With the fall cultural season in full swing, the Jerusalem Biennale is doing what it does best: bringing contemporary art to numerous locations across the city, from established museums and galleries to unexpected venues such as the former National Library at Givat Ram.
Yet this can be a difficult season for new immigrant artists. Without a basic command of Hebrew, those who left thriving art careers behind often don’t know where to begin finding opportunities to participate in major open-call exhibitions.
Dr. Anat Chaskalovic, who spent two decades living and working as an artist abroad, knows what it feels like to be an outsider and brings a special empathy to a new mission to help olim artists.
“I returned home after 20 years in Paris with experience as an artist and a scholar of Jewish and Israeli heritage. I understand how disorienting it can be to enter a cultural world without the right connections, and I wanted to help immigrant artists,” she said.
Together with Arielle Scemama, the longtime coordinator of the Greater Baka Community Center immigrant programs, at 3 Issachar St. (known in Hebrew as Minhal Kehilati Baka Rabati), they began to develop a strategy to help immigrant artists across a broad area of southern Jerusalem, from Talbiyeh to Talpiot, have opportunities to exhibit and meet one another.
Baka Artists’ Community
The result is the new Baka Artists’ Community, whose first group exhibition took place on November 1 at the Greater Baka Community Center’s spacious multipurpose room, renovated from their former library.
Scemama describes the center as a place where residents can propose ideas, not merely sign up for classes. “People come to express a need, people come to offer a service,” Scemama explained, adding: “The center’s approach is to listen to what residents need and what they can contribute.”
Since June, Chaskalovic has devoted her time to gathering artists and organizing activities. The group consists mostly of immigrants from the United States, alongside members from France and Brazil, Israeli artists, and Chaskalovic herself, a ceramic artist. Men and women participate. Longtime olim exhibit alongside newcomers. Chaskalovic provides translation in French and English.
“The problem is that they don’t know curators, and curators don’t know them,” Chaskalovic said of newcomers trying to enter the local art scene. “So it’s a [closed] circle. They feel alone. They can’t break in.” Renting space, navigating exhibition requirements, and finding professional contacts can be daunting, she notes, especially for artists who have not yet built networks in Israel.
“Organizing a group exhibition involves more than asking artists to bring pictures. Someone has to establish a theme, gather information and images, decide what can fit in the available space, invite the public, and coordinate the installation,” she added.
The community’s first exhibition, held Sunday, November 1, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., brought together 10 artists selected by Chaskalovic. The landscape theme embraced a wide range of styles and media. Tamra Walker photographs the sublime in a Dead Sea sunset ablaze with orange light. Matan Sacofsky turns his attention to the rooftops and intimate architecture of a Jerusalem neighborhood. Rochie Usprich paints a waterfall and refreshing greenery, while Bonnie Katzenstein notices the solitary charm of a garden staircase.
Other works move further from conventional landscape. Rikki Rose Horowitz’s abstract colors draw on her lifetime work as an energy healer and her knowledge of Kabbalah. Sarah Rose’s exuberant collage is a delight to the senses with its dynamic forms, rich colors, and patterns. The range of art makes the point: there is no single way to see a place, or to make art about living here in Israel.
The 10 exhibiting artists drew enough friends, family, and visitors to fill the former library. Exhibitor Horowitz described an atmosphere of camaraderie rather than competition. The exhibition was open for one evening only, a test of the center’s facilities for future shows. With limited wall space, artists displayed their work on easels and tables, and everything had to be taken home at the end of the evening.
The limitations made the evening an interesting test of what a neighborhood community center like Minhal Kehilati Baka Rabati can offer artists. A gallery may provide established systems for hanging, publicity, and supervision; a community center can offer a different advantage – an accessible introduction to neighbors who might never visit a conventional gallery but simply drop by for their ulpan or exercise class.
“I think it was very successful in terms of the turnout. I would do it again,” added Horowitz, who now serves as a volunteer founding member of the Baka Artists’ Community committee. She described artists admiring one another’s work, offering encouragement, and helping each other make the most of the limited display space.
