Past
Grantees

Artist/architect JOHN DURFEY based in Blooming Prairie will travel to Abilene, Texas; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Lawrence, Kansas. Durfey will tour and investigate restored theaters created in the Pueblo Deco style, a flamboyant, short-lived architectural form that fused the spirit of Indian cultures of the Southwest with the exuberance of America during the Roaring 20s. This trip will inform his work restoring the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Minnesota.

The theater ensemble ELEVATOR REPAIR SERVICE, which first performed in New York in 1991, received $8,000 in support of its 1998-99 season. The ensemble combines found objects and texts with elements of slapstick comedy, dance, audio design and dramatic literature. Elevator Repair Service embraces the unpredictable collisions among various source materials, theatrical styles and personalities. It aims to be mysterious, comical and gracefully awkward. Its fall 1998 show, Total Fictional Lie, concluded its run at P.S. 122. After the first of the year, the company will rework a 1994 piece titled Language Instruction: Love Family vs. Andy Kaufman. The company will continue the development of new work in the late spring, and plans to tour during the summer.

A grant of $10,000 was made to EN GARDE ARTS, New York City, in support of the Walking Tour. En Garde Arts produces site specific theater through the commissioning of playwrights, directors, composers and performance artists to create works emphasizing the strength and beauty of the urban landscape and rediscovering architectural treasures. En Garde works to gain a place for theater as part of everyday life by situating it in traveled and familiar spaces. Jerome subsidy is directed toward a new work developed by four emerging artists, who will each be given the missive of uncovering the cultures and histories of New York's Lower East Side. Artistic Director Anne Hamburger will work with the artists to weave their separate stories into a theatricalized walking tour of the Lower East Side.

A grant was awarded to writer LIN ENGER of Moorhead to spend three weeks in Norway. Enger will conduct research for his novel-in-progress about Scandinavian immigrants

The ETHOS PERCUSSION GROUP, Queens, New York, received $20,000 in support of a pilot commissioning program for emerging composers. The Group is dedicated to the advancement of the percussive arts in performance and education. It embraces musical styles from around the globe and highlights the players vibrant musicianship as well as an extensive and unique collection of instruments. Ethos received funding to support the commissioning and performance of new works by three emerging composers within the context of a chamber music series dedicated to percussion music. The aim is to create a supportive and prestigious environment that will both encourage and facilitate the artistic growth of the ensemble and the composers selected.

EXIT ART, New York City, received a two-year commitment of $36,000 to support the participation of emerging artists in the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 exhibition programs. Exit Art organizes and presents experimental projects exploring the diversity of contemporary culture in the visual arts, theater, music, design, film and video. It aims to provide a unique perspective on culture by establishing a dialogue that places histories, values and aesthetic sensibilities within the transcultural reality of art in the 1990s. Exit Art provides regular and substantive opportunities to emerging visual artists. Its exhibitions

Robert Fenz - Revival, a poetic 16mm documentary/experimental film about jazz music as an art form which was created as a metaphorical and literal means out of slavery; a form of expression in which form directly addresses the basic dialectic of freedom and slavery, or structure and improvisation. Mr. Fenz will bring these considerations into his film project, while understanding and contextualizing other historical elements in the development of this unique musical art form as well.

A commitment of $7,000 was made to FilmNorth (formerly Independent Feature Project/North), Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of programs and services for emerging media artists. This service organization encourages the quality and diversity of independent media production in the region. It accomplishes its mission by fostering the personal visions of a diverse group of media artists, providing access to funding that allows for creative control by those makers and cultivating exposure to a wide range of audiences. IFP/North offers innovative programs and services that are recognized on a regional and national level.

WILLIAM FIORINI, an artist and professor from Lacresent, received funding to spend six to ten weeks in Japan investigating and studying traditional Japanese metal techniques. He expects this experience will have a highly positive effect on his own work in metal.

CAROLE FISHER, an artist and teacher, received a grant to spend five weeks in South and Central Alaska conducting interviews at Year 10 following the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Fisher has been working on installation pieces addressing the Alaskan Oil Spill for eight years.

HOLLY FISHER was awarded support for BURMA LAND/SCAPES, an experimental video which will involve the viewer in exploring the seemingly innocent activity of tourism in Burma. At its simplest level the viewer will witness the filmmaker's personal travelogue of locations, people, rhythms, and the interaction of a traveler discovering a new land. But as testimonies from refugees and archival materials from colonial, underground, and other sources are woven into the fabric of this diary, space is created for a multiplicity of narratives. This video panorama will exploit myriad levels of meaning while unleashing a fuller accounting of forced labor and relocation, bondage, terror and denial of basic human rights that underpin Burma's tourism campaign.

