Oasis 2019 by Skirball Cultural Center

Credit

Detail of Notorious RBG gallery by Ben Gibbs

OUR MISSION The Skirball Cultural Center is a place of meeting guided by the Jewish tradition of welcoming the stranger and inspired by the American democratic ideals of freedom and equality. We welcome people of all communities and generations to participate in cultural experiences that celebrate discovery and hope, foster human connections, and call upon us to help build a more just society.

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SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER BOARD OF TRUSTEES Peter M. Weil, c hairman Uri D. Herscher,

founding president and ceo

Arthur H. Bilger, v ice chairman Richard S. Hollander, vice chairman

Lee Ramer, v ice chairman Howard M. Bernstein Martin Blackman Philip de Toledo Howard I. Friedman, founding chairman

Melvin Gagerman Marc H. Gamsin Jeffrey L. Glassman Dana Guerin Vera Guerin Dennis F. Holt Robert C. Kopple Marlene Louchheim Orin Neiman Cindy Ruby Ken Ruby Jay S. Wintrob Susan Hirsch Wohl D. Zeke Zeidler Marvin Zeidler John Ziffren

Skirball Cultural Center 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90049 skirball.org

Timothy Norris

(310) 440-4500

IN THIS ISSUE Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Message

Justice, Justice You Shall Pursue

To Gather with Purpose

Across Three Generations Profiles in Courage

Nourishment for Body and Spirit Free to Be

Treasuring Our Shared Humanity Investing in the Future

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Visitors on opening night of the exhibition Black Is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite, organized by Aperture Foundation, New York, and Kwame S. Brathwaite. All photographs featured are by the artist. skirball.org

Mercie Ghimire

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

In our core exhibition, Visions and Values: Jewish Life from Antiquity to America, a stone arch overlooks a mosaic pavement reproduced from an ancient synagogue near Tiberias, in the north of Israel. The dramatic contour of the stone arch is echoed by the concrete and steel of the museum roofline behind it. The two shapes complement and beautify each other. They invite us to behold the past and present at once and to recognize the inextricable link between the two. This perspective is in keeping with the Skirball’s appreciation of history and heritage, legacy and learning. We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us—forebears and elders, teachers and mentors, whose ideas and ideals have illuminated our paths. The Skirball is committed to restoring these foundations laid long ago—our memories and experiences and the cherished values passed down to us across the millennia. Every day I am mindful of those who preceded or coincided with my own life’s journey and to whom I am forever indebted. I include the writers of the biblical text, in whose words I find daily inspiration; the grandparents I never met, whose blessings live in my heart; the great philanthropist Jack Skirball, after whom this institution is lovingly named; and the countless thinkers, artists, writers, neighbors, friends, family, and even a few strangers whose care and wisdom have sustained me in all my endeavors. In this issue of Oasis, we highlight just a few of the ways that the Skirball’s exhibitions and programs honor the past so that we can shape the future for the better. As you enjoy the stories and photographs, I encourage you to consider how your own life story rests upon foundations laid before your birth and how you, too, might influence generations to come. May we all build upon the memory and legacy of the past, and may it help us to fulfill the promise of our future.

Uri D. Herscher Founding President and Chief Executive Officer Skirball Cultural Center

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JUSTICE, JUSTICE YOU SHALL PURSUE

Notorious RBG illuminates who and what inspired the trailblazer in her pursuit of a more just society.

Like the bestselling book upon which it was based, the exhibition Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg traced two narratives: the justice’s singular biography and the broader efforts she joined to fulfill the promise of American democracy for all. On opening night of the exhibition, Notorious RBG coauthor and public defender Shana Knizhnik contended there was good reason for RBG’s status as cultural icon: “She’s someone who earned the crown of notoriety long before I named a Tumblr in her name… a woman who not only has power but uses it to help other people.” Knizhnik’s co-author, journalist Irin Carmon, added, “We wanted to tell the story of an extraordinary person and figure out what drove her to fight so unflinchingly, well into her eighties. We wanted to put her life into the context of the longer history of our country, of our courts, and of the evolution of the Constitution.” As exhibition visitors came to learn, RBG found inspiration early in life, growing up in a loving Jewish home in a working-class immigrant neighborhood

Mercie Ghimire

In her first brief for the Supreme Court—for the case known as Reed v. Reed, 1971—attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment should apply to women’s equality. It wasn’t a strategy RBG had devised, and she insisted on giving credit where it was due. On the brief’s cover page, she named as co-authors the civil rights advocates and lawyers Dorothy Kenyon and Pauli Murray. “We’re standing on their shoulders,” the justice later explained. Ever mindful of how progress is achieved over time, she knew she was carrying on the pioneering work and deeply held values of those who came before her.

