Longtime Jerome Foundation president to step down

When Cynthia Gehrig began working at the Jerome Foundation in 1976, Grand Funk Railroad was teaching people in bell bottoms how to do "The Loco-Motion."

Gehrig quickly rose to head the St. Paul-based foundation, whose endowment grew from $9 million to just shy of $100 million. Jerome grants jump-started the careers of emerging artists who now sit at the top of their fields, including filmmaker Spike Lee, playwright August Wilson, choreographer Bebe Miller and composer Vijay Iyer.

On Monday, the Jerome announced that next spring, Gehrig will step down. She will have served 36 years as the foundation's president.

The Jerome will give out $3.7 million this year to artists in Minnesota and New York. While many foundations grant more money, the Jerome's track record of scouting and supporting new talent that takes off is renowned.

"Cindy has lifted up the whole field with her leadership," said innovative choreographer Elizabeth Streb, who won a Jerome grant early in her career.

"Everything that we've done in the last 20-plus years — everything — has been supported by the Jerome," said Jim Nicola, artistic director of New York Theatre Workshop. Blockbuster musicals such as "Rent" and "Once" were launched there, assisted by seed money from Gehrig's foundation.

"For theaters and artists, Cynthia has been like a careful gardener who waters the seeds and tends them over a long time so that the most beautiful, striking things can emerge," Nicola said.

When Jerome Hill died in 1972, his Avon Foundation was a small, private outfit that supported innovation in two places where he lived and worked — Minnesota and New York City.

Gehrig joined the renamed Jerome in 1976 when she was still a graduate student in art history at the University of Minnesota.

"It was supposed to be a part-time job," Gehrig said. "And it turned into this tremendous privilege to work for the Jerome Foundation and to serve artists. I'll miss it deeply."

The Jerome is conducting an international search and is expected to name a replacement by spring.

"Even though she's not the founder, she might as well be," said board chair Charles Zelle, who also is Minnesota's transportation commissioner. "She guided it and steered it to where we are today."

"Cindy said, 'Let's partner,' " said Mayeda, who also served for nine years on Jerome's board.

Thus was born the Jerome's rare and highly successful travel and study grant program, which has helped thousands of artists go to the ends of the Earth to pursue their dreams.

"Cindy's smart, deft, rigorous and goes the extra mile," said Mayeda.

New York choreographer Streb remembers being extremely nervous when Gehrig showed up to see her rehearse a work that Jerome had supported.

"My confidence ebbed when she walked into the room. I was just beside myself, trembling," Streb said. "Back then, very few people got my work, and I was an insecure artist who thought I was going to be found out."

"Cindy has a philosophical, cultural understanding of the bricks and mortars of the arts, and she's so passionate about it all — that's very rare," said Streb. "That first grant I got from the Jerome was for $6,000. I opened a checking account and had little pink checks that I only used for dance."

Gehrig grew up in Fort Wayne, Ind., with two brothers. Her mother was a bookkeeper. Her father ran the printing department for the phone company.

"From early on, my interests were the arts, mostly drawing and painting," she said. "My father encouraged my artistic pursuits, but he also encouraged me to get teaching credentials."

She taught art for a year before coming to the University of Minnesota for graduate school in art history.

She and her husband, internist Donald Gehrig, have two children, Kathryn, 33, and Fred, 26.

Gehrig is philosophical about her work.

"It's very rare to get to work in a field that is your first love and to find work that is so meaningful," she said. "That's the real gift."