Past
Grantees

THE NEW GROUP, New York City, received a grant of $12,000 in support of developmental activities to advance the work of emerging American playwrights. The mission of The New Group is to produce provocative, new plays that reflect the spirit of our times with immediacy, fearlessness and discipline. Established in 1991, it supports a Playwrights Unit, a New Play Reading Series and mainstage productions. The Literary Department scouts new writers and scripts.

THE NEW MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, New York City, received a two-year grant of $32,000 to support the participation of emerging artists in the Public Access program. Founded in 1977, The New Museum collects, preserves, displays and interprets to the general public objects and artifacts related to predominantly American, post-1970 painting, sculpture, photography, graphic arts, video and the performing arts. Public Access encourages the development and presentation of artists' projects that incorporate audience participation as a central element of the works. The New Museum expects the majority of artists participating in this program will be emerging, hence the connection to the Jerome Foundation's program focus. Public Access exhibitions will explore themes such as family, human rights and the social construction of age, designed to attract new cross-over audiences.

The Directors authorized $16,000 to NEW RADIO AND PERFORMING ARTS, Staten Island, New York, to support commissions to emerging artists to create new works for Turbulence, a World Wide Web project. New Radio and Performing Arts was founded in 1981 to stimulate and advance the publics awareness of innovative work in the arts by producing and promoting experimental work for radio and live performance; and by encouraging and participating in the development, production and distribution of high quality audio recordings for video and other means of distribution. Turbulence commissions emerging and established artists to develop new works and explore the specific characteristics of the World Wide Web medium, making use of multimedia and on-line technologies. It commissions artists from a variety of disciplines, and is particularly sensitive to the needs of groups that do not as yet have a large presence in multi-media undertakings.

NEW RIVERS PRESS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $36,000 to continue the Jerome Foundations support of the Minnesota Voices Project. For 30 years, New Rivers Press has discovered new writers, provided them with editorial guidance, published their work in handsome editions and endeavored to build an audience of readers for their work. Volumes of poetry, prose and memoir are produced. The Minnesota Voices Project is a publication competition for emerging writers. Jerome funding assists with the publication of four books each year, two poetry manuscripts and two prose manuscripts. The competition is announced through an open call, with judges identified by publisher C. W. Truesdale. Authors play integral roles in the publication and marketing of their books.

Funding was awarded to writer MARC NIESON to spend one month traveling in Mexico City, Belize and Costa Rica to conduct onsite research integral to the rendering of a novel-in-progress. Nieson will follow the route of the novels protagonist.

The Directors voted to continue support for the NORTHERN CLAY CENTERs Artists Project Grants, a program initiated in 1993. The Centers mission is the advancement of the ceramic arts through promoting excellence in the work of clay artists, providing educational opportunities for artists and encouraging the publics appreciation and understanding of the ceramic arts. The Artists Project Grants Program provides project grants to advance, artistically and technically, the work of emerging Minnesota ceramic artists. Three grants of $6,000 each will be awarded in 1999, with an application deadline in February. Projects may include experimenting with new techniques and materials, working or studying with a mentor, bringing in a respective figure to critique individual work, purchasing equipment to facilitate an aesthetic or technical investigation, studio rental, buying time to work in the studio, purchasing supplies, collaborations with other artists, technical support, education, exhibition opportunities and travel. An independent

A supplementary grant of $14,510 was awarded to the NORTHWEST REGIONAL ARTS COUNCIL, Warren, Minnesota, to increase the number of flood relief grants made to individual artists ravaged by the 1997 floods in northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota.

THE FIELD, New York City, acting as fiscal agent for TERE O'CONNOR DANCE, received $8,000 in support of the creation of new work for the 1998 season. O'Connor is interested in challenging the boundaries of dance by developing a dense, eclectic movement style filled with references and nuance, and a fierce commitment to encountering stark emotional territory. O'Connor will focus on the use of spoken word in dance as he develops a major new piece for his 1998 Dance Theater Workshop season.

A two-year grant of $34,000 was authorized for the EUGENE ONEILL THEATER CENTER, New York City, in support of the participation of Minnesota and New York City emerging playwrights in the 1998 and 1999 National Playwrights Conference. The ONeill Center is an umbrella institution which supports a variety of activities, one of which is the Playwrights Conference. Dedicated to the development of talented writers, the Conference has nurtured 338 playwrights and has helped develop 475 plays. Writers are given opportunities to work on their plays in the company of other professional theater artists. Manuscripts are submitted in response to an open call, and judged competitively. Each year, 12 playwrights are selected to engage in the ONeill process. In recognition of the substantive nature of this developmental program for emerging American writers, the Jerome Foundation was pleased to authorize continued support.

JEFFREY OESTREICH is a potter who lives in Taylors Falls, Minnesota. He will spend six weeks in England, Scotland and Wales to exhibit ceramic pieces, work in residence at the Bernard Leach Pottery and see comprehensive collections of ceramics in British museums.

Painter HOWARD ORANSKY received funding to spend two weeks in Washington, DC, to conduct research at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and at the Still Picture and Film Division of the United States National Archives in Maryland in order to bring distinct and individual voices into his paintings in very specific historical terms.

