Dance

Filmmaker, painter, and composer Jerome Hill established the Jerome Foundation in 1964, and was active in its operation until his death in 1972. The Foundation makes grants to support the creation and production of new artistic works by emerging artists, and contributes to these artists' professional advancement. The Foundation states its "belief in the vigorous and distinctive voices of artists whose works challenge our thinking and add meaning to our lives.

Sitting around tables at a conference center last May, we each joined five other participants in imagining and illustrating possibilities for artists who work in community arts programs for youth. We were part of a group of around thirty people convened as a working group first in San Jose, California in May 2000 and again in October in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our aim was to explore how to build understanding and action toward the sustainable involvement of artists and arts professionals in youth and community development.

The following article is based on notes for a talk presented in June 2000 at Dance/USA's bi-annual conference, "New Directions in Moving Ground." Marda Kirn participated on a panel subtitled "Nurturing the Art of Creation" that invited panelists to talk about inventive ways that artists find time, space, and support to create new work.

Many years ago, I wanted to write a grant application to the NEA — as a kind of joke, and a kind of plea. I'd call it the Rip Van Winkle project.

2000, 16 pages, Business Committee for the Arts, Inc., 1775 Broadway, Suite 510, New York, New York 10019, (212) 664-0600.

Consider using arts images in advertisements to associate your company with quality and performance, giving a museum membership to new employees as a signing bonus, having an arts and crafts event in the workplace for employees' children, or inviting artists to show their work in your office or retail space to create traffic.

2000, CD-ROM, The McKnight Foundation, 600 TCF Tower, 121 South Eighth Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402, (612) 333-4220.

This CD-ROM contains the results of The McKnight Foundation's recent study, the Cost of Culture, which polled 405 Minnesota artists about their economic and creative well-being. In 1996 the Foundation reported on the state of the arts in Minnesota, and now, as board chair Noa Staryk stated, "we felt it was time to take a closer look at the condition of individual artists."

June 2000, 89 pages, The Arts Marketing Center of the Arts & Business Council of Chicago.

2000, 52 pages, New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA).

Working paper writer, Mindy Levine; convening curator, Heather Hitchens

August 2000, 24 pages, Arts International.

2000 reprint edition, first published in 1992, 296 pages, paper. Arts Extension Service Press, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, ISBN 0-275-94054-3

A Report on the Ford Foundation Initiative
Edited by Mindy Levine

1999, 64 pages. Developed by New England Foundation for the Arts, edited and published by Arts International, ISBN 0-9676467-0-7, 212-674-9744