PRESS RELEASE
For immediate releaseContact: David Jordan Harris
November 9, 2016952-381-3449
Theater, Music, and Multimedia ProjectsReceive Funding from Rimon
Minneapolis, MN-- Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council has chosen six projects for support in its Autumn 2016 Project Support grant round. The projects cover a broad terrain of Jewish experience and art forms, ranging from a klezmer virtuoso and a farce about sitting shiva to a theatrical exploration of the prophet Elijah. Rimon,an initiative of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, offers financial, marketing, or administrative assistance on a semi-annual basis to projects that bring together Judaism and the arts.
Rimonis honored to support The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in the ensemble’s year-long exploration of the themes of displacement and migration. Rimon’s funding focuses particularly on three of the SPCO’s concerts that will feature rarely heard works of Jewish composers murdered in or displaced by the Holocaust—Gideon Klein, Erwin Schulhoff, and Leo Smit.
Rimon continues its longstanding support of the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company with funding for its February production of The Whipping Man which examines the role of Jews as slaveholders during the Civil War. The Whipping Man was one of the top ten most produced plays in the United States between 2012 and 2015.
Playwright Alan Berkshas received support to stage a public reading this January of his newest play, a farce that takes place during the seven days of shiva. Berks’ work has been seen on many Twin Cities stages in 2016, including Complicated Fun: The Minneapolis Music Scene at the History Theater; an adaptation of Six Characters in Search of an Author at Park Square Theatre; and In My Heart: The Adoption Play Project at Mixed Blood Theater.
Tolerance Minnesota, a program of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, has received Rimon’s support to produce Wiesenthal, a one-man play about the renowned Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal. The production will take place at the Illusion Theater in Minneapolis in April, 2017.
Multimedia artist and musician Craig Harris has received funding to help him tour his highly acclaimed production, Elijah in the Wadi, and to create educational programming focused on Elijah and the Biblical prophet’s meaning for contemporary communal and individual experience.
The Bakken Trio, one of Minnesota’s most accomplished chamber music ensembles, will present klezmer superstar clarinetist David Krakauer in a special performance on December 4 at Temple Israel in Minneapolis. The concert features compositions by Erwin Schulhoff, David Schiff, and Aram Khachaturian. Krakauer has toured internationally and has been a leading figure in the klezmer revival with his band Klezmer Madness!
The RimonArts Fund was established in 2003 as a designated fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation. Monies from the fund are used to promote and enhance Jewish identity through arts and culture, to support artists who broadly explore Jewish themes, and to assist the Jewish community and its institutions in developing a collaborative involvement with the arts. Proposals are reviewed in the spring and fall.
For information on Rimon, its application process, programs, and the Rimon Arts Fund, please contact David Jordan Harris, Executive Director, at 952-381-3449or visit
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