in Brooklyn. The teachings of Judaism had a profound influence on the schoolgirl’s worldview. “Kiki,” as she was nicknamed, relished asking questions during the Passover Seder, and she enjoyed Hebrew school, where she learned about strong women of the Bible, like the prophet Deborah. She became keenly aware of the intersection between Jewish values and American democratic ideals. On view in the gallery was a paper that the future justice wrote in eighth grade. It examined the “fine ideals and principles” of the Ten Commandments and the Declaration of Independence, among other seminal texts. Also on view was an article she had contributed to a local Jewish bulletin positing that society is better off when we combat prejudice and strive for the common good. At a young age, Ruth Bader was laying the foundation for her life’s work.

Above: Expressing their fandom for RBG, visitors tried on robes and jabots for the popular photo op behind the gallery’s Supreme Court bench recreation. Facing page: The now-iconic Notorious RBG book cover illustration by Adam Johnson, courtesy of HarperCollins. skirball.org

As she headed to college, Ruth continued to pose questions and seek answers. She found good teachers along the way. At Cornell University, constitutional law professor Robert E. Cushman—whom she hailed as “a conscience raiser”—taught her what was at stake in the Cold War and the Red Scare. Bearing witness to the resistance to McCarthyism, Ruth began to view lawyers as vanguards for justice. “I got the idea that being a lawyer was a pretty good thing,” she thought, “because in addition to practicing a profession, you could do something good for your society.” After law school, as she and her beloved husband, “Marty,” forged a life together, RBG encountered workplace anti-Semitism and gender-based prejudice. Law firms rejected her, and clerkships eluded her. Nevertheless she put her intellect and character to good use. Making the best of every opportunity that wasn’t withheld from her, RBG developed her incremental strategy for achieving, in her words, “the equal citizenship stature of men and women.” Groundbreaking thinkers like Simone de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan were an inspiration. So too were eye-opening experiences like a research trip to Sweden, where she was exposed to a society further along than the US in confronting gender inequality. Eventually RBG founded the Women’s Rights Project, a feminist spinoff of the American Civil Liberties Union, which tackled sex-based discrimination in various arenas of public life. She brought six cases to the Supreme Court … and won five of them. This was a period of high accomplishment for RBG, but she

Courtroom sketch by Art Lien of RBG’s dissent in Shelby County v. Holder, 2013, one of several landmark Supreme Court cases featured in the exhibition for which RBG delivered oral arguments, majority opinions, or forceful dissents.

“Camp Rabbi” Ruth at Camp Che-Na-Wah in the Adirondacks, 1948, from the Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States.

understood it as a communal tour de force—one that spoke to the brilliance of many legal minds, past and present, and to the power of their shared commitment to protecting the rights of ever more Americans. As the exhibition emphasized, RBG owed a debt to those who had paved the way for her—in particular her mentor Pauli Murray, the activist, educator, lawyer, Episcopal priest, and poet-novelist she had credited in the Reed brief. The exhibition also placed RBG against the backdrop of women’s history—from the suffrage movement of a century ago to the campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, which was well underway as RBG litigated equality with unprecedented success. With great discipline, she joined her voice to a chorus that had long been calling for equal protection under the law. As RBG took her place behind the bench—eventually becoming the second woman ever appointed to the United States Supreme Court—she brought more than her sharp legal mind and illustrious career. She also brought the values she had cultivated throughout her life and applied to her public service. When asked what informs her perspectives, she has acknowledged the richness of her

Ben Gibbs

experiences:“That I’m a woman, that’s part of it; that I’m Jewish, that’s part of it; that I grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and I went to summer camp in the Adirondacks, all these things are part of me.” RBG has also harked back to the biblical text, to an ancient commandment that carries far-reaching implications for democracy worldwide. On a poster in her Supreme Court chambers, these words greet all who enter: Justice, justice you shall pursue. They are a powerful reminder of Justice Ginsburg’s vital duty—a mandate passed down to all of us, from generation to generation.

Top: RBG and her husband, fellow lawyer Martin “Marty” Ginsburg, in 1972, from the Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States. Their decades-long story of love and equal partnership was an inspiration to visitors. Above: More than 1,100 middle and high school students visited the exhibition on field trips to learn about RBG’s