Past
Grantees

Playwright DAN McMULLIN will spend four months in Samoa and New Zealand researching and writing a play based on Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa and communicating with Samoan and Polynesian theaters.

The Midwest Media Artists Access Center, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $20,000 in general operating support. The Center evolved from the closing of Film in the Cities. For a small membership fee, the Center provides low-cost rental access to motion picture film production equipment and editing facilities, darkroom facilities and equipment for photographic processing and printing, sound recording with editing equipment and facilities, a MIDI studio, video cameras and editing facilities, still cameras and light kits, tripods and other pieces of equipment. While the Jerome Foundation does not ordinarily provide operating support to media access centers, it is committed to doing so for the initial years of the Midwest Media Artists Access Center in order to provide it a base of support so that it can develop, serve artists and identify other funding sources.

Meet the Composer, New York City, receive a two-year grant of $39,000 to support the participation of emerging composers in the organization's New York City program and its Midwest affiliated program at Arts Midwest. Meet the Composer was founded in 1974 to foster the creation, performance and recording of music by American composers, and to develop new audiences for their works. It brings the women and men who write music into personal contact with their audiences. Monies enable composers to perform, conduct, coach rehearsals, conduct interviews and lectures, execute demonstrations and workshops and participate in discussions with audiences.

Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received two years of subsidy, $36,000, to support the publication of works by emerging writers. Milkweed's mission is to make an humane impact on society in the belief that literature is a transformative art uniquely able to convey the essential experiences of the human heart and spirit. Founded in the late 1970s as a journal devoted to writing and visual art, Milkweed has evolved into a leading national nonprofit literary publisher.

Poet and teacher JOHN MINCZESKI received support to spend nine days at the annual Warren Wilson College Writing Conference at Mount Holyoke College. Minczeski will have his new poetry manuscript read and critiqued at the 1996 Conference, which will be attended by writers who have earned their M.F.A. degrees from the writing programs at Warren Wilson College or its predecessor, Goddard College. This conference is conducted by writers for writers. Minczeski expects careful attention to his manuscript and detailed critiques which will enable him to hone and craft it further before sending it to publishers. He also stands to gain from attending readings and exploring networking opportunities with writers from around the country.

Novelist VALERIE MINER received support to spend one month in Edinburgh, Scotland, doing the final archival, library and interview research for her novel Capturing Fog. This is a new, experimental project exploring the territory between and beyond the forms of the short story and the novel. It is a book about a large, poor, urban Scots Family scattered around the world in the period between the two World Wars. She will expand the bibliography while in Edinburgh, consult with historians and address particular issues relating to character and voice.

The Jerome Foundation continued its substantial subsidy of a Jerome Fellowship Program for visual artists at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. As one of its community service initiatives, the College sponsors a Jerome Artist Fellowship program which, since 1981, has provided grants to 70 Twin Cities artists. Five are selected each year to receive fellowships of $6,000 each. They receive an exhibition and catalog at the end of their fellowship year; and they also benefit by one-on-one and group session with national arts critics/curators who offer professional criticism and encouragement. The Foundation's two-year commitment is $115,000.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts received a two-year grant of $32,000 to support the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program. The MAEP is an unusual collaboration between the Institute and the visual artists community of Minnesota. It is governed democratically by an elected artist panel; and has promoted the creation and presentation of original works by contemporary Minnesota artists.

The Minnesota Alliance for Arts in Education, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $3,250 in general support of its 1995-96 programs and services. The Alliance promotes the idea that visual, performing and literary arts are essential to human development and fulfillment, and must therefore be an integral part of the education of all students. The organization builds a broad, diverse and informed statewide citizen base of support for K-12 arts education.

pARTs Photographic Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $13,000 over one and a quarter years to support the participation of emerging photographers in the exhibition program. This is the second grant made to this organization, a relatively young and rapidly developing entity dedicated to the exhibition and promotion of photography. It strives to address and expand the audience for fine art photography, and to nurture a creative and supportive environment for the production and promotion of fine art photography by regional artists.

The Minnesota Council on Foundations, Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a regional association of grantmakers promoting informed and responsible philanthropy. The Council offers a wide-reaching education program and represents the philanthropic field and its concerns in the public arena. The Jerome Foundation made a $3,500 grant in general and membership support.

A grant of $7,000 was authorized for the Minnesota Dance Theatre & School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, to support a new choreographic work by Lise Houlton. MDT is working toward the establishment of a resident company of professional dancers and apprentices. Houlton's proposed work will give physical reality to the human experience of the blues. Houlton sees her new work as a reinforcement of the MDT tradition of showcasing local talent, blending student performance with the work of young professionals and embracing an eclectic and dynamic style of dance.

Movement Research, New York City, received $12,000 to continue publishing Performance Journal. Movement Research was founded in 1975 to explore the issues surrounding postmodern dance and performance, and the challenges of expanding those categories to address the cultural, political and economic diversity of the performance community. The publication Performance Journal, initiated in 1990, contains a lively and engaging debate about the place of dance and performance in contemporary culture, from the perspectives of artists.

P.S. 122, in New York City, received $7,000 in designated support for the development of a work titled Feather at the Flames, created by Marlies Yearby for her Movin Spirits Dance Theater. Yearbys company is a vehicle for her choreographic and dance-based performance works. Feather at the Flames is based upon her realization and interpretation of the blood ties African-Americans have to Native Americans. The work will embrace the spirit of survival through a devalued place in American society.

Theater Mu, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $7,000 to support the development and production of theatrical works in 1995. Drawing on both Eastern and Western performing traditions, its work shares personal experiences, distinct cultures and Asian-American visions. Now in its third season, Theater Mu wants to continue its function as a birthplace for new ideas while more actively defining standards of quality and craft for its artists. One way to do this is to establish a longer and more consistent development process for new works and new artists.

The Music-Theater Group, New York City, received $10,000 for a new music-theater work created by songwriter and conductor J. D. Steele. Steele will have an opportunity to stretch his skills and broaden his influence as a creative director.

RITA MUSTAPHI, a choreographer, dancer and teacher, received a grant to travel for eight weeks in India to study the frontiers of Kathak innovations; collaborate with a choreographer; perform; create music with composers; and visit and research sculptures, classrooms and artists.

Musician and puppeteer AARON NAUTH received a grant to travel to Belize, Central America, to study extensively Afro-Creole drumming and drum making with Emmeth Young in the small village of Gales Point Manatee.

The Jerome Directors authorized $15,000 to the New Music-Theater Ensemble, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the 1995 Composer-Librettist Studio in the Twin Cities. The Ensemble is a developmental entity as well a producer. Its mission is to explore the dynamics of individual and communal integrity through the creation, development and production of new operas and other forms of music-theater. The Composer-Librettist Studio is an intensive two-week program designed to provide opportunities for writers, composers and performers to explore the basic elements of music-theater in a collaborative atmosphere free from the performance pressures usually associated with the commercial music-theater and opera fields.

A grant of $7,500 was made to New Dramatists, New York City, to support its Composer/Librettist Studio, which offers playwrights an introduction to musical theater and an educational and experimental venue to collaborate with composers. The Studio is a collaborative effort with the New Music-Theatre Ensemble.