For collage artist Rose, the evening was a first opportunity to show her work publicly. “I’ve never shown anyone what I’ve done before,” she said. “It’s so nice to get their reaction. It motivates me to show more.” She felt her work had been received and appreciated as she intended.
Chaskalovic is clear that this is not a commercial gallery. She encourages the group members to give talks, lead art workshops, share contacts, and propose outings. Chaskalovic also wants more established Israeli artists to mentor newcomers, sharing their experiences and approaches to making art. “The aim is also that they don’t feel alone,” Chaskalovic said. “They can feel that they can speak, they can exchange.”
Jerusalem Artists Circle: Keeping the connections alive
Jerusalem Artists Circle (JAC) was founded by painter and art teacher Leorah Parker, who similarly lives in the Baka area.
Prior to making aliyah in 2010, Parker had run a successful gallery and studio in Old Town Manassas, Virginia, served on juries, and knew what it took to organize shows and bring people together. “Yet in Jerusalem, I found that the local art world could be difficult to navigate,” she explained.
Without a permanent space until now, she describes JAC as a free, informal network for artists, photographers, and people who love art to meet informally and for exhibitions. “Our membership has always included men and women, and the JAC’s appeal extends beyond Jerusalem to other parts of Israel,” she said, adding: “Inviting art lovers as well as art makers is deliberate: artists need audiences, conversations and potential buyers.”
Parker is equally candid about the difficulties of breaking into the art world. Parker’s paintings of Jerusalem are both atmospheric and capture a romantic view of the city she’s called home for more than 15 years. The Moon Over Yehuda finds a quiet moment beneath a moonlit sky and palm tree. In Promenade in Arnona, a woman rests beside a tree and the familiar stone of Jerusalem. “I don’t think we’re left out on purpose. But often we don’t know what to ask for or where to go. I look forward to connecting with this new group in Baka,” she said.
Despite not having a permanent brick-and-mortar home for JAC, Parker has arranged exhibitions, lectures, artist evenings, films, gallery and museum visits, and cultural excursions, and, for a watershed upcoming birthday, invited JAC friends to join her in a hot air balloon adventure over Afula.
Over the summer, Parker organized A Common Thread at the Jerusalem Theatre, bringing together Jay Avilev, Jack Pillemer, Estelle Reingold, Carol Racklin-Siegel, and herself. Though their styles and media differed, she saw their shared involvement in JAC as the thread connecting them.
“Finding places to exhibit takes persistence,” she explained. The Jerusalem Theatre and Jerusalem Cinematheque are among the venues where she has helped bring artists’ work before the public. “These events do not simply appear on a calendar; someone has to make the calls, gather the artists, and see the arrangements through,” she said.
Parker points out that help and advice can come from many sources, including relationships artists establish with printers. “A conversation I had with Jerusalem Fine Art Prints prompted me to think about marketing beyond Israel. If you’re going to reproduce your paintings and drawings to the highest archival quality, you need contacts and guidance that go beyond making the work itself,” she said.
At Li Bama: Making room for women’s talents
Hanna Partouche, a French-born dancer and cultural producer, founded At Li Bama to offer artistic opportunities to other women like herself following a halachic way of life. Rather than wait for an existing institution to provide them, she began producing events herself.
At Li Bama brings together religious women to collaborate in theater, dance, music, and the visual arts. She notes that a singer or dancer looking for a stage has different practical needs from a painter looking for wall space. “But both need people who understand their work and will help it reach an audience,” Partouche said.
Unlike the other two groups, At Li Bama is a multidisciplinary arts organization with its own professional theater rehearsal room in the former National Library building at Hebrew University’s Givat Ram campus. Its roots are in theater, dance, and music; expanding into fine art exhibitions is a relatively new direction, opening opportunities for painters, photographers, and other visual artists to develop professionally alongside women who share a devoted Torah way of life. Visual art exhibitions are coordinated with photographer Esther Lasry.
