Past
Grantees

JAMES GRAFSGAARD, Minneapolis, received support for Midas Rat and ME, an experimental narrative animated film written by the filmmakers son, James T. Grafsgaard, in the year 2000 at the age of 20, just as he was facing the choices and challenges of fitting in or fitting out of the system of institutions called the American Way of Life. Several lines of narration in the film best exemplify its theme: Most people thought we were for all out murderous anarchy. What we really wanted was just a peaceful place where there are no laws. Everyone gets along, but there are no PIGS to push you around. So explains the young woman (known only as ME) who narrates this real world tale of Midwestern alienation and love, which brings her and companion Midas Rat to the Twin Cities. She tells a touchingly authentic story of longing and loss in the context of Minnesotas anarchist punk subculture, giving this work a unique aesthetic and emotional impact.

GRANTMAKERS IN THE ARTS, Seattle, Washington, received a two-year grant of $22,000 in general support of its program and as a membership commitment from the Jerome Foundation. Grantmakers in the Arts is the national association of private and public funders making grants to artists and arts organizations in America. Its strength lies in the diversity of its members: private, family, community, and corporate foundations; national, state, and local governmental agencies; and nonprofit national, regional, and local service organizations. Grantmakers in the Arts provides information, research, and communication opportunities to arts funders, enabling them to more efficiently and effectively do their work.

GRAYWOLF PRESS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $20,000 in support of the publication of three books by emerging writers. Graywolf is dedicated to the creation and promotion of thoughtful and imaginative contemporary literature essential to a vital and diverse culture. It publishes creative literature of the highest caliber and brings that work to the widest possible audience. Graywolfs commitment to new and emerging writers is a vital aspect of its nonprofit mission and helps fill a significant gap in the American publishing landscape Graywolf consistently takes risks on new writers whose readership is unproven. Since 1995, Graywolf has received Jerome support to publish and promote emerging writers in 57 books and seven anthologies.

HARLEM STAGE, New York City, received a grant of $25,000 to support emerging artists commissions within the Fund for New Work. The Fund, created in 1993, provides commissioning and development support for new works. Harlem Stage is a performing arts center that celebrates and perpetuates the unique and diverse artistic legacy of Harlem and the indelible impression it has made on American culture. It provides opportunity, commissioning, and support for artists of color; makes performances easily accessible to all audiences; and introduces children to the rich diversity, excitement, and inspiration of the performing arts.

HARVESTWORKS, New York City, received a grant of $17,000 to support the Creative Residencies Program. Harvestworks is a digital media arts center, supports the creation and presentation of artworks achieved through the use of new and evolving technologies. Its goals are to create an environment where artists can make work inspired and achieved by electronic media; create a responsive public context for the appreciation of new work by presenting and disseminating the finished work; and advance the use of technology and art, bringing together innovative practitioners from all branches of the arts collaborating in the use of electronic media. Emerging artists receive stipends and access to equipment and expert artist/engineers to help them accomplish their aesthetic intentions. The program assists artists from the initial creative process to bringing works to the public. Residencies take place in the Harvestworks studios, each equipped for different yet inter-related production activities.

IN THE HEART OF THE BEAST PUPPET AND MASK THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $18,000 in support of a pilot program, PuppetLab, for emerging Minnesota puppet and mask artists. Since its founding, HOBT has created and presented original puppet and mask productions, fully embracing the creative potential of the medium. Six emerging Minnesota artists will be selected through a jury process. They will participate in 16 three-hour group sessions, which will provide a stimulating and supportive environment for learning, exploration, inspiration, and critique. Sessions will focus on such areas as storyboard creation, character development, voice and movement, specific puppet building techniques, and scene development. The program will culminate in a public performance of the artists' works.

HERE ARTS CENTER, New York City, received a two-year commitment of $40,000 from the Jerome Foundation for the HERE Artist Residency Program to nurture the development of hybrid artists and their audiences. HERE builds a community that nurtures career artists as they create innovative hybrid live performance in theatre, dance, music, puppetry, media, and visual art. Its artist residencies support the singular vision of the lead artist through commissions, long-term development, and production support. Focused on early and mid-career artists, HARP assists artists who are developing their unique artistic voices and experimenting with new approaches to expand the parameters of performance work. Artists are selected from a competitive field for residencies of one to three years. They develop specific projects that explore ideas and processes intrinsic to their artistic growth. The program has two primary components: Development and Production. Each year, three to six projects from the Development component move to the Production component, with the production serving as the culmination of the HARP residency.

