Past
Grantees

ERNEST LARSEN was awarded support for Yellow Cab, a point of view Hi-8 video documentary revolving around his re-emergence as a New York City cabdriver. What he's after is the archetypal American story as it is lived today, when you're only another bottom dog (in Edward Dahlberg's memorable phrase) in a tough city, and you know you have to make your way up. He is also after a portrayal of a culture that everybody in the city thinks they see everyday, but don't scarcely get more than the merest glance at; they never see it from the inside. This video will examine work as necessity and obsession, with relentless detailing of the life of the cabbie, the never-ending need to get the next fare, to get rid of that fare as soon as possible so as to find the next one, the brutal competition for fares, the calculations involved in where and when to go, and the nightmare of routine.

ALMAE LARSON, an artist and education coordinator who lives in Dodge Center, will spend nine days at the Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Janesville, Minnesota. Her purpose is to investigate body as nature, body in nature and self identity while creating photographs about nature, culture and identity.

T.J. LARSON, Minneapolis, MN, $15,000. Larson received support for Stories from the Bottle, a 90-minute, 16mm narrative about the value of simple human companionship, as reflected through the relationships among various misfits and outcasts at Mickey's Diner.

KATHLEEN LAUGHLIN, Minneapolis, MN, $10,000. Laughlin received support for Reinventing Power: Origins of the Battered Women's Movement, a 58-minute video documentary on the genesis of the women's shelter movement as reflected through the actions of organizations such as Women's Advocates. Interestingly, this enormously empowering phenomenon, which spread throughout the world, began in St. Paul, Minnesota.

CROSS PERFORMANCE, New York City, received a grant of $30,000 to support the completion of Conservators Dream, a 30-minute film featuring choreographer/performers Ralph Lemon and Bebe Miller, filmed in collaboration with Isaac Julien and with text generated by bell hooks. This grant is an example of the Foundations very limited program focus on established, mid-career artists who are facing critical junctures in their work and who have unusual opportunities to make new work that is a significant challenge for them. Conservators Dream explores an emotionally amorphous relationship between an African-American woman and man, and revolves around interior and physical dialogues with spoken texts and movement that present a complicated love affair. The man is a somewhat shadowy but powerful figure; the woman finds a voice over his power that compels her to break away.

JENNY LION, St. Paul, MN, $19,000. Lion received support for Aloha Goodbye, a 30-minute, 16mm experimental documentary that is part faked travelogue and part actual historical investigation, which employs a highly unusual approach to representing political and individual history and memory.

A grant was made to poet ROSEANN LLOYD to spend four weeks traveling in Norway, Wales and Scotland collecting information for her current poetry book-in-progress, Directions: From the South to the North.

The Jerome Foundation has offered support for the Mentor Series at THE LOFT, Minneapolis, Minnesota, since 1979. The mission of The Loft is to foster a writing community, the artistic development of individual writers and an audience for literature. The Mentor Series is a vehicle for emerging Minnesota writers to work in a small group setting with nationally recognized writers, to be mentored by them in ways ranging from review of their work to providing inspiration and example for the writing life. Both fiction writers and poets participate. The Loft lost suddenly and unexpectedly a significant contributor to this program. In order to make certain that the program could operate as it has in the past, the Jerome Foundation Directors authorized an advance or loan of up to $15,000 to cover pressing expenses, with those funds to be repaid or recouped as part of Jerome Foundations future support of the program.

The Jerome Foundation Directors elected to continue their support of the Creative Nonfiction Program at THE LOFT, Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Loft is a nationally recognized, community-based literary center whose mission is to foster a writing community, the artistic development of individual writers and an audience for literature. Since 1985, The Loft has annually brought a nationally acclaimed writer of creative nonfiction to the Twin Cities to work with six emerging writers in a month-long mentoring program that includes discussions and critique in eight evening workshops, individual manuscript evaluations and a public reading. The writer-in-residence is selected by Loft staff based upon recommendations from previous participants as well as other writers and literature faculty members. An open call for applicants yields a group of emerging creative nonfiction writers who are interested in participating in the program. The national writer-in-residence reviews the anonymous submissions and selects participants who show promise in their craft and who would benefit from the intensive mentoring experience. Jerome funding over two years of $38,000 was authorized.

THE LOFT, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant commitment of $66,000 in continued support of the Mentor Series, an activity the Foundation has been supporting since 1979. The Loft is a nationally recognized, community based literary center. Its mission is to foster a writing community, the artistic development of individual writers and an audience for literature. The Mentor Series is a vehicle for emerging Minnesota writers to work in small group settings with nationally recognized writers, who mentor in several ways ranging from reviewing their work to providing inspiration and an example of the writing life. The mentors spend concentrated periods of time with the Minnesota writers. Both poets and fiction writers are eligible for this program. The Loft selects participants on the basis of a competitive review process.

THE LOWER EAST SIDE PRINTSHOP, New York City, received $10,000 in support of services to and access subsidies for emerging artists, with the requirement that $4,000 of the grant be designated for artists' fees. The Printshop is a community-based organization which promotes and advances the art of printmaking. It provides access to professional studio facilities, financial and materials support, professional development and exposure opportunities to artists, particularly those who do not have the financial resources to set up their own printmaking studios and those of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Approximately 50 artists participate in the Workspace Program each year. Jerome subsidy will enable the Printshop to increase its services to emerging artists and provide fee support for them.

