Past
Grantees

JULIE BUFFALOHEAD, a painter, will spend one month in Northern Nebraska and Northern Oklahoma to investigate the contemporary visual experiences of American Indian people, especially her own tribe, the Ponca Indians. She expects this journey will assist her in focusing her own painting.

The CAAM CHINESE DANCE THEATER, St. Paul, Minnesota, was formed in 1992; and is currently under the artistic direction of choreographer and master teacher Shen Pei. Jerome Foundation subsidy of $9,000 is directed toward the creation of choreography for professional-level dancers by Shen Pei. Funds will underwrite three to five choreographic initiatives, from duets to large-scale works. While Shen Pei is a noted choreographer and teacher in her native China, her level of recognition in the United States is under-developed. Grant funds will support this choreographer who is emerging in a different country.

CAVE CANEM, New York City, was founded by poets Cornelius Eady and Toi Derricotte in 1996 as a week-long summer retreat/workshop in upstate New York. The first session was so successful, that in the second summer, the number of participants doubled in size. The atmosphere created was one in which African American poets felt free to take creative risks, and seize the opportunity to study with skilled and widely acclaimed African American poet mentors. Cave Canem addresses the isolation of African American poets and their lack of recognition and opportunities. Jerome subsidy of $15,000 was enthusiastically awarded to support the participation of New York City and Minnesota emerging writers in two programs. The summer retreat/workshop will continue in 1998. To that will be added a workshop for African American poets who live in New York City. Up to ten poets will be chosen on the basis of competitively reviewed manuscripts for a workshop which will meet weekly for ten weeks in the fall of 1998.

THE CENTER FOR ARTS CRITICISM, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $28,000 in support of a major initiative titled CriticsLink, and general programming. The Center addresses the need for more quantity, quality and diversity in arts and cultural criticism. It works with a wide variety of critics, artists, arts organizations and community groups to clarify and expand the definition of arts criticism, and diversify the voices who practice it. CriticsLink is a four-month mentoring program in which emerging Minnesota critics work with experienced national and local critics to refine critical and writing skills. Together with a lecture series titled Checks and Balances, CriticsLink aims to foster dialogue and collaboration among critics and communities traditionally left out of critical dialogue concerning the arts.

LINDA CHATTERTON received a grant to spend one and a half weeks in St. Andrews, Scotland. She will study with internationally known flutist and teacher Peter Lloyd at the St. Andrews Flute Summer School.

CHEAP THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $6,000 in support of its 1998 New Play Series. Cheap Theatre aims to provide exciting and satisfying evenings of theater by producing new plays, drawing on local and regional talent, in order to bring compelling new theater voices to Minnesota audiences. The 1998 Series will present the world premieres of two plays by playwrights Todd Irvine and Gwendolyn Schwinke. Irvines play will unfold in vignettes, illustrating the fantastic paradigms of quantum physics and the dreadful moral dilemma that ruined lives, minds and careers through the development of the atomic bomb. Schwinkes work is based on the return of Odysseus to his native Ithaca.

COFFEE HOUSE PRESS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year commitment of $50,000 toward the publication of eight titles of fiction and poetry by emerging writers. Found in 1984, Coffee House Press is a nonprofit literary publishing house with a reputation for presenting award-winning writers in beautifully designed books. The Press currently publishes 14 books of contemporary fiction and poetry per year, reaching an annual readership of 40,000. Its mission is to promote exciting, vital and enduring authors; to delight and inspire readers; to increase awareness of and appreciation for the traditional book arts; to contribute to the cultural life of its community; and to enrich our collective literary heritage. Jerome support allows the Press to dedicate resources to emerging authors, a majority of whom will be residents of Minnesota and New York City.

TYHEESHA COLLINS received funding to spend three weeks in New York City or Boston in intensive, one-on-one study of rhythm tap dance and choreography. Collins will study with master tap artists and instructors Brenda Buffalino and Diane Walker.

CORNING DANCES & COMPANY, Cottage Grove, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $26,000 toward the creation, development and production of choreography in the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 seasons. This company is dedicated to creating provocative and accessible works that address issues of relevance, and to working with communities to deepen the impact of the messages. One of the new works planned is a dance that explores success in midlife, and how one measures that. Corning will work collaboratively with playwright Kim Hines in the development of this work. Corning is also at work on the third and final part of her Human Trilogy. In this, shell address the following questions: What lies beyond ones relationship with self or fellow man? Where do belief and spirit intersect? What is it that is timeless, immortal? At the works core is a commissioned text written by Shelly Berc, who also wrote the text for Part I of the Trilogy. Cornings challenge has been her search for a particular movement vocabulary to reflect the more abstract and ephemeral concept of spirituality.

The COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS received $7,350 in general support of its program and as membership dues for 1998.

The Jerome Foundation Directors committed $200,000, over two years, to a newly created organization, the Creative Capital Foundation, established by the ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS, New York City. Creative Capital will test a new way of offering support to individual creative artists. It is a nonprofit, tax-exempt, revolving national fund designed to support artists creating original work, and pursuing innovative approaches to form and/or content in the visual, performing and media arts. The Creative Capital Foundation will take a venture capital approachidentify an innovative product, service or idea that has some commercial potentialand then bring in the best advisors and partners to move it forward, with the originating artist in charge of the project. The goal is to build an ever changing portfolio of projects from conceptual investigations to fully developed, expanding projects, realizing that after the initial funding, projects will develop in different ways depending on real-world circumstances. Not every project is expected to succeed. Creative Capital will go public in January of 1999, under the direction of an independent Board of Directors. Jerome Foundation funding is restricted to the participation of artists from New York City and the state of Minnesota. Its likely that the program will operate as a pilot in its first year.

EVOLVING ARTS, New York City, is dedicated to the development of emerging and mature artists in dance. Founded on the belief that artists need to show their work in order to grow, the organization provides ways for dance artists to create, develop and present work in an atmosphere of support and challenge. It strives to build an artistic community for collaboration and inspiration. Artists represent a wide range of dance styles and genres. In the Company of Men presents work by emerging and established male choreographers. The organization selects featured choreographers from a wide field of submissions and referrals. Jerome subsidy of $10,000 was authorized to support the emerging choreographers engaged in this program.

A grant of $22,500 was authorized for the MINNESOTA DANCE ALLIANCE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the 1998 Dancer Pool Program. The Alliance supports and fosters dance in the State of Minnesota. It operates many programs, one of which, Dancer Pool, has received Jerome Foundation subsidy since 1981. The purpose of Dancer Pool is simpleto support rehearsal fees for dancers working with emerging independent choreographers. It remains as vital to the Minnesota dance community today as it was 16 years ago, when it was initiated. Funds are awarded so that choreographers can experiment with dancers to explore new areas of movement, to develop and create new pieces and to reconstruct past choreographic works intended to be used in upcoming performances. A peer panel process is used to competitively select recipients of grants.

DANSPACE PROJECT, New York City, received a two-year grant of $39,000 to support emerging choreographers commissions. Danspace offers an affordable performance venue for independent experimental choreographers. It encourages artists to take risks and realize their artistic visions in professional settings where they can have their work viewed by an educated and receptive public. In 1993, Danspace Project initiated a commissioning program in which it offers to a certain number of artists funds, over and above their fees, to assist in the creative development of their work. By joining with other funders also interested in commissioning, the Jerome Foundation has assisted Danspace Project in providing creative subsidies for the emerging choreographers it presents. Not all of the emerging artists to receive Jerome commissions in the 1998-99 season are identified as yet, but the group will include Karen Graham, Lance Gries, Mark Jarecke and Mia Lawrence.

DARE TO BREATHE is a five-person a cappella singing group. The performers received a grant to attend a vocal workshop in Northampton, Massachusetts given by the Western Wind, renowned vocal ensemble.

Filmmaker LIZA DAVITCH received funding to travel to Poland to create a collaborative documentary with filmmaker Grzegorz Zglinski about the Polish actress Krystyna Janda and her daughter Maria Seweryn. The proposed film will concentrate on their personal relationship, and will explore how the traditional roles of mother and daughter have been affected by their work as actresses.

KRAIG DIBB is the Director of the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He received a grant to spend six days in Minneapolis to study at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and the Minnetonka Center for the Arts toward the development of a foundry and a book arts production center in Grand Rapids.

A two-year grant of $30,000 was awarded to OPEN CHANNELS/DIXON PLACE, New York City, to support emerging artists' fees within the Works in Progress and More Time, More Money series. Dixon Place was founded in 1986 to enable artists to test new ideas and performance techniques. By virtue of its mission and atmosphere, Dixon Place is committed to commissioning and presenting works in progress, and has built an audience willing to support artists throughout that creative process. Jerome Foundation funding will seed small commissions for Works in Progress; and, it will also enable Dixon Place to commission artists ready to take the next steps to longer performance pieces and the possibility of extended runs, under the series title, More Time, More Money.

CECILIA DOUGHERTY received a grant in support of Gone, a 60-minute experimental narrative remake of episode two of An American Family, the acclaimed 1974 PBS documentary series on the Loud Family.

THALIA DRORI, Minneapolis, MN, $10,000. Drori received support for Waiting for Daryl, a 28-minute absurd, dark and comic 16mm experimental narrative based on her experiences growing up Jewish and female in America in the 1960s.