Past
Grantees

DANSPACE PROJECT, New York City, received a two-year grant of $65,000 to offer commissions to emerging choreographers presenting work under the auspices of the PLATFORM curatorial and presentation concept. Danspace Project nurtures emerging artists as an essential component of fulfilling its mission to support a diverse range of new work and to encourage experimentation. The organization seeks distinct and singular artistic voices who are under-recognized and for whom support can make a significant impact on careers through financial subsidy, rehearsal space, feedback, and increased public recognition for their work. Providing commissions helps emerging artists pay dancers and collaborators, rent rehearsal space, leverage additional funds, receive attention from major dance critics, and introduce new audiences and presenters to their work.

LATASHA DIGGS, New York, New York, will travel to Cuzco, Arequipa, and Ica, Peru to conduct cultural and linguistic research examining the revolutionary Micaela Bastidas and Afro-Andean history and to draw inspiration and ideas from the Peruvian landscape to inform her latest collection of poetry and spoken word texts. Diggs identifies with the historical figure of Bastidas as a woman of African Indigenous heritage living in a culture not her own. Her work uses rhyme, ritual and electronic music. The sound of language is critical to her investigation and she plans to study and do field recordings of the Andean language, Quechua.

PALLAVI SHARMA DIXIT, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Edison, New Jersey, to gather information and details about the Indian Day Parade. Edison, a small suburban town, is home to thousands of people of Southeast Indian descent. The Indian Day Parade, now in its seventh year, marks Indias independence from Great Britain on August 15, 1947. The procession traditionally features a Bollywood star as the guest of honor and draws thousands of Indians from across the region. This detailed field research will help her craft several chapters in her novel that takes place at the parade.

Jerome Foundation Directors approved $29,000 for DIXON PLACE/OPEN CHANNELS, New York City, in support of the participation of emerging New York City-based artists in the Mondo Cane! Commissioning Program and the Artist in Residence Program. Dixon Place supports the creative process by presenting original works of theater, dance, music, puppetry, literature, and performance art at all stages of development. Dixon Place is dedicated exclusively to the development of new work. In Mondo Cane!, Dixon Place commissions six to nine artists or ensembles each year to develop and present new works of theater, music, dance, and performance art. Artists receive up to four months of rehearsal and workshop time. In the Artist in Residence Program, innovative emerging artists in theater, performance art, puppetry, and dance develop bold, new performance and interdisciplinary collaborations over time, culminating in runs of three to nine public performances. The program encourages risk-taking in a supportive, intimate, and professional environment.

SARAH DOHRMANN, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Iowa City and Des Moines, Iowa, to investigate the mental, emotional, and personal ramifications of women activists participation in the second-wave feminist movement in that state during the mid-to-late 1970s. This will inform a creative nonfiction memoir she is writing about the causes and remains of her mothers suicide in Des Moines in 1978. Her mother was an active Iowa feminist and a sociologist by profession. Yet, her progressive social justice work was largely unknown to her children. Dohrmann plans to interview Iowa women who participated in the movement during the 1970s, some who worked with her mother, to understand the unique pressures and anxieties of this time and place.

MARCIANO SILVA DOS SANTOS, Shoreview, Minnesota, will study Capoeira, contemporary dance, and the intersection of these forms at dance centers in Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Goiania and Santa Catarina, Brazil. Dos Santos is studying these diverse aesthetics and vocabularies to expand his choreographic language.

DULUTH ART INSTITUTE, Duluth, Minnesota, received a grant of $10,000 to support the participation of emerging artists in the 2010-11 Exhibition Program. The Institutes mission is to enrich daily life with dynamic, innovative arts programming that upholds excellence and promotes active community participation. It operates exhibition and education programs, provides artists services, and engages in partnerships to realize its mission. The Exhibition Program seeks to nurture the careers of regional emerging artists, to inspire through exhibiting exemplary work from outside its region, and to showcase the work of its regions seasoned professional artists.