HIGHPOINT CENTER FOR PRINTMAKING, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $34,000 in support of the Jerome Emerging Printmakers Residency Program. Highpoint provides educational programs, community access, and collaborative publishing opportunities to engage the public and increase the appreciation and understanding of the printmaking arts. The Emerging Printmakers Residency Program brings emerging printmakers together in a collaborative workplace environment and provides nine months of access. Four critiques led by accomplished art professionals, and a group show, contribute to the experimentation and expansion of each printmaker's art. Participants are selected by an independent panel reviewing proposals submitted in response to an open call.

JIBADE-KHALIL HUFFMAN, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Chicago, Illinois; Jackson and Money, Mississippi; and St. Petersburg, Florida, to research the lives and deaths of Emmett Till and Tyrone Lewis. He will investigate the subject of race and violence in America through these two disparate and specific cases. Tills death in 1955 and Lewiss death in 1996 serve as historical and contemporary markers for Huffmans interest in the spectre of death haunting black men in America. His desire is to create a written and visual work honoring the complexity of the perpetual struggle for civil rights.

CRISTINA IBARRA was awarded a grant for Las Marthas, a feature-length documentary that follows Daniella, a third generation Mexican American debutante, and other high school seniors with exclusive lineage, as they are presented in the annual Society of Martha Washington Colonial Pageant and Ball in Laredo, Texas. Imagine an enchanting dress that takes girls back in time to an era when emerging democratic ideals gave shape to a new government and a bill of rights. An exclusive dress that is the heart beat of family legacies as it gets passed down, modified, and updated from mother to daughter, for generations. For 113 years, the Society of Martha Washington has staged its annual Colonial Pageant and Ball on George Washingtons birthday exclusively for the debutante presentation of their 17-year-old daughters. Affectionately called Las Marthas, the Society of Martha Washington studies the quotidian life of George and Martha Washington in order to choose a presumably authentic event as a theme for its Colonial Pageant and Ball. Ibarras film follows several of the Society daughters and an elite dressmaker as they negotiate and prepare for this extraordinary rite of passage. The construction of each dress reveals the pleasure of imagining, performing and negotiating the history, nationality, culture and privilege that creates not only the Mexican American debutante, but also her second-class, darker-skinned, less privileged Mexican American counterpart.

INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $42,000 in support of the 2010-11 SASE/Jerome Grants for Writers and the VERVE Grants for Spoken Word Poets. Intermedia Arts, a multidisciplinary, multicultural arts center, aims to build understanding among people by catalyzing and inspiring artists and audiences to make changes in their lives and communities. The SASE/Jerome Grants for Writers annually awards grants of up to $5,000 to emerging Minnesota writers who demonstrate a sustained level of accomplishment and commitment but have not yet received recognition or acknowledgement from fellow writers and/or other arts professionals. Applicant writers define and propose individual projects. The VERVE Grants for Spoken Word Poets provides grants of up to $3,000 for emerging spoken word poets who are interested in artistic advancement and leadership in their communities. Through financial assistance, professional encouragement, recognition, and the elevation of both the artists and the art form, these programs strengthen and support writers.

A grant of $12,000 was awarded to ISSUE PROJECT ROOM, Brooklyn, New York, in support of the 2011 Artist in Residence Program, underwriting the participation of four emerging composers based in New York City. ISSUE Project Room is a pioneering art and performance center that provides both emerging and established artists a dynamic environment in which to create, exhibit, and perform innovative and site-specific experimental work. Its mission is to present artistic projects that challenge and expand conventional practices in art, fostering a network of innovation that sparks dialogue about art and culture in the broader community. The Artist in Residence Program provides, to four emerging artists, three-month residencies including rehearsal space, production, curatorial and marketing support to create new works, reach the next state in their artistic development, and gain exposure to a broad public audience. The organization works with the artists to help connect them to potential mentors and established artists in their field, so that they build strong peer relationships and emerge from the program as active members of their community.

