Past
Grantees

CARTER GUNN & ROSS MCDONNELL were awarded a grant for Colony, a documentary that seeks to present an allegory of the state of the American nation through the voices of its commercial beekeepers. For the last two years, beekeepers have been battling the effects of the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder, a disease that is wiping out massive numbers of honeybees, putting at risk over a third of the agricultural production of the United States and threatening a multibillion dollar industry. This film taps into many of the issues that are prevalent and pressing in our broader society, not just the world of the beekeeper. The environment, government, a future of uncertainty and a distrust of the other are all issues that unconsciously burden us. In a strange intertwining of the fate of man and insect, many of these issues are currently manifest in the plight of the American honeybee. Has this insect, selfless in its dedication to the colony above all else, prized by man for thousands of years, producer of what many say is the worlds only perfect food source, sounded some kind of alarm bell for humanity?

STEPHEN GUREWITZ, Golden Valley, Minnesota, was awarded a grant for Thanks Minnesota, a feature-length fictional narrative film about a father, divorced from his wife and estranged from his two grown sons, who spends his days alone in his familys deserted suburban home. After a doctors diagnosis that his cancer treatment is failing, he urgently plans a weekend camping trip with his sons. Without telling them about his condition, he attempts to resuscitate the father-to-son bond that he neglected in the past. The film explores themes of family, death and aging, as well as the courage necessary for a family to begin expressing intimacy and affection so late in life.

Directors authorized a grant of $8,820 to THE FIELD, New York City, acting as fiscal sponsor for MIGUEL GUTIERREZ & THE POWERFUL PEOPLE, to support the creation, development and production of the new evening-length work Misinterpreted (working title). Gutierrez has been producing work since 2001, and has received one previous grant from the Foundation. In Misinterpreted, Gutierrez will work with the idea of communication gone awry: the inadequacy, failure and mystery of language. By language, he means not only words but also organized patterns of communication that transmit coherent meaning, with structures as diverse as gesture, maps and architecture. The Field supports and sponsors the development, creation and presentation of musical, dance, theatrical, film and video works.

EMILY HADDAD, Stillwater, Minnesota, received a grant for a short experimental documentary titled Artist in the Margin, which explores the world of artist Pierre Prevost. It examines the questions: What impulse compels an artist to create, and Does an artist intend to affect his society and his environment? Haddad will explore how the special world created by Pierre Prevost demonstrates answers to these questions and how this modern artist can be related to prehistoric artists of the famous caves located in the same region of southern France where he lives. Haddad first entered the world of Pierre Prevost nine years ago. His home of Combarel (little hollow) is on several acres of forested land in the little-known region of Aveyron. Just a few miles away are the caves of Lascaux and Peche Merle, where prehistoric artists painted their environment and their imaginings, much like Prevost creates sculptures, drawings, paintings, and other forms of art from discarded objects he finds in junkyards and flea markets of surrounding villages. Haddad will examine his unique world, with an emphasis on its alignment with the similarly austere worlds of the cave artists of Lascaux and Peche Merle.

KATORI HALL, a playwright from New York City, will travel to Kigali, Rwanda, to learn about the Rwandan genocide through the Summer Rwandan Genocide Studies program. She will use the information she learns about the history, politics and current societal structure of Rwanda as the cultural context for a new play.

HARLEM STAGE/AARON DAVIS HALL, New York City, received $22,500 in support of emerging artists commissions within the 2009-10 Fund for New Work. 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. Through the Fund for New Work, Harlem Stage provides commissioning and development support to artists creating new works. The Jerome-supported part of the program provides emerging artists with commissions, subsidized rehearsal space, mentoring support with established artists and presenters, technical support, and other administrative and production support.