Lasry’s bird photographs stretch the way we can think about halachic art. “Contemplating nature deepens our faith and awakens our gratitude in Hashem,” she explains. One can almost hear Lasry’s migrating birds: one moment a noisy gathering, then another, the stillness just before dawn, when you could hear a pin drop in the Hula Valley in northern Israel.
The visual artists associated with At Li Bama work in many forms. Among them is Raquel Sanchez, whose intuitive, atmospheric landscapes have earned recognition in the Israeli art world. Sanchez’s Redemption depicts a moonlit sea with a powerful sense of both movement and comfort. Ann Ruth Facktorovich’s paper collage, What Connects Us, is an assembly of family photographs, writing, and fragments of memory. Their work sits alongside the organization’s performances and productions, offering visitors a sense of just how varied its artistic community is.
That range matters to an audience, Partouche points out. Someone who attends a performance may discover a photographer or painter through the same organization; an exhibition visitor may become curious about its theater and dance productions. For artists, meeting women from other disciplines can open unexpected collaborations. “I want artists to develop professionally as well as creatively. Meetings address subjects that can be difficult to master alone, such as how to price work, promote an event, understand copyright, and make useful contacts. The organization is also working to strengthen relationships with cultural and municipal institutions.”
Partouche is equally passionate about what professional recognition means. “If we do art for ourselves, it’s good,” she said. “But a professional is when you have an audience.” She recalls taking a theater production to a very haredi community where some women were seeing live theater for the first time. They arrived with popcorn and chocolates, expecting something like a movie, and afterward asked her to bring more performances.
She challenges the impression that haredi women spend their days at home baking challah. “They are very active. They go out. They do things,” she said. Partouche believes that when women take time to attend a show and enjoy art, they return home feeling better about themselves, and their families benefit too.
For Partouche, religious observance and creativity are not competing demands. “We believe women can bring spirit to their art through halacha,” she said. “I think it brings kedusha [sanctity].” Her motto is “Think positive. Act.”
Partouche adds that the work also has a spiritual purpose: “My purpose is to bring geula,” she said, referring to redemption. “The merit of the woman brings the geula, and this is my belief. This is what I do.”
There is a useful lesson here for artists who are waiting until they have a complete portfolio, the right contact, or an ideal exhibition space. None of these initiatives began with every resource in place. They grew because someone made a first approach, invited others in, and kept going. The next step for a hesitant artist may be as intuitive as contacting one of the organizers, attending a meeting, making new friends, and getting inspired.
Liane Wakabayashi is a Haifa-based writer, artist, and founder of Genesis Art Workshops, established in Japan in 2000 and in Israel in 2017. For details about Genesis Art, see: www.genesiscards.com
Learn more
Greater Baka Artists’ Community: Following its November 1 inaugural exhibition, the group is planning a second three-hour show on Sunday, December 13, from 6 to 9 p.m., exploring Hebrew letters, sacred language, and connections to
Judaism. Artists living in Greater Baka – including Baka, Talpiot, Arnona, Abu Tor, Katamon, the Greek Colony, and Talbiyeh – can inquire about submitting work by WhatsApp to Rikki Rose Horowitz at 053-467-0768.
For artists’ inquiries about joining future exhibitions, contact Horowitz. For general information about the Baka Community
Council artists’ group, contact Arielle Scemama: 054-204-8476 or Anat Chaskalovic: 054-662-6245.
To join the Jerusalem Artists Circle, a network of 700 artists, photographers, and art lovers: Facebook.com/groups/JerusalemArtistsCircle.
At Li Bama is located in The Social Space (Floor -1), Old National Library (Building 11), Hebrew University, Givat Ram, Jerusalem. It offers professional membership to women 18 or older with relevant artistic education or at least five years’ experience. For more details about events and current membership requirements:
www.atlibama.org | 050-642-2119 | atlibama@gmail.com
– L.W.
Source: The Jerusalem Post · LIANE WAKABAYASHI
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