Friday, February 12, 2016
The Jerome Foundation Board of Directors met on November 12, 2015 to review 20 General Program applications and commitments, and 55 New York City Film, Video, and Digital Production Program applications. The Board made 13 grants and commitments in its General Program totaling $367,250. The Board reviewed 55 applications from New York City Film, Video, and Digital Production artists, and approved 8 grants totaling $115,736. A separate press release on grants made in the New York City Film, Video, and Digital Production Grant Program is available on the Jerome Foundation's website, www.jeromefdn.org.
ASIAN AMERICAN WRITERS' WORKSHOP, New York City, received a grant of $24,000 in support of the Margins Fellowship, an annual program designed to nurture emerging Asian American writers working in the genres of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. The Asian American Writers’ Workshop is a national not-for-profit arts organization devoted to the creating, publishing, developing and disseminating of creative writing by Asian Americans. Through its writer fellowships, online magazines and live events, Asian American Writers’ Workshop seeks to strengthen the Asian American intellectual culture of the future through its curatorial platform, which includes its New York events series and its online editorial initiatives.
HARLEM STAGE/ AARON DAVIS HALL, New York City, received a two-year grant of $50,000 in support of the Fund for New Work, a program that supports artists in the creation, development and presentation of new work through commissions. Harlem Stage is a performing arts center that celebrates and perpetuates the unique and diverse legacy of Harlem and the indelible impression it has made on American culture. It provides opportunity, commissioning and support to artists of color, and makes performances easily accessible to all audiences, including children to whom it introduces the rich diversity, excitement and inspiration of the performing arts.
DIXON PLACE, New York City, received a grant of $30,000 in support of participating New York City-based emerging artists in the 2016 Mondo Cane! Commissioning Program and the Artist-in-Residence program. A laboratory for performing, literary and visual artists, Dixon Place is dedicated to supporting the creative process by presenting original works of theater, dance, music, literature and performance art at all stages of development. Dixon Place inspires and encourages artists of all stripes and callings to take risks and push personal and professional limits. The organization’s foremost priorities are to serve as a safety net for artists, providing technical and financial support, and to offer vivid experiences that stimulate the senses and imaginations of our audience.
HERE ARTS CENTER, New York City, received a two-year grant of $44,000 in support of the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP). From its home in Lower Manhattan, HERE builds a community that nurtures career artists as they create innovative hybrid live performance in theatre, dance, music, puppetry, media, and visual art. For more than 20 years, HERE has come to occupy a unique and essential place in the landscape of downtown theatre, and to be known as a destination for audiences who are passionate about groundbreaking contemporary work and the creative process behind it. HERE’s signature program, the HERE Artist Residency Program, supports the singular vision of a diverse roster of Resident Artists through commissions, long-term development, and a quality production, all of which strengthen their careers for the long-term.
THE FIELD, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for FAYE DRISCOLL DANCE GROUP, Brooklyn, New York, received a two-year grant of $32,000 in support of the development and production of Thank You For Coming: Play and Thank You For Coming: Space. The Field firmly believes that art and artists are a vital part of a healthy, functioning and engaged society. The Field exists, like a small business incubator, to give artists the tools, resources and guidance that they need in order to add their dynamic voices to the marketplace. Faye Driscoll is obsessed with a basic problem that we all encounter - that of being "somebody" in a world of other "somebodies" - and in her work she attempts to pull apart this daily performance of self. She does this by enacting it in excess, blowing it up to the extreme in order to reveal its edges and create more space, more possibility for who we can be. She draws on familiar images and archetypal scenes, such as poses from classical art, or the physicality of people in extreme states, from torture to religious rapture. She creates manically choreographed physical and aural scores from these scenes and images, filled with unpredictability, ambiguity and a mix of falsehoods and truths.
THE LAUNDROMAT PROJECT, New York City, received a grant of $17,250 in support of the Create Change Artist Residencies and Commissions, an annual program that offers artists of color across all disciplines the opportunity to launch public art projects. The Laundromat Project (The LP) is a non-profit organization that amplifies the creativity already existing within communities by using arts and culture to build community networks, solve problems, and enhance a sense of ownership in the places where community members live, work, and grow. The LP sees artists as one of the world’s greatest assets. Its programs seek to provide platforms for emerging artists to realize original and high-quality public art projects and avenues for sharing their creative vision with everyday people—inspiring innovative thinking in all of us. The LP believes art, culture, and engaged imaginations can change the way people see their world, open them up to new ideas, and connect them to each other.