Luca Buvoli - A Guide to Flying, a 15-minute, color, color, 16mm animated film about one of man's most ancient dreams, the dream of flying. In this step-by-step lesson, an unidentified professor instructs his audience to a series of movements of the body which when correctly performed allow one to lift him/herself from the ground and fly without the help of any mechanical device.

MARTI LUFKIN, St. Paul, MN, $3,500. Lufkin received support for An Asian Dance in Minnesota, a five to seven-minute 16mm film on Gamelan dance, a form of traditional dance which is characterized by moving the body, slowly and precisely, with strong emphasis on head and wrist movements. Small gestures take on monumental meaning in Gamelan dance. For example, the movement of one finger can have great cultural significance. Ms. Lufkin will explore the mysteries and beauty of this artistic form of physical expression.

ZEITGEIST, a contemporary music ensemble based in St. Paul, Minnesota, acted as fiscal agent for artist RUTH MACKENZIE, who sought funding to revise and mount a second production run of Kalevala: Dream of the Salmon Maiden. Jerome Foundation seeded the first production of this work in 1997. It cast MacKenzie in the new role of creator of a multidisciplinary performance piece, based on vocal sounds and oral poetry from Scandinavian and Finno-Ugrian traditions of ancient women's songs. The MacKenzie performance work told the story of a young woman who eluded the advances of a 900 year old tradition by transforming herself into a salmon (known as the fish of truth) in search of her own truth. The response to the first production was greater than anyone anticipated. MacKenzie will now make a CD recording of the piece and will mount it in a slightly revised form for a longer production run in 1998. The Jerome Foundation made a commitment of $14,000 toward this development and advancement of her work.

The MAD ALEX ARTS FOUNDATION, New York City, received a commitment of $10,000 in support of MAD Alex Presents. MAD Alex presents the work of both emerging and established poets and writers. Its series of readings, with each author being given one hour to read new work, emphasizes direct promotion of emerging writers. Writers are given opportunities to contextualize their work.

j. mandle performance, New York City received a grant of $6,000 to support the creation and presentation of the new public artwork Kalch. Under the artistic direction of Julia Mandle, this organization presents performances in urban spaces, creating spectacles in unexpected locations that heighten experience of the everyday environment. Kalch is a series of site specific performances that explore the multi-layered history of the Collect Pond Park and take place around Foley Square in Lower Manhattan. Mandle will draw attention to the largely forgotten history and current ecological state of this significant location. The work is comprised of four public performances, the first three presentations subtitled Day, Twilight and Night, and the fourth an assembly of the earlier presentations in sequential order.

The MARGOLIS BROWN COMPANY (a.k.a. Adaptors), Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $30,000 to develop work for the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 performance seasons. Founded in 1983 in New York City, Margolis Brown is now a multimedia movement theater company based in Minneapolis. Under the direction of co-artistic and executive directors Kari Margolis and Tony Brown, the company creates original multimedia, physical theater productions that are provocative and socially relevant, pushes the boundaries of experimental physical theater, seeks to make the work accessible to a broad and diverse audience and fosters company searches for the visual metaphor and the probing commentary that will grab an audience emotionally and live in the spectators imagination for a long time afterwards. Two new works will be developed with the grant, Starry Messenger, based on the life and times of Gallileo, and a site-specific performance event titled Breakfast in Minnesota.

BENI MATIAS, Minneapolis, MN, $10,000. Matias received support for Leaving el Barrio, a one-hour video and Super-8 personal documentary about her 72-year-old mother and her brother's move from New York to a more peaceful setting in suburban Florida. This work will explore themes such as family, culture, class mobility, racism, feminist ideology and the American dream.

SHAWN MCCONNELOUG AND HER ORCHESTRA, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a terminal two-year grant of $24,000 in support of the companys 1998 and 1999 seasons. This marks the culmination of a seven-year period of support the Foundation has authorized for the development of new work by choreographer Shawn McConneloug. The Orchestra was formed as a means to create work that stimulates audiences through the arts of dance, theater and film/video, manifested through performance, touring and teaching residencies. The Orchestras combination of movement, words, music, film and video in its work, and its poignant use of irony and humor to approach subjects, have met with increasing success and recognition. Funds will support the development of two new pieces, Women, Death and OperaWhats Wrong to Wanting to Die in Your Arms? and the Orpheum Project.

Jerome Foundation Directors authorized funding a pilot program of fellowships/production grants to emerging New York City sound artists in an initiative designed by the MEDIA ALLIANCE, New York City. A one-year grant of $23,000 will subsidize the Independent Radio/Sound Art Fellowship Program, aimed to serve emerging sound artists. The mission of the Media Alliance is to support, promote and advocate for independent film, video, audio, radio and digital arts in New York State. These grants will support artists working in sound and radio as independent art forms, not as adjuncts to other media. The fund is designed to encourage artists to take creative risks through personal projects creatively controlled by artists and with budgets small enough for a grant to advance significantly their completion.