A two-year commitment of $55,000 was made to FORECAST PUBLIC ART WORKS, St. Paul, Minnesota, to subsidize the Public Art Affairs Program, which Jerome Foundation has funded since 1989. FORECAST supports the development and appreciation of public art by creating opportunities for artists and communities to explore the public realm, and by producing educational materials to enhance the understanding and growth of public art. In the Public Art Affairs Program, a competitive application and jury review process awards stipends to emerging Minnesota artists to develop and/or produce public art projects throughout the state. Funding is available to artists in two categories: research and development stipends and public projects.

The Jerome Foundation Directors authorized approved $2,000 for THE FOUNDATION CENTER, New York City, to support its general program of providing useful information to grantseekers and grantmakers.

The Jerome Foundation initiated support for THE FOUNDRY THEATRE, New York City, in 1997. A second season grant of $12,000 will be directed toward emerging playwrights commissions and related developmental and production expenses. The Foundry is both a producing theater and an artists think tank. It is committed to pioneering new ways of developing theatrical material, which by its very nature challenges traditional boundaries of theater, while remaining accessible to audiences. With each originating artist, the Foundry customizes a process that includes dramaturgical consultations, workshops, extended rehearsal periods and full productions.

Writer SARAH FOX received a grant to travel to Milwaukee and Green Lake, Wisconsin; Chicago, Illinois; and Collegeville, Minnesota, conducting research, interviewing family members and others in order to complete a book-length collection of essays.

Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a grant of $15,000 to FRANCONIA SCULPTURE PARK, Shafer, Minnesota, in support of residencies and programs serving emerging artists in the 1998 program year. This 16-acre site located between Shafer and Taylor Falls in Minnesota is an outdoor sculpture park that provides artists with residency opportunities, workspace and exhibition exposure. Its primary, but not exclusive, focus is to support emerging sculptors. Proposals are sought via an open call. An independent selection panel chooses those artists to whom residencies are awarded. Jerome Foundation support will enable Franconia to pay fees to artists as well as assist with materials and program administration.

FRANK THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, has received subsidy from the Jerome Foundation since 1991 for its work as a small developmental theater company. It is committed to producing artistically innovative work designed to challenge the skills of the artists and the everyday perceptions of the audiences. It explores texts which address ideas and issues of social, political and/or cultural concern. Jerome support of $11,000 was authorized to subsidize emerging playwrights' productions and developmental activities. This includes the production of a work by Caridad Svich; a laboratory for creative artists responding to Chekhov plays, short stories and letters; the development of a new work on Mata Hari; and the fall 1998 production of a new American play by an emerging playwright.

The Jerome Foundation made a two-year grant commitment of $64,000 to FRANKLIN FURNACE, New York City, in support of the Fund for Performance Art and the series Franklin Furnace at Pseudo Programs. In collaboration with Pseudo Programs, a producer of Internet television featuring emerging artists, news and entertainment, Franklin Furnace presents artists on the Internet. Artists to be featured in the 1998-99 season were selected by an independent review panel last May. Artists retain the rights to their works. Netcast shows remain on Pseudos server for six months after broadcast allowing for multiple hits. The Fund for Performance Art places funds in the hands of emerging performance artists so that they may create and produce new works. A call for applications is announced each year. An independent selection panel identifies Fund recipients.

The Jerome Foundation made a two-year grant commitment of $64,000 to FRANKLIN FURNACE, New York City, in support of the Fund for Performance Art and the series Franklin Furnace at Pseudo Programs. In collaboration with Pseudo Programs, a producer of Internet television featuring emerging artists, news and entertainment, Franklin Furnace presents artists on the Internet. Artists to be featured in the 1998-99 season were selected by an independent review panel last May. Artists retain the rights to their works. Netcast shows remain on Pseudos server for six months after broadcast allowing for multiple hits. The Fund for Performance Art places funds in the hands of emerging performance artists so that they may create and produce new works. A call for applications is announced each year. An independent selection panel identifies Fund recipients.

BRIAN FRINK, a painter and Art Professor at Mankato State University, received a grant to study Italian paintings from the Renaissance. Hell spend four weeks in Italy for an extended period of reflection and individualized study designed to inform future work.