THE JAZZ GALLERY, New York City, received a grant of $25,000 in support of a commissioning and residency program for emerging jazz composers. A portion of the grant supports residencies in which there is time and a place to develop, rehearse, workshop, and perform the commissioned work. The Jazz Gallery nurtures the youngest generation of professional jazz musicians by giving them an audience for their performances and a stage upon which to assemble their bands. It offers performances, commissions, and composers workshops. Musicians appearing at The Jazz Gallery know that this is a venue where they can take risks, try out new material, and grow and develop as artists.

THE KITCHEN, New York City, received $15,000 in support of commissions for emerging artists to create, develop, and present new work in 2010 at The Kitchen. The Kitchen is dedicated to supporting new work by innovative artists within and across the fields of music, dance, theater, video and film, digital art, and literature. It is widely known for its commitment to experimental new work and for providing instrumental support during the early years of artists careers. Commissions will go to a diverse range of artists engaged in challenging, experimental practices and working in a broad spectrum of media and disciplines, ranging from music, dance, and theater to video, sound, and mixed media installation.

CHRISSY KOLAYA, Morris, Minnesota, will travel to Fermilab and the Naper Settlement in Batavia and Naperville, Illinois, to conduct research for a new novel. Fermilab is a laboratory for experiments in high-energy particle physics. The Naper Settlement is a museum village constructed of 19th century buildings that serves as the site of a prominent Civil War reenactment event. Kolayas research will inform her novel about the intertwined stories of two families. One is an Indian family, struggling to assimilate to their new American culture. The second is engaged in efforts to stop the local laboratorys plans to build a new superconducting super collider.

LARK PLAY DEVELOPMENT CENTER, New York City, received a two-year grant of $28,000 for programs serving emerging playwrights. As a laboratory for new voices and new ideas, Lark provides playwrights with indispensable resources to develop their work, nurturing artists at all stages in their careers, and inviting them to express themselves freely in a supportive and rigorous environment. In year one of the grant, Jerome funds will subsidize services and developmental programs that support emerging playwrights, including the open access review, the playwrights' workshop, BareBones productions, studio retreats, roundtable readings, Playwrights Week productions, and the Launching Plays into the Repertoire Program. In year two, half of Jerome Foundation's commitment will be utilized for the same purpose and half committed to an emerging playwright's fellowship. The fellowship will provide financial support for an emerging playwright of exceptional skill and vision, allowing the artist to focus on playwriting and develop practical strategies for sustaining a career.

LOIRA LIMBAL, Bronx, New York, will travel to the Dominican Republic to conduct research about the human rights abuses the Haitian population suffers in the Dominican Republic. She plans to meet with artists, activists, organizations such as MUDHA (Movement of Dominican-Haitian Women), and individual researchers, such as Rogelio Pineda. Limbal, born in Puerto Rico to Dominican parents, plans to use this research for a new film project focused on the struggle by the Haitian people for dignity and justice in the Dominican Republic.

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for composer DOUGLAS LITTLE, received $8,000 in support of the creation, development, and presentation of new works by Little. The Forums mission is to enrich lives by nurturing the creative spirit of composers and communities. Composer, bandleader, and musician Douglas Little will create new repertoire for his Latin jazz group, Seven Steps To Havana. The music will premiere in the fall of 2010. Seven Steps To Havana was founded by Little in 2005 and includes musicians from the United States, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, and Ethiopia. Little is steeped in the jazz tradition, versed in world music, and fluent in multiple languages. He seeks to challenge himself as a creator and push his musical boundaries.

JENNIE MARYTAI LIU, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Hong Kong to visit the Hong Kong Film Archive and meet with writer/scholar Xu Xi for research related to the creation of an interdisciplinary dance/film project, Soul Leaves Her Body. Liu was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to the United States as a child. This study will help her ground her new project, based on a thirteenth century Chinese tale, in the culture and imagery of her birthplace. Liu is interested in Xu Xis personal essays about mediatized life in Hong Kong from a family perspective, a theme she plans to weave into her new work.