The ELECTRONIC MUSIC FOUNDATION, New York City, received a grant of $17,250 to support commissions and technical residencies for three emerging composers based in New York City. The organizations mission is to explore the creative and cultural potential in the convergence of music, sound, technology, and science. It produces concerts, festivals, symposia, forums, and other events; provides services for artists; and maintains a worldwide network through which it circulates information, distributes materials, and collaborates with colleagues on international projects. The new EMF Creative Resource Center offers New York-based composers and performers a recording studio, as well as facilities for editing and processing sound. As part of the Creative Resource Center program, the Electronic Music Foundation will commission emerging composers to create new works. The Center will also assist and advise the selected composers in technical and artistic aspects of their work, present their works in suitable venues, document the works, and keep the documentation accessible on the organizations website.

ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE, New York City received a grant of $15,000 to support the Youngblood Program, which has served New York City-based playwrights under 30 years of age for the past 15 years. EST is dedicated to creating a vibrant community for the creation, development, and production of new works to replenish the American theater repertoire. Its vision pairs performance and director training and investigation with development of new works by playwrights. Youngblood playwrights are identified through a competitive selection process. Youngblood provides an array of opportunities designed to stimulate the creation of new works in a supportive peer environment, sustained by participation in this large and active membership theater with plentiful opportunities to see work by other artists.

A grant of $15,000 was awarded to ETHEL'S FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, New York City, in support of its HomeBaked commissioning program. Ethel, a post-classical string quartet, invigorates contemporary concert music with imaginative programming and exceptional artistry. Founded in 1998, Ethel regularly commissions composers to create new works, trains young musicians through innovative methodologies, and expands audiences through outreach and new technologies. Jerome support will subsidize three commissions of $4,000 each for emerging composers based in New York City. The works will be developed, rehearsed, and presented in Ethel's concert series.

MICHAEL JOSEPH ETOLL, West St. Paul, received a grant for Pilgrimage to the Grave of Tiny Tim, a super-8 experimental narrative color film that will include live action and stop-action animation. Etoll intends to construct a world where delusional behavior is normal. The central characters will fight to express desires that they believe will help them break free from the insane tomb of torment that encases them as they walk to the Lakewood Cemetery to visit the grave of musician Tiny Tim (who was a Lebanese-American). During the journey, they meet a talking camel (a large puppet), and others who join them on the trip to the grave. Upon arriving at their destination, a type of second-rate enlightenment will occur: a false experience that allows them to settle back into their state of delusion with deep satisfaction. Most of the characters in the film will resemble Tiny Tim. Portions of the narration will be in Arabic. The film will be a moving painting with loud noises and shocking music interjected at key points to snap the viewer back into reality. This reality, in turn, is based on the vision of the deranged souls who populate the film.

EXIT ART, New York City, received a grant of $15,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists in its exhibition program. Exit Art is an independent vision of contemporary culture, engaging in experimental, historical, and unique presentations of aesthetic, social, political, and environmental issues. It is a center for multiple disciplines, committed to supporting artists whose work reflects the transformations of culture. Jerome Foundation authorized Exit Art is committed to supporting the next generation of artists whose work addresses the critical issues of this time by commissioning new works, providing artists fees along with material and professional services, and offering the opportunity to exhibit in its gallery space.

EYEBEAM, New York City, received a grant of $30,000 for the Artists @ Eyebeam Residency Program in fiscal years 2010-11 and 2011-12. Eyebeam is a collaborative art and technology center that supports new media artists through residencies and fellowships, and develops public and education programs relevant to their practice. The studio/workspace environment, in which the energies of artistic production, education, and curatorial practice fuse, provides a unique, stimulating, and vital context for creating art. Eyebeam provides artists stipends, fabrication materials, software purchases and upgrades, and equipment upkeep to facilitate the creation and public presentation of new work. Eyebeam offers technical expertise, curatorial and editorial guidance, and equipment training in addition to presentation support in its gallery. Jerome funds are designated for support of emerging artists who reside in New York City and/or Minnesota.

FilmNorth (formerly Independent Filmmaker Project Minnesota), St. Paul, Minnesota, received $20,000 for Training and Professional Development tuition scholarships, equipment rental subsidies, and free memberships for emerging film and video artists based in Minnesota. IFP Minnesota's mission is to advance a vibrant and diverse community of independent film and video artists through networking, education, funding, and opportunities for showcasing their work. Now in its 22nd year, the organization has over 500 members. The Equipment Rental Program provides low cost access to film and video equipment. The Training and Professional Development Program features an ongoing calendar of activities for emerging filmmakers to further develop their craft as well as professional skills. Jerome support will provide four scholarships per quarter to emerging film and video artists to participate in training and professional development activities.