EYEBEAM ATELIER, Brooklyn, New York, received a grant of $15,000 in support of the Artists@Eyebeam Residency Program. Eyebeam is a nonprofit artist colony and R&D lab that supports creative risk-taking. Eyebeam provides young and emerging artists with time, digital and other tools, work space and monetary support to create new work that pushes the frontiers of art and technology. Eyebeam has awarded some 270 residencies over the past 17 years, providing both significant financial support and the tools and means to create new art and new media. The organization's principal activities revolve around the work of its resident artists, and Eyebeam is proud to deliver their finished work through various means, such as its Annual Showcase and other programs. Eyebeam exposes diverse audiences to experimental and interdisciplinary work, providing an environment for dialogue, collaboration, learning and discovery.
NORTHERN LIGHTS.MN, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for ANICCHA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $16,000 in support of the development and production of Census. The mission of Northern Lights.MN is to support emerging and established artists in the creation and presentation of art in the public sphere, focusing on innovative uses of technology, old and new, to imagine new interactions between audience, artwork and place; explore expanded possibilities for civic engagement; and encourage pluralistic community. Aniccha Arts (2004-present) is an experimental arts group that creates immersive performance environments using an interdisciplinary voice primarily made of dance and electronic media. This company of designers and dance collaborators construct worlds that question individual agency inside the systems in which we live.
THE FIELD, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for a canary torsi, Brooklyn, New York, received a grant of $10,000 in support of the development and production of CAST. The Field firmly believes that art and artists are a vital part of a healthy, functioning and engaged society. The Field exists, like a small business incubator, to give artists the tools, resources and guidance that they need in order to add their dynamic voices to the marketplace. a canary torsi creates site-adaptable, installation-based performance projects. Formed in 2009 by New York choreographer Yanira Castro, a canary torsi invites audiences to participate in work that is anchored in live performance and extends into other media and online platforms. Ranging from formal movement and immersive audio installations to fictional Twitter feeds and interactive websites, a canary torsi explores the relationship between audience and event, developing scenarios where the audience’s presence dramatically impacts the work.
MABOU MINES, New York City, received a two-year grant of $60,000 in support of the Mabou Mines/Suite Resident Artist Program for emerging artists in New York City. Mabou Mines is an artist-driven experimental collective, generating original works and re-imagined adaptations of classics through multi-disciplinary, technologically inventive collaborations among its members and a wide world of contemporary composers, writers, musicians, choreographers, puppeteers, visual artists and filmmakers. In addition to the creation of new theater works, Mabou Mines is dedicated to fostering and developing the next generation of performing artists through the Mabou Mines/Suite Resident Artist Program.
ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATER, New York City, received a grant of $20,000 in support of the EST/Youngblood Program, which provides emerging New York City artists with opportunities to write, develop, produce and evaluate work. The Ensemble Studio Theatre, commonly known as "EST,” is a dynamic, expanding family of theatre people committed to the discovery and nurturing of new voices and the continued support and growth of artists throughout their creative lives. EST’s ensemble works together repeatedly over time to develop and produce original, provocative, and authentic new plays.
PILLSBURY HOUSE + THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $15,000 in support of the development and production of new work by emerging playwrights in the mainstage program. Pillsbury House + Theatre creates challenging theatre to inspire choice, change and connection. PHT is a diverse company of artists working in partnership with diverse audiences to create transformational arts experiences. As part of Pillsbury United Communities, a large and respected human service agency committed to building relationships to strengthen the core city, PHT upholds the tradition of the arts as part and parcel of the life of all communities. Pillsbury House + Theatre’s vision is one of a new kind of arts organization that is both professional and community-driven, that is known for artistic excellence and broad accessibility, and that engages a diverse constituency which benefits individually and collectively from participation.
POETS HOUSE, New York City, received a two-year grant of $34,000 in support of Poets House: Emerging Poets Fellowship 5. Poets House is a national poetry library and literary center that invites poets and the public to step into the living tradition of poetry. Poets House’s poetry resources and literary events document the wealth and diversity of poetry, stimulate public dialogue on issues of poetry in culture, and cultivate a wider audience for poetry. Since Poets House is open to all, part of its mission is to serve pre-emerging and emerging writers. These include high school students, college students, adults, seniors, and anyone interested in being a writer of poetry. All of its activities—its library, literary programs, children and youth programs, even exhibitions—support this endeavor.
For further information about these grants, please contact Jerome Foundation Program Director Robert Byrd or Senior Program Officer Eleanor Savage, at 651.224.9431 or 1.800.995.3766. Visit the Jerome Foundation on the Web at www.jeromefdn.org.
The Jerome Foundation, created by artist and philanthropist Jerome Hill (1905–1972), seeks to contribute to a dynamic and evolving culture by supporting the creation, development, and production of new works by emerging artists. The Foundation makes grants to not-for-profit arts organizations and artists in Minnesota and New York City.