Mission:
The Jerome Foundation provides funding for emerging artists and nonprofit arts organizations in Minnesota and New York City. By focusing on emerging artists, the foundation encourages artistic innovation and excellence, and it welcomes work that embodies a celebration of and respect for diverse cultural perspectives.

Purpose of Site:
The foundation's Web site provides information on funding activities, application procedures and instructions for grantseekers, and contact information. It also offers a history of the foundation and its founder, artist and philanthropist Jerome Hill.

Background:
Jerome Hill, born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1905, displayed a keen interest in art at an early age. He left Minnesota to attend Yale University, where he majored in music, and then continued his arts education by studying painting in Paris and Rome. In the 1930s, Hill developed an interest in filmmaking and made two film shorts released by Warner Brothers in 1939. After World War II, Hill continued to make films, primarily biographies, and he received an Oscar in 1957 for a feature-length documentary about Albert Schweitzer. Hill completed his first "story" film, The Sand Castle, in 1960. Throughout his life, Hill provided financial assistance to numerous artists and humanists and established a foundation for this purpose in 1964. The entity was named the Jerome Foundation after his death in 1972.

Home Page:
A changing panel on the top of the home page rotates facts about the foundation, while the main part of the page briefly describes the foundation's history, background, and mission. Along the left side of the page are links that lead to the main subject areas of the site — applications, funding areas, general information, grants, links, contact us, and receive information.

Outstanding Feature:
The Jerome Foundation Web site publishes detailed and well-organized information about its grant recipients. From the home page, visitors click on the grants heading from the menu on the left side of the page to view another menu of options that include Alphabetically, By Discipline, Full Description, and Press Releases. The alphabetical and discipline lists include the names of recipient organizations or individual grantees and the amount of the grant. Web visitors who wish to learn the specifics about a particular project funded by the foundation can consult an alphabetical master list of grants with project description.

Honorable Mention:
Visitors to the Web site can navigate easily with the unique toolbar menu on the left side of the site's pages. By clicking on one of the eight main headings, users access an expanded menu of more specific options. For example, selecting the applications heading brings up a menu with general information and the foundation's main grantmaking programs. A button in the bottom, left-hand corner of the page allows users to return to previous menus.