Past
Grantees

The SOUTHERN THEATER FOUNDATION, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $20,000 in support of CHRIS AIKEN DANCE. Aikens work draws from extensive training, practice and performance in improvisation. Over the next two seasons, Aikens plans include a strong residency and touring schedule, the development of new choreographic works and the continuation of collaborations with other dancers and choreographers. Aiken will create an evening-length performance in which he is the only dancer collaborating with a composer/musician, a lighting designer and a visual artist. Hell test informal presentations of new choreographic ideas during the duration of the grant period.

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a supplemental grant of $15,000 to support Performance Outreach Grants associated with the Composers Commissioning Program. It is an explicit part of the Forums mission to encourage composers to break out of new music ghettos and bring their music to places where people commonly gathercommunity centers, schools, places of worship, public parks and the like, in rural as well as urban settings. The Performance Outreach Grant funds will encourage performances and discussions of new works commissioned through the Composers Commissioning Program in just such settings. The funds should provide an incentive to performers to give multiple hearings of new works in venues likely to engage new and different audiences. The composers will be primarily responsible for instigating these outreach performances, retaining artistic control of the work and gaining valuable community production experience that will benefit their careers in the long run. The composers will be present at all outreach performances.

A substantial two-year commitment of $180,000 was made to the AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, in support of a two-part Composers Commissioning Program in New York City and Minnesota. The Forum links communities with composers and performers, encouraging the making, playing and enjoyment of new music. It builds two-way relationships between artists and publics, educating todays and tomorrows audiences, energizing composers careers, stimulating entrepreneurship and collaboration and promoting musical creativity. The Composers Commissioning Program, which recently completed its 17th round of grants to composers, is unusual in that it encourages the initiative of composers by requiring a joint application from a composer and either a performer or presenting organization. Separate funds are allocated for Minnesota and New York City. Funding is dedicated to emerging composers. An independent selection panel reviews applications annually and makes commissioning awards.

The Foundation set aside funds to continue work on the Jerome Hill Archive, which is likely to be transferred to a public library/archive within the next year in order to make those materials more accessible to researchers

The MINNESOTA DANCE ALLIANCE, Minneapolis, acting as fiscal agent for ARENA DANCES BY MATHEW JANCZEWSKI, received $8,000 toward the development of new dance works. This is the second Jerome grant to Janczewski, awarded in recognition of his potential as an emerging choreographer. The funds will assist in the presentation of new work in the winter of 1998.

ART IN GENERAL, New York City, received a two-year grant of $30,000 in support of the participation of emerging artist in the 1997-98 and 1998-99 Exhibition and Residency Programs. The mission of Art in General is to support and stimulate the creation of contemporary art work. It presents works by emerging and under-recognized artists though group exhibitions and solo shows, residency and installation projects, window projects and sound installations. An experienced staff combined with an open call for artists, and peer review panels, ensure in the selection of strong work by a diverse group of emerging artists.

ARTISTS SPACE, New York City, received a two-year grant of $25,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists in the exhibition and Artist File programs. Artists Space is a nonprofit center for contemporary art and a service organization for artists. It seeks to broaden the visibility of emerging and under-recognized artists, and to increase public awareness of their art. It does this primarily through a ten-month exhibition season which features work in architecture, drawing, film/video, painting, performance, photography, literature, sculpture and multimedia. The organization also provides direct assistance to emerging and unaffiliated artists through the Irving Sandler Artist File, a computerized slide and photo CD registry of close to 3,500 artists. Jerome Foundation support finds its way to emerging artists selected for the annual exhibition program and in their inclusion in the Artist File.

The Jerome Foundation Directors made a $100,000 Program Related Investment (loan) to ARTSPACE PROJECTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, to constitute a Revolving Loan Fund for low-income artists renting units in Artspace Projects buildings in the Twin Cities and Duluth. This is the second such award to Artspace, which has operated an effective loan fund for artists, covering the purchase of equipment necessary to art making, the rehabilitation of space in order to provide an effective working studio, among other purposes. Artspace is dedicated to the premise that artists must remain within a community, maintaining the creativity and spirit of the arts within neighborhoods. Each artist living and working in an Artspace building is a cottage industry, a small business with financing needs similar to any other small business. Most artists, particularly those categorized as low income, have a very difficult time obtaining financing from traditional lending sources. These factors and others led Artspace to develop a Revolving Loan concept for its building tenants. In addition to the Program Related Investment which will be paid back to the Foundation over a ten-year period, the Directors authorized an annual sum of $7,500 to cover the staffing and other expenses associated with operating and monitoring the loan fund.

The Jerome Foundation Directors made a $100,000 Program Related Investment (loan) to ARTSPACE PROJECTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, to constitute a Revolving Loan Fund for low-income artists renting units in Artspace Projects buildings in the Twin Cities and Duluth. This is the second such award to Artspace, which has operated an effective loan fund for artists, covering the purchase of equipment necessary to art making, the rehabilitation of space in order to provide an effective working studio, among other purposes. Artspace is dedicated to the premise that artists must remain within a community, maintaining the creativity and spirit of the arts within neighborhoods. Each artist living and working in an Artspace building is a cottage industry, a small business with financing needs similar to any other small business. Most artists, particularly those categorized as low income, have a very difficult time obtaining financing from traditional lending sources. These factors and others led Artspace to develop a Revolving Loan concept for its building tenants. In addition to the Program Related Investment which will be paid back to the Foundation over a ten-year period, the Directors authorized an annual sum of $7,500 to cover the staffing and other expenses associated with operating and monitoring the loan fund.

