Contemporary Works from Israel’s Leading Arts Institute to Be Featured
The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage will introduce visitors to the beauty and diversity of contemporary works emerging from Israel with Israeli Arts and Culture, a season-long offering of programs and events (October 23 – January 13). The highlight is Bezalel on Tour, an exhibition that celebrates the 106th anniversary of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Israel’s oldest institute of higher education and a leading international academy of art, design and architecture. Programs at the Museum include live music, films, and an artist talk. Several other events will occur throughout Cleveland’s Jewish and artistic communities.
Curated by the head of the Ceramics and Glass Design Department, Muli Ben Sasson, Bezalel on Tour includes the best of the contemporary works of Bezalel graduates from the last five years from all of Bezalel’s Academic Departments: Fine Arts, Architecture, Photography, Ceramic and Glass Design, Industrial Design, Jewelry and Fashion, Visual Communication and Screen-Based Arts, as well as works from its graduate programs: Master of Design and Master in Fine Arts. The exhibition, which had stops in Baltimore and Chicago earlier this year, will travel throughout North America over the next year, including to the Corcoran Museum in Washington in the spring of 2013 followed by the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts and Brown University/RISD Hillel in Providence, Rhode Island.
When Boris Schatz founded the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts in 1906, it expressed an effort to carve out a distinctive style of Jewish art for a new nation to be built in the ancient Jewish homeland. More than 100 years later, Bezalel continues to deliver its message of contemporary Israeli art as innovative and groundbreaking, fueled by local materials and creating a powerful international presence. In recent years, the Academy has exhibited in Orangerie du Sénat, Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, Universität der Künste Berlin, Milan Design Week and Sotheby‘s in London, among other prestigious venues.
“We are so pleased to bring this exceptional retrospective showing an Israel on the cutting edge of contemporary art and culture to Northeast Ohio. It’s an experience not to be missed.” said Museum Executive Director Lynda A. Bender.
“We, at Bezalel, are excited to display a selection of some of our best graduate work in the past few years,” said Bezalel President Professor Eva Illouz. “It is a real privilege to be able to work closely with the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, and the local Cleveland community on this exhibition, and we hope that Bezalel on Tour will give visitors a sample of some of the fresh and daring contemporary art coming out of Israel today.”
Programs at the Maltz Museum include:
Local component – student work from Cleveland Institute of Art (Oct 23 – Jan 13)
Film screening – A Century of Israeli Art, Parts I & II (Oct. 24/Nov. 7)
Artist talk – Reut Shahar, Israeli artist and Bezalel graduate (Nov. 1)
Community day – Israeli arts and culture-themed programs all afternoon (Nov. 11)
Film screening – Thou Shalt Not Dance (Nov. 28)
Live music – No Exit Music Ensemble (Dec. 12)
Sponsored by Cleveland Israel Arts Connection/Jewish Federation of Cleveland
Signature Sponsors: BNY Mellon Wealth Management and The John P. Murphy Foundation.
Benefactor Sponsor: David and Inez Myers Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio
Patron Sponsors: The Consulate General of Israel to the Mid-Atlantic Region, Joan Horvitz, Robert A. Immerman, Israel Bonds, and The Nathan and Fannye Shafran Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland
The Ohio Arts Council helped fund this program/organization with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.
Additional funding by Friends of Bezalel, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel, and The David Berg Foundation.