ST. LUKES ORCHESTRA AND CHAMBER ENSEMBLE, New York City, received an 18-month grant of $24,000 to support commissions for three emerging composers. St. Lukes was formed in 1974 with an initial group of 20 musicians offering a season of concerts at the Church of St. Lukes in Greenwich Village. Programs now include chamber music, orchestra, chamber operas, early music on original instruments and premieres of new works by contemporary American composers. Through the 25th Anniversary New Music Project, St. Lukes will substantially expand its involvement with and commitment to contemporary music and emerging composers by commissioning at least eight new works and presenting 12 concerts devoted exclusively to new music within three years. It intends to produce two new recordings devoted to contemporary music, arrange for the national broadcast of its contemporary music programs and broaden its contemporary repertoire. Jerome subsidy will support emerging composers commissions, beginning this season with Jon Magnussen, who is writing a string quartet for acoustic instruments that will be amplified with contact microphones. There will be an improvisational aspect to the piece via the sounds of instruments sent through a digital effects processor, enabling the musicians to manipulate the sound with foot pedals.

Filmmaker AMY OSTERGAARD, will spend four days in Seattle, Washington and four days in New York City. Ostergaard will conduct research for a new documentary focusing on the emotional impact of personal debt.

Through the fiscal agent services of the NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, New York City, the Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a grant of $10,000 to support OTHER COUNTRIES. This is an arts organization dedicated to the development, dissemination and preservation of literature and other forms of cultural expression of gay men and lesbians of African heritage. It began as a writing workshop in 1986. It published its first journal two years later, with a second anthology published in 1993, noted for its depiction of the realities of black gay men in the midst of the AIDS crisis. In addition to publications, Other Countries offers workshops, readings and performances. The Jerome Foundation was persuaded to offer subsidy because of the focus on nurturing and bringing to public attention the work of emerging writers.

PANGEA WORLD THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $11,000 to support the development and production of two plays created by emerging playwrights/writers. Playwrights Luu Pham and Meena Natarajan will collaborate on a theatrical piece dealing with the centurys wars and refugees from the Armenian Genocide to Tiananmen Square, through the eyes of poets from five continents. Playwright Carlyle Brown will create a new work adapted from the novel No Longer At Ease by Nigerian writer Chinua Acheve, dealing with the tragic consequences of the African encounter with Europe, and one mans confusion in the face of Colonialism. These two works fall within a three-play season planned by Pangea, which is an organization committed to international works, styles and traditions that illuminate the human condition, end divisiveness and celebrate differences. Pangea views the stage as a powerful international forum and a podium for discussion.

The Directors authorized a grant of $20,000 to PATRICKS CABARET, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of core programming and the Exposures program. The mission of the Cabaret is to support artists in their growth and development by providing an informal, supportive environment in which to develop and test work. It provides artists with opportunities to take risks; and it encourages artists to try new things by presenting work-in-progress and short finished pieces. While it serves a broad range of artists, the Cabaret specifically reaches out to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender artists, and artists of color. The Exposures program is a more comprehensive next-step approach to developing new work and promoting emerging artists careers. Exposures is designed for emerging artists who are ready to create longer works, to present in longer runs, and to learn more about the business of performance production. The goal is to develop the artistic and production skills of emerging artists with exceptional promise.

SARAH PENMAN and MARK ANTHONY ROLO, Minneapolis, MN, $15,000. Penman and Rolo received support for The Great Woodland Indian Mini-Tour, a 30-minute S-VHS documentary about a fast-moving road trip through the Ojibway reservations of Minnesota. At a time when perceptions about Indians are too often shaped by mainstream news coverage of treaty rights issues, and Indian gaming, the real lives of everyday Indians remain invisible. This film will provide a glimpse into some of those lives.

PENUMBRA THEATRE, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a three-part grant of $40,000 in support of Cornerstone activities, the Late Night Series and a commissioning fund for emerging Minnesota and New York City playwrights. Penumbra provides opportunities to observe, acknowledge, learn and celebrate the richness, diversity and reality of the African American experience. Cornerstone dramaturgy and development activities nurture the new works of African American playwrights, with the levels and kinds of support tailored to the needs of individuals and the demands of the scripts. The focus of the program is to identify new and emerging playwrights and to support them in a theatrical setting. Funding was authorized for Non-English Spoken Here: A Late Night Series, a performance art program curated and produced by Laurie Carlos. This brings diverse voices to Penumbra, opening up the possibilities of what theatrical performance can be and who can do it. Late Night draws a younger theatergoer. Finally, Penumbra received support to constitute a commissioning fund that will be used to provide subsidies for the creation of new work by emerging playwrights.

The Directors authorized a two-year grant of $80,000 to P.S. 122, New York City, to subsidize commissions for emerging artists appearing in the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 seasons. P.S. 122 is a performance laboratory that supports the development of works by individual artists with authentic visions. It finds, develops and brings to the public eye new artistic creations from diverse cultures and points of view. Artists investigations are encouraged through commissions, performance opportunities, donated and rented rehearsal space, workshop space, constructive criticism and discerning audiences. Jerome commissions are up-front monies that pass through P.S. 122 to the creative artist who uses them for expenses associated with the development of the new workrehearsal fees, rental of space, costumes, music, etc.

The Jerome Foundation made a grant of $6,000 to the MINNESOTA DANCE ALLIANCE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for choreographer JELENA PETROVIC, in support of the creation and production of new work. The Dance Alliance frequently acts as fiscal agent for independent choreographers and their companies. In the coming season, Petrovic will perform new work at Red Eye Collaboration, Studio 6A in the Hennepin Center for the Arts and a dance festival at Mount Holyoke College. Petrovic will investigate her process of making dance and will create one large evening-length piece. She will work on an extended duet with dancer Kelli Tennyson, exploring the more angular and confrontational sides of a relationship. She intends to layer and focus her ideas into stronger statements.