IN THE HEART OF THE BEAST PUPPET AND MASK THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $16,660 in support of the 2009 MayDay Mentor Program. In the Heart of the Beast is a professional puppet and mask theatre that brings people together for the common good through the power of puppet and mask performance. It combines original design, writing, music and movement to create puppet and mask productions that captivate audiences of all ages. For 35 years, it has produced the annual MayDay parade and festival. The Mentor Program, introduced in 2006, is designed to give emerging puppet and mask artists formalized training in the artistic process of creating community ceremonial productions. Skills are required in community organizing and teaching as well as artistic vision and technique. The Mentor Program builds skills sets in emerging artists and prepares them to assume leadership roles in ceremonial productions.

DARIN HEINIS was awarded support for Detachment, a narrative short about an Iraq War veteran who attempts to assimilate back into his prewar life, and his struggle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Jack constantly revisits the horrors he witnessed in combat. He must confront those issues, and the dark shadow they cast on his life, in order to heal and finally realize that what happened in the past was not his fault. The story comes from a very personal place, as the filmmaker is a Gulf War veteran. Although he does not suffer from PTSD, he understands how the condition can be all consuming to those who do. Detachment is his attempt to tell the story of one mans struggle to conquer his war-related demons.

HERE ARTS CENTER, New York City, received $18,000 in support of the creation and development of new works by emerging artists participating in the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP). HARP nurtures the development of hybrid artists and their audiences, through cross-disciplinary exchange, peer-driven workshops, and panel discussions. HARP artists work at their own pace and in whatever directions their project requires. HARP has two primary components: development and production. The development aspect is thorough and intensive, including regular showings of works-in-progress and workshop presentations. In the production component, artists learn more about the creative and business elements of producing their work.

BEN HEYWOOD, Executive Director of The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Venice, Italy, to attend the 53rd Venice Biennale. The Soap Factory supports new and emerging practice across the visual arts. The Venice Biennale, since its founding in 1882, has promoted new artistic trends and organized international events in the contemporary arts in accordance with a multi-disciplinary model. This trip will be a powerful professional development opportunity for Heywood to connect with what is new in a global contemporary arts context.

The HIGHPOINT CENTER FOR PRINTMAKING, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $14,400 in support of three Emerging Printmakers Residencies. The Center, dedicated to advancing the art of printmaking, provides educational programs, studio access and collaborative publishing opportunities to engage a diverse community of printmakers and to increase public understanding of and appreciation for the printmaking arts. Since 2003, the Center has operated an Emerging Printmakers Residency program with support from the Jerome Foundation. An annual open call produces submissions reviewed by an independent jury, which selects three emerging artists for nine-month residencies followed by a culminating group show. Artists receive access to etching presses, lithography presses, lithographic stones, screenprinting tables, the technical and program support of a Printshop Coordinator, discounts on classes, free access to master classes and lectures, professional sets of digital images of their work, a group show and post-residency support. During the residency, the artists come together for group meetings and critiques led by art professionals. The program provides complete technical facilities and opportunities to engage in a professional community.

Playwright CORY HINKLE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Oklahoma and Kansas to do historical research on the creation of each of the two states and the failed attempt by Native Americans to create their own separate state, Sequoyah. Hinkle hopes to incorporate the research into a new play examining issues of American myths, dreams and cycles of injustice and violence.

Performance artist SOOZIN HIRSCHMUGL, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to England to study spectacle theater and celebratory art traditions of England's Horse and Bamboo Theater, The Heben Parade, The Liverpool Lantern Theater, and Walk the Plank Theater. She will utilize and integrate new skills and techniques in her work with Barebones Productions, a Minneapolis-based collective of visual and performing artists who create installations and performances.

SAMUEL D. HUNTER, a playwright residing in New York City, will travel to the Precious Moments Chapel and Park in Carthage, Missouri, to to conduct research for his play meat, which centers on the culture surrounding Precious Moments. Inspired by Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel in Rome, Precious Moments artist and creator Sam Butcher designed and constructed the Chapel as an extension of the spiritual ideas behind his figurines of teardrop-eyed children he calls "Precious Moments".

