Jerome Foundation

In order to accomplish its goal of contributing to a dynamic and evolving culture, the Saint Paul, Minnesota-based Jerome Foundation supports the creation, development, and production of new works by emerging artists in Minnesota and New York City. The foundation provides funding to individual artists as well as to nonprofit arts organizations. The Foundation Center asked Jerome's president, Cynthia Gehrig, to discuss the foundation's grantmaking philosophy in greater detail:

According to its statement of values, the Jerome Foundation "welcomes the opportunity to be pushed beyond its own boundaries of understanding and experience" and "encourages artistic exploration and risk-taking." What originally led you to adopt this philosophy, and what recommendations can you share with other grantmakers based on your experience in embracing this approach?

"Supporting creativity has always been central to arts and culture grantmaking, but it truly resides in all fields of activity from new ideas to new connective tissue among existing ideas. The Foundation sees a compelling current of exploration and risk-taking in the emerging creative artists it supports. Making a commitment to diverse cultural perspectives and embracing what we don't know in terms of how we understand cultural expression has been a growing part of the Foundation's grantmaking over the past three decades. Although Board and staff are diverse, the size of the Foundation is such that governance and management will never be fully representative of the rich range of cultural perspectives that exist in the Foundation's two geographic areas of New York City and Minnesota. It has to implement strategies such as utilizing diverse review panels, holding informational meetings in cooperation with organizations serving culturally specific artists, convening focus groups, and bringing criticism from under-served communities to the Board of Directors. When the Foundation encounters different cultural perspectives, experiences, and expressions, it is enriched and its program becomes stronger.

"Being pushed beyond boundaries of understanding and experience also has a generational component. In the field of new media, in particular, the Foundation is learning so much about the concerns and forms of expression of younger generations of creative artists through its grants to artists who work in new interactive forms. The Foundation searches for younger leaders to serve as guides. Experimenting with new approaches, forms, and delivery mechanisms forces growth and may be a deliberate grantmaking strategy to support experiments that may or may not continue. We learn from both ambitious failures and successes."