Josh: Six Points is committed to offering applicants feedback, even if we can’t take them as fellows, to help them strengthen their future applications. In LA, our grant information sessions provided a meeting ground for Jewish artists. We learned that regional artists were hungry for a peer community. We’re committed to facilitating these micro-communities where artists can reach out to each other and continue to deepen the Jewish content of their work. Dara: One of my most memorable experiences at the CJM was our inaugural exhibition. We commissioned seven contemporary artists to respond to Bereshit, and the artists—not all of whom were Jewish—met with scholars at JTS in New York to engage in serious text study. They really found it meaningful, and their projects took on different tones after their study. For our “Are We There Yet?” exhibition, we had a couple sessions with scholars and artists to think deeply about Jewish questions. But I have heard some criticisms from people in the local arts community that we are pushing artists to work in a way that they wouldn’t naturally. I definitely take that criticism seriously.
“
Where I see funders often missing a major step is the ‘why.’ Why do we do this work? Why do we care that it’s Jewish? Why do people make Jewish art? Why do people engage with it?
The Jewish Artist’s Initiative (JAI) has had a similar project, an Artists’ Beit Midrash, where various rabbis in the community lead study sessions with our members, in part funded by the Jewish Community Foundation. Some members shared that they always wanted to go to Jewish study groups but felt intimidated because they did not have formal Jewish education as a child. However, being in a room full of artistic peers created a safe place. On the other hand, not as many people created new work as we expected. You can provide the study context, but this will not always generate immediate creation of new works of art. Paige: I know many local communities have Jewish art groups which meet to study and create specific works. Are we guiding our community to create a voice of identity through exploring these concepts and study sessions? What is our role in these situations as innovators and leaders? How we control, steer, and influence the Jewish cultural community to have a conscious voice and speak for themselves is important. As Jewish innovators, we could choose to work together to help the Jewish culture field find a unified voice and shared message of why we do this work. PT Anne Hromadka launched the Nu ART [Insert Jewish Culture Here] Mobile Gallery Project, a fully functional art and educational space set up inside an altered recreational vehicle (RV), as a 2011 Global PresenTense Fellow.
arts & culture presentense.org/magazine
Panel Aaron Bisman co-founded JDub, a notfor-profit forging vibrant connections to Judaism through music, media, and cultural events, and led the organization as President and CEO from inception through 2011. He co-founded the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists, was a Joshua Venture Fellow, and has been recognized by the Forward 50 and the White House as part of Jewish American Heritage Month. Aaron discovered and managed Hasidic Reggae singer Matisyahu and Israeli globetrotting superstars Balkan Beat Box. In 2005, Aaron co-founded Altshul, a traditional egalitarian community in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Paige Dansinger has a master’s in art history and specializes in art that reflects Jewish life. Paige is working on creating JAMM - Jewish Art Museum Mobile, an innovative, globally accessible smartphone Jewish museum including drop pin GPS walking tours and street-corner digital museum experiences at significant Jewish sites. Paige is an internationally known fine artist and designer of restaurants, interiors, and exhibitions. Josh Feldman is the Associate Director of the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists. Passionate about the intersection of art and leadership development, Josh was most recently the Jeremiah Fellowship national director for the Progressive Jewish Alliance. He is an alumnus of the Jeremiah Fellowship and Selah and is a member of the Selah National Leadership Team. He is a co-founder of East Side Jews. Dara Solomon joined the Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) of San Francisco in 2006 to develop the inaugural exhibitions for their Daniel Libeskind-designed building. She has become the curator of the Museum’s exhibition program. Prior, she worked at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, and with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art. She holds an M.A. in arts administration from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a B.A. in religion and art history from the University of Toronto.
presentense.org/magazine issue section fifteen 2011 name
43