Abraham and Ephraim Moshe Lilien

(posted originally on 11/22/2011)

Ephraim Moshe Lilien (1874-1925) was a Viennese artist and the 'official' illustrator of the Zionist Movement. Below is a postcard he produced in 1910. According to this website Lilien visited Palestine in the 1890's and took many photographs of the people and landscape. He used these to produce work back in Europe. (You can see other works by clicking here).

 

 

 The one Jody showed yesterday (above) was produced for the 5th Zionist Congress, which took place in Basel, Switzerland in 1901. The Hebrew inscription at the bottom is the prayer “May our eyes behold your return in mercy to Zion.”

 

And here is Lilien's beautiful, 1908 "Abraham":

                                                                       

The Lord said to Abram, "Go Yourself from your land, your birthland, and from your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless you and curse him that curses you; And all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you." Abram went forth as the Lord had commanded him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.                                   Chapter 12. Verses 1-4

Just for fun click HERE to access wikipedia's page about Lilien

Our fist meeting

(posted originally on 11/20/2011)

Our first official meeting took place on Monday, November 7 at the JCC. Most of the artist came, but we're still looking for a couple more who would want to join in this journey. During our time together this week, everyone shared who they are in very general terms. We hope that we will discover more about each other as we start learning, talking and sharing.

We also talked about the possibility of visiting the JMKAC in Sheboygan to view the exhibit "Hiding Places: Memory in the Arts".

Click HERE to go to the show's website

Our NEXT MEETING is scheduled take place at the JCC on Monday, November 21. Each participating artist was asked to bring ONE WORK THEY HAVE CREATED. Any size/media. The choice and format is yours: Bring the actual work, a photograph, drawing, painting, slide, or digital image of it.

Here are answers to some of the questions that came up:
Only ONE work? Yes, only one.
Would one poem or one book constitute one work? That's up to you.
How can I choose only one? Well, that's also up to you. Be mindful of what you choose. You'll be asked to talk about the reasons for your particular choice: What does this choice say about you as an artist? As a person?

START WANDERING

(posted originally on 11/20/2011)

The theme for the 2011 - 2012 program year is: Wandering. 

How is this theme expressed in traditional Jewish texts, in the Jewish experience, in the arts, in values, in the Jewish collective, and among individual Jews? 

Is examination of the theme of wandering relevant to Jew and non-Jew; to religious and non-religious; to the community and to the individual; to the artist and the non-artist? 

The spring exhibit/showcase will present work of the participating artists relevant to the year’s theme.

Here we go!

(posted originally on 11/20/2011)

The Milwaukee Jewish Artists’ Lab

The Harry & Rose Samson Jewish Community Center, Milwaukee, along with the Sabes JCC, Minneapolis, and University of Wisconsin Hillel, Madison, Wisconsin, are addressing the need to broaden the impact of the arts in helping Jewish artists as well as Jews in the regional Jewish Community at large to find meaning, community, identity and spirituality through the arts. For many Jews, the traditional approaches to Jewish life are no longer meaningful, and the arts can serve as a common denominator among Jews regardless of their degree of belief, cultural literacy or religious affiliation. In addition, as a result of the current economic climate, there is an increasing need for institutions like ours to form partnerships across geographical and institutional lines. During the 2011/2012 program year, this project will unfold in Milwaukee alone, and will expand to Madison and Minneapolis in the following years.

The Regional Artists’ Laboratory seeks to enrich two populations in our region: artists who may or may not already be drawn to art as an expression of their Jewish identity, and the Jewish public at large. We seek to create two interrelated programs: 1) An Artists’ Laboratory in which artists will combine the study of Jewish texts, both the traditional and the non-traditional, with their own creation of works of art that intersect with those texts, and 2) An Artists-in-Residence program for emerging artists which will interact with both the Laboratory and the Jewish Community at large. Both of these aspects of the program would connect with an annual exhibit/showcase for the artists’ work. In all cases, we seek artists in the broadest sense of the word: visual, theatrical, musical, textural, literary, etc.