A grant was awarded to GABRIELA ILIJESKA for a narrative short titled Azra, a story about a young girl who longs for her family's old life in her home country as her parents attempt to forge a better life in America. The film will focus on Azra's perception of the new world, her rebellion against it, and her escapism into dreams where raspberries grow all year around, where her father is an astronaut, not an asbestos worker, and her mother is a beautiful queen, not a waitress. The film will use a visual style of storytelling, with little to no dialogue, blended with fantasy imagery that provides an important relief from the claustrophobic and cluttered reality in which the family lives.

INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $37,607 in support of the VERVE Awards for Spoken Word Artists and the S.A.S.E./Jerome Awards for emerging writers. The mission of Intermedia Arts is to be a catalyst that builds understanding among people through art. It operates multidisciplinary arts programs, stimulates broad civic dialogues, and gives voice to the issues and experiences of under-represented communities. The S.A.S.E./Jerome Awards are available in amounts up to $5,000 for five to seven emerging Minnesota writers who submit proposals in response to an open call. An independent peer panel selects recipients. The VERVE Awards are given to emerging spoken word poets, who submit applications for review and selection by a nationally recognized spoken word artist.

A grant of $12,000 was authorized for ISSUE PROJECT ROOM, Brooklyn, New York, to support an Artist In Residency (AIR) Program for four emerging New York City-based composers. ISSUE Project Room, founded in 2003, is dedicated to the presentation of works by contemporary composers. It provides an open and versatile environment in which both established and emerging artists conduct, exhibit, and perform new and site-specific work according to their individual visions. The AIR program focuses on emerging composers and sound artists whose works demonstrate an interest in pioneering new exploration within a field. Four emerging composers or composer-led ensembles will be selected for three-month, individually designed residencies to test new compositional ideas with the option to perform them as works-in-progress. Artists are given rehearsal space, technical and production support, and promotional/marketing resources.

Directors authorized $22,500 to THE JAZZ GALLERY, New York City, in support of commissions to emerging composers for new vocal works, lyrics and music. The Jazz Gallery provides an international venue where the youngest generation of professional jazz musicians can be nurtured, giving them an audience for their performances and a stage upon which to assemble their bands. This commitment marks the third from the Jerome Foundation, each grant intended to support commissions to emerging composers. The current grant supports four commissions for new works to be premiered at The Jazz Gallery in a sequence of two-night engagements. The composers to be commissioned have demonstrated significant innovative abilities in their chosen area. The Gallery believes that the commissions will have a major impact on their careers and allow them to extend their reach as leading figures of their generation.

MOLLY WORRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, CARRIE VOLK, St. Paul, Minnesota, and CARRIE BUSH, Minneapolis, Minnesota, were awarded a grant for Golden Hour, a mixed media HD and 16mm narrative short about a man named Jim who wakes up to the gray world around him. He suffers from dementia and is desperate to remember his past. His memories are tangled together in filmstrips projected in the black box of his mind. He relies on his book of prompts and Post-It reminders to carry him through the daywithout them, simple tasks like remembering to turn off the stove and take his medication are completely forgotten. Jim wanders alone in life but chases the fragmented memory of a lost love. As the visions of this love are revealed, his memories begin to invade his realitysnow speckled streets are blurred with crashing waves and hot summer sand. Jim becomes consumed with unraveling the Golden Hour. Near the end of the film, as his fragmented memories come rushing back in full clarity, he realizes the missing memories stolen by dementia have been romanticized and are better left forgotten.

Laptop composer and sound artist SAWAKO KATO, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to the Florida Keys to research echolocation, a sensory sonar system used by dolphins, to gather field recordings from the oceanic soundscape of the area, and to find inspiration for a new work involving underwater sound. Kato plans to attend a formalized program through the Dolphin Research Center in addition to the field recording work. Kato engages in prolific audio file exchange with other composers.