is a follow-up to an earlier documentary profile of the same individuals when they were teens.