Rimon: Art Project Support GrantsThrough the Rimon Arts Fund, created by the generosity of hundreds of donors in our community, Rimon is proud to provide support for projects that embody Rimon’s mission: exploring Jewish themes, enhancing Jewish identity, and promoting Jewish collaboration.
Application Process
View Rimon’s application guidelines and apply here.
For further information, contact Rimon at 952-381-3449 or information@rimonmn.org.
Fall 2022 Project Support Grant Recipients
Seven Project Support grants awarded in the Fall of 2022.
- Riv Shapiro: Fragments is a 3-5 minute partially-animated short film about ancestral connection, debuted in a community ancestral storytelling ritual in fall/winter 2023/24. Mixing animation and documentary film illuminates the abstract nature of memory, story and connection. The project is interactive and uses the motif of weaving to bridge the film and the ritual in a tangible way, resulting in a new piece of art.
- Yoni Reinharz: The 12 Tribes of Hip Hop is a podcast created by Yoni Reinharz of Paper Fools Media and Lonny Goldsmith of Jewfolk Media+Jewfolk Inc. 12 Tribes tells the evolution of Hip Hop culture through the contributions of 12 Jews, who for better or worse, moved the culture forward with seismic impact. 12 Tribes is a mix of narrative, interactive story-telling, and succinct interviews, with political and socio-economic context, and hosted by a Jewish rapper and a Black Activist with Jewish roots.
- Sarah Rose Weinman: Beasts & Birdheads will be a series of figurative oil paintings inspired by medieval Jewish manuscripts depicting women with bird and animal heads. The series will incorporate elements of these depictions to explore questions of identity and disguise in self-expression and oppression, particularly around themes of gender and Judaism.
- Josh Rosard: A weekend-long immersive experience of concerts, workshops, and dancing in the Twin Cities, focused on klezmer, traditional Ashkenazi Jewish dance music from eastern Europe.
- Barbara Wiener: Adventures in Visual Storytelling (formerly The New Storymaking Workshop) is a creativity workshop for students 55+ to explore innovative ways to share stories, build community and reinforce resiliency. The workshop is 10 sessions (once each week) via Zoom. Students look at memory and present reality through an imaginative process of filmmaking, cartooning, drawing, stop motion animation, photography and writing.
- Barbara Brooks: Six Points Theatre, formerly Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company, seeks funding for the regional premier of TRAYF, a poignant and heartwarming new play. This project will honor Jewish diversity, educate about Jewish practices, foster Jewish identity, and stimulate interfaith and intercultural dialogue through the arts.
- Jay Fishman: Funds are being requested to support the performance of internationally acclaimed Jewish Ukrainian pianist, Inna Faliks with the Minnesota Sinfonia as part of the orchestra’s 34th annual Winter Concert Series. Performances will take place in February at Roseville Lutheran Church and at the Basilica of St. Mary. Also the program will be the premiere of Artistic Director Jay Fishman’s newest work, Contemplation. Jay is also Jewish.
Spring 2022 Project Support Grant Recipients
Five Project Support grants awarded in April 2022.
- Clay artist Zoe Asher Kaplan was awarded funding for Community in Clay: An Exploration of Jewish Diaspora and Place. The artist’s goal is to create tzedakah boxes that express doikayt, resilience in diaspora, and to re-envision the possibilities and impact of ritual objects.
- Musician Sarah Larsson was awarded funding to support expenses related to her recording Immigrantke, an album of original Jewish music fusing Yiddish, Eastern European, and Americana styles.
- Theater director Carolyn Levy received funding to mount a staged reading of Cindy Cooper’s play, I Was a Stranger, Too, at Hamline University’s theater. The play centers on a Jewish woman in Minnesota, who, in memory of her mother’s experiences escaping the Holocaust, wants to help people seeking asylum in the U.S. today.
- Visual artist Anita White was awarded funding to create documentary drawings illuminating and affirming the inner stories of elderly individuals who participate in the chaplaincy work of Rabbi Lynn Liberman.
- Author Jenna Zark was awarded funding to support post-publication marketing efforts for her new book, Crooked Lines: A Single Mom’s Jewish Journey. The funds will help Zark hire a publicist and to defray expenses related to producing book launch events.
Fall 2021 Project Support Grant Recipients
Five projects were chosen for support in October 2021.