FilmNorth (formerly Independent Filmmaker Project Minnesota), St. Paul, Minnesota, also received a two-year grant of $66,000 in support of Seasons 11 and 12 of MNTV. IFP Minnesota is the grant recipient on behalf of a consortium that includes Twin Cities Public Television and the Walker Art Center's Film/Video Department. The mission of MNTV is to provide a television broadcast venue for makers of short film and video works, and to nurture audiences for these works. The program involves three hour-long episodes that highlight new and creative short films made within the previous 18 months by Minnesota film and video artists. The curated programs are augmented by interstitial interviews with the makers. The series is broadcast on Twin Cities Public Television and repeated on TPT MN, the statewide channel. Representatives from IFP Minnesota, Twin Cities Public Television, and the Walker's Film/Video Department curate the series.

NATHAN FISHER, St. Louis Park, Minnesota, will travel to Reno, Nevada, and the San Francisco Bay Area for a self-designed research program to study and reflect on contemporary artistic and design explorations of suburban themes, such as New Urbanism, anarchic sprawl, and smart growth. He plans to spend time with the Altered Landscape Photography Collection housed at the Center for Art and Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art. In San Francisco, he will meet with editors at Dwell magazine, do a self-designed study in the College of Environmental Design Archives at the University of California-Berkeley and at the Greenbelt Alliance, and interview renowned photographer Bill Owens. Fisher plans to use this research to inform a new film on suburban life.

LISETTE MARIE FLANARY, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Tokyo, Japan, to follow several Japanese Hula groups as they prepare to compete in the King Kamehameha Hula Competition. Flanary is interested in making a film that explores the complicated issues surrounding cultural exchange between Hawaii and Japan. Hula is a native dance form of Hawaii, once outlawed by Christian missionaries, which came to symbolize cultural survival. The form has become a cultural commodity in Japan with over 2,000 recognized hula schools. Flanary, a hula dancer and filmmaker with family connections to Hawaii, will compare and contrast the Japanese hula events with the original Hawaiian competitions as the basis for a new film work.

FORECAST PUBLIC ART, St. Paul, Minnesota, received $65,000 over two years for the Artist Grant Program. Forecast strengthens and advances the field of public art locally, nationally, and internationally by assisting communities, supporting artists, and providing resources that inform audiences and expand participation. Forecast will provide grants to emerging Minnesota artists in two categories: research & development ($2,000) and public projects ($7,000). The research & development grants support the first and necessary step in the process of creating successful public art projects. The recipient artists develop concepts, research and negotiate sites, connect with community stakeholders, and create renderings and models. The public project grants support the creation of temporary or permanent public art works. Artists are encouraged to propose projects that are feasible, original, engage and are appropriate to the community in which they will be located, reach diverse audiences, and have the potential for excellence. Artists are also encouraged to take risks and explore new ideas and new forms of expression. This is a competitive application program in which proposals are reviewed by an independent selection panel.

The FOUNDATION CENTER, New York City, received a grant of $2,000 in general support of its program. The Center is a national nonprofit service organization recognized as the nations leading authority on organized philanthropy, connecting nonprofits and the grantmakers supporting them to tools they can use and information they can trust. The Center serves grantseekers, grantmakers, researchers, policy makers, the media, and the general public. It maintains a comprehensive database on US grantmakers and their grants; issues a wide variety of information resources; conducts and publishes research on trends in foundation growth, giving, and practice; and offers free and affordable educational programs

THE FOUNDRY THEATRE, New York City, received $24,000 in support of the commissioning, development, and production of new works by emerging artists based in New York City and/or Minnesota in its 2010-11 season. Established in 1994, The Foundry Theatre aspires to assemble a community of artists with revolutionary ideas for the theatre and the world in which it is situated. The Foundry commissions, develops, premieres, and tours theatrical works that explore the (im)possibilities of theatre and believes its body of work constitutes a passionate argument for its limitless potential. Productions grow from commissions made to generative artists. The Foundry is interested in the process that comes of making works from scratchfollowing a project from its first idea to premiere. The majority of The Foundrys commissions are made to emerging artists. Jerome grant dollars support the mission and the focus of the Theatre.