Quiltmaker JANE BASSUK received a grant to spend five weeks in France and in London, sharing her work with French and British quiltmakers. She will investigate quilting traditions in both countries and will see as many textiles and patterns as possible in trips to museums and quilting centers.

DOUG BEASLEY, a photographer and teacher, was awarded a grant to spend three weeks on two small islands off the southern coast of Japan. He will document how the sacred is incorporated into the everyday life of Japanese people, and will compare those images with Native American spiritual beliefs and practices. This trip builds upon Beasleys earlier shoot of sacred sites of the Lakota Indians in the Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota.

JACK BECKER, an arts administrator for FORECAST, a public arts agency in the Twin Cities, was awarded a grant to travel for three weeks to San Francisco, Toronto and Key West. He will study AIDS memorials and public art addressing the AIDS epidemic. This will assist him in the facilitation of an AIDS memorial effort in the Twin Cities.

Writer and composer ERIK BELGUM receive a grant of $10,000 through fiscal agent INTERMEDIA ARTS MINNESOTA, Minneapolis, to support the creation of new works for radio broadcast. Belgum will compose an electronic setting of Take It or Leave It, a postmodern novel by Raymond Federman. The second project is a spoken operatic trilogy in three diverse modes, titled Retirement Fund I-III.

The BLACKLOCK NATURE SANCTUARY, Moose Lake, Minnesota, received a grant of $15,000 from the Jerome Foundation to subsidize 1998 Emerging Artist Residency Fellowships. The Sanctuary was founded in 1994 by the Blacklock family, known for its nature photography and environmental advocacy. This 278 acre sanctuary provides an environment in which emerging artists working in various disciplines are given uninterrupted time for research and work. A competitive and open selection process is initiated each year to identify resident artists.

WILLIAM BORDEN, a writer from Bemidji, will spend time in South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and Saskatchewan, tracing the path followed by Sitting Bull. His writing focuses on the relationships between European Americans and Native Americans. This project will reflect on Sitting Bulls impact on todays multicultural society.

INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $12,000 in a co-production relationship with artist DJOLA BRANNER, who will develop and present Homos in the House, the chronicles of a young man hired to coordinate an AIDS awareness campaign at a Black college in the South. When he decides to tackle homophobia, he is harassed by the students, faculty and administration; and is ultimately fired. The work depicts a subculture within a subcultureyoung Black, gay menand their struggle for dignity and humanity in the face of institutions which condemn them. The play depicts a generational struggle as well. Branner is a writer, performance artist, actor, dancer and choreographer.

The BRONX MUSEUM OF THE ARTS, New York City, received a two-year grant of $24,000 in support of the Artist in the Marketplace Program. Now in its 16th year, the AIM program is organized in the form of two 12-week seminars serving 36 artists through monthly meetings for information sharing, networking and professional and social interaction. It culminates in a group exhibition accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog. The program serves emerging artists whose work demonstrates serious professional commitment. Competitively selected, the participants meet with noted arts professionals who offer them information in the areas of financial planning, proposal writing, gallery relations, contracts and agreements, copyrights, public relations, commissions, collectors, conservation and other useful topics.

A grant of $10,000 was authorized for THE BUILDERS ASSOCIATION, New York City, in support of the development and production of a new work titled Jet Lag. Under the artistic direction of Marianne Weems, The Builders Association produces large-scale performance events exploring the languages of theater, media and architecture. The Association re-animates classic theatrical texts by infusing them with new media and by reworking them within the chaotic context of contemporary global culture. Jet Lag is intended to be a meditation on modernity and travel. An emerging playwright and performance artist, Jessica Chalmers, will write the script for the work, which will premiere in the spring of 1998 in France with a New York City premiere planned for late 1998.

Duluth artist PATRICIA CANELAKE was awarded a grant to spend a month at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She will study with four New York City-based artists in week-long workshops. In addition to receiving valuable feedback regarding her work, she will also pursue gallery representation in New York City and Boston.

THE CAPOEIRA FOUNDATION, New York City, received subsidy of $8,000 in support of the creation of new choreographic works by Jelon Vieira. The Capoeira Foundation/DanceBrazil is dedicated to furthering the development and understanding of Brazilian culture through music and dance. As founder and artistic director, Vieira plans to bring 20 years of work full circle as he explores the power, richness and beauty of Capoeira while moving beyond its traditional form as a fight against enslavement. Two new works, Camara and Serra Pelada, will be subsidized, in part, by Jerome funding. Camara will combine traditional with contemporary Capoeira movement; Serra Pelada is based on the exploitation of the land and the lives of the people in the Amazon region of Brazil.