- Minnesota Center for Book Arts was awarded funding to support History in the Making, a year-long fellowship to create programs exploring the historical and contemporary printed word in Jewish culture and to activate MCBA’s newly acquire Hebrew wood type.
- Z Puppets Rosenschnoz was awarded funding to produce a version of its puppet drama, Through the Narrows.
- Sarina Partridge was awarded funding to support the composition of new Jewish vocal music, Songs to Re-Root and Re-Member.
- Rabbi Lekach-Rosenberg received funding to support the creation and performance of original music for five historic piyutim written in the years immediately following the Jews’ expulsion from the Iberian peninsula in the 15th century.
- Laura Levinson received funding to support the creation and performance of DOYKEIT, a new Yiddishist performance featuring klezmer music, Yiddish folk dance, and themes of Jewish diaspora and the search for home.
2020-2021 Project Support Grant Recipients
Five projects were chosen for support in 2020-2021.
- The Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company was awarded funding to produce an original online music production, Our Life and Times: A Journey Through Jewish American Song, in the winter of 2021.
- The MSP Film Society was awarded funding to support a memorial to Al Milgrom, founder of the MSP Film Society, and the launch of the annual Milgrom Tribute which this year honors the great Polish writer/director Agnieszka Holland. The funds also support the presentation of numerous Jewish-themed films within the MSP International Film Festival in May 2021.
- Cia Sautter and her company Storydance Theatre were awarded funding for filming and post-production expenses related to her production, The Garden: A Refuge, in the spring of 2021.
- Dancer Tamara Nadel was awarded funding to create a professional studio recording of the music score for her dance, Haven’t I Hidden Your Name?
- Michael Kuhne and Vic Rosenthal were awarded funding to hire an editor to assist with shaping the manuscript of their book-length history of Jewish Community Action, drawing on oral histories and using innovative narrative techniques.
2019-2020 Project Support Grant Recipients
Eight projects were chosen for support in 2019-2020.
- Katya Oicherman will present a series of performances at White Page Gallery in Minneapolis in the spring of 2020, reflecting on her childhood in the Soviet Union using digital animations, storytelling, and soft functional sculptures.
- The musical ensemble Incantare will perform “EXILE: Jewish Musicians and Their Contemporaries in Early Modern Europe” in November 2020 along with numerous supplementary educational programs.
- The Sabes JCC will exhibit a unique selection of little-known works by Rube Goldberg in August 2020 as well as hosting a multi-generational Rube Goldberg-inspired workshop.
- Minnesota Hillel received funding to help commission local Jewish artists Allan Shultz and Claude Riedel to design and install a ner tamid, ark, reader’s table, and bimah seat. These beautiful ritual items will be a crown jewel in Hillel’s new chapel.
- Zachary Goldberg received funding to create fifteen poems for inclusion in his manuscript Karl::Groucho, which explores the dissonances of Jewish American identity.
- The Minnesota Sinfonia will feature Israeli soloists Amit Peled and Alon Goldstein in next year’s season as well as new compositions by the Sinfonia’s artist director, Jay Fishman.
- Brooks Turner was awarded funds to support the exhibition of his art work in Legends and Myths of Ancient Minnesota at the Weisman Museum.
- Amanda Minoff will complete her novel, The Child Who Does Not Know How to Ask, and will organize a reading series of Jewish and historically underrepresented authors.
Spring 2019 Project Support Grant Recipients
Six projects were chosen for support in Rimon’s Spring 2019 grant round.
- Writer/producer Gail Rosenblum will produce a teaching curriculum to accompany her work-in-progress, MILKWEED, a feature-length animated film based on Jerry Spinelli’s young adult novel about the Holocaust.
- Sarah Myers will create story circles for Jewish and Muslim youth in the Twin Cities with collaborator Fardosa Hassan, exploring the commonalities between these two faith communities and confronting the stereotypes about them.
- Rebecca Heidenberg will produce a short experimental film that deals with issues around migration anchored in the narrative of philosopher Walter Benjamin’s escape from Nazi-occupied France.
- Photographer Linda Brooks will publish her first monograph, PROXIMITIES, reflections on art, education, activism.
- Hineni will collaborate with artist Denise Tennen on Cheshbon HaNefesh on the Mississippi River: Preparation for Rosh Hashanah through Nature and Art at Crosby Farm Park in St. Paul.
- Theater director Carolyn Levy will collaborate with playwright Cynthia Cooper in doing research for the development of a play, I Was a Stranger, Too, about Jewish families who respond to the refugee crisis in a personal way.
