JEWISH ARTS AND EDUCATION
Arts in Israel, CRB70 Group around the AHAVA (Love) Sculpture the Jewish Museum in Jerusalem 2009.
Photographs, videos and work samples from the special CRB70 Artists in Israel Taglit Experience in 2009. The first CRB70 trip was organized as a 70th birthday gift to Charles Bronfman from his grandchildren. I was asked by the funders and trip organizer Israel Experience, to create and help lead a Birthright Israel experience customized for artists. In order to facilitate the concept, we limited the group to just 30 American participants (instead of the usual 40) and 10 Israelis. We were also allowed to require portfolios and work samples from the participants as part of the application and selection process. The results were extraordinary.
A collaborative mural the participants created as a thank you to Charles Bronfman and his family.
Israel goldstein synagogue at givat ram, Jerusalem
On our trip we explored religious architecture from the old Sephardic synagogue in Tzfat, filled with colors and murals, to the minimalist Hecht Synagogue at Hebrew University, designed by architect Ron Carmi, with a stunning picture window overlooking the old city.
In this discussion I asked the artists to consider the experience of being in a sacred space, as individuals and as members of a community. I pointed out that every synagogue in the US faces east, towards the old city and the western wall. The synagogue we were in had a huge picture window overlooking the place that all those other synagogues were oriented towards. With each stop on our trip we moved closer to the center of religious Jewish life., the Western Wall. The following day, Friday, we finally visited the Wall for the first time. (Filmed by a participant.)
Arts in Israel explores Bezalel
In December of 2009 the Birthright group Arts in Israel spent a day at Bezalel at Hebrew University in Jerusalem exploring the various creative programs offered including glass work, photography and animation.
Exploring the Shoa through the lens of art at Lohamei HaGeta’ot.
Ceramic sculpture by Elsa Pollak.
Participants speaking with Tzfat artist Robert Lowenthal about Kabbalah, mysticism gematria in his work.
CRB70 Taglit Group: Art at Independence Hall
Independence Hall is the place where David Ben-Gurion declared Israeli Statehood in 1949. Donated by the first mayor of Tel Aviv Meir Dizengoff as an art museum, it was the site chosen for the Statehood ceremony and the art was chosen specifically for the occasion. After the ceremony, it was once again an art museum until 1978 when it was restored as Independence Hall and opened to the public.
Our discussion focused on what the participants saw in the art that was chosen for these walls. What does the art say about the artists? About the Jews who are the primary subjects of the work? What does it say about the people who chose these works specifically? Finally I asked them what art they would have chosen, and what art they would choose as the follow-up exhibition? What goes on the walls after the historic declaration of statehood. (Filmed by a participant)
Exploring street art and graffiti in the Flourentine district of Tel Aviv.
Brail street art in the Flourentine district of Tel Aviv.
Closing Circle at the jewish museum in jerusalem
Standing inside the James Turell room at the Museum of Art in Jerusalem we shared a few thoughts on the last day of a very special Taglit-Birthright Israel trip. Together, 30 American and 10 Israeli artists explored the State of Israel through the lens of art, music, history, politics, dance, poetry and theater.
As a group we created a painting, stop-motion animations, wrote a mini musical, learned to communicate without sound, explored the graffiti of a foreign culture, learned original folk dances and experienced religious architecture in the birthplace of the Jewish religion. (Filmed by a participant.)