See All Past Grantees
Spring 2005
Jewish Women and Prayer/visual artists
Twin Cities Jewish Middle School/ceramic mural
Fall 2005
Ida’s Story/film
Sheltering Home Chronicles/visual art
Company of Angels: The Story of Charlotte Salomon/theater
Center Playhouse/interactive visual arts workshops
Spring 2006
Voice to Vision/film
Fall 2006
Olive Bieringa/film
Festival of Lights/theater
Keren Or/photography & writing
Spring 2007
Idit Cytron/arts therapy
Jay Isenberg/architectural installation
Sheltering Home Chronicles/spoken word workshop & photography
Sabes JCC/Keshet Dance Company
Fall 2007
Sylvia Horwitz/photographer
Jewish Community Relations Council (Laura Zelle)/visual narrative
Minnesota Film Arts/International film festival
Spring 2008
St. Paul JCC/Scattered Among the Nations/photography & workshops
Keren Or/website development
Fall 2008
Bais Yaacov High School for Girls/theater
Talmud Torah of Minneapolis/arts education
Intermedia Arts/Spirit in the House performance festival
VocalEssence/choral concert
Spring 2009
Elisa Korentayer/musician
Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater/seniors movement workshops
Jenna Zark/theater
Fall 2009
Ran Shapira/photographer
One Voice Mixed Chorus/concert production & commission
Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company/theater production
3-Minute Egg/video portraits
Spring 2010
Twin Cities Jewish Chorale/choral concert production
Playwrights’ Center/theater workshop
Fall 2010
Margie Newman/literary reading
VOICE (Sabes JCC)/film production
Minnesota Film Arts/Jewish film series
Adath Jeshurun Congregation/visual art exhibition
Spring 2011
Jane Strauss/photography book
Craig Harris/concert production
Fall 2011
Miryam Kabakov/film series
Laura Silver/film production
Heart of the Beast Theatre/theater production & tour
TVbyGIRLS/film production
World Without Genocide/conference arts activities
Spring 2012
St. Paul JCC’s Camp Butwin/art production
Hillel at University of Minnesota/art production
Fall 2012
Singers in Accord/choral conductor residency
Sabes JCC/film and photography exhibit
Spring 2013
Oratorio Society of Minnesota/choral concert
Jay Isenberg/architecture affinity group
ettyplay, inc./theatre production and residency
Fall 2013
Minnesota Film Arts/film festival
Zorongo Flamenco/dance-theater production
Ethan Rowan Pope/visual art school residency
Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company/theater production
Spring 2014
World Without Genocide/documentary film
St. Paul JCC/Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival
Curt Brown/non-fiction
Fall 2014
Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies/visual art opening event
Keren Kroul/painting
Rachel Breen & Alison Morse/multimedia
Spring 2015
Sabes JCC/new initiative/multimedia
Fortune’s Fool Theatre/theater
International Friendship through the Performing Arts/music
Fall 2015
Illusion Theater/theater
Maggie Bearmon Pistner/theater
Jewfolk Media, Inc./arts writing
Twin Cities Jewish Chorale/music
Spring 2016
Judith Brin Ingber/theater
Northern Starz Theatre Company/theater
Tamara Nadel/dance
Judith Eisner/music
Cia Sautter/dance
Fall 2016
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra/music
Craig Harris/multimedia
Bakken Trio/music
Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company/theater
Alan Berks/theater
Jewish Community Relations Council/theater
Spring 2017
The Baroque Room/music
St. Louis Park Friends of the Arts/music
World Without Genocide/film
Max Sparber/theater
Fall 2017
Z Puppets Rosenschnoz/puppet theater
Kyna Levi/visual arts
Illusion Theater/theater
St. Paul JCC/music
Spring 2018
Minnesota Sinfonia/music
Lior Shragg/music education
Jeff Weinberg/film
Twin Cities Jewish Chorale/music
Fall 2018
Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company/theater
Harmony Theatre Company & School/theater
Michael Kuhne/non-fiction
Uprooted/theater
Spring 2019
Linda Brooks/photography
Gail Rosenblum/film
Sarah Myers/storytelling
Rebecca Heidenberg/film
Hineni/visual art
Carolyn Levy/theater
Fall 2019
Katya Oicherman/multimedia performance
Eric Lipman/online concert production
Incantare/music performance
Sabes JCC/visual arts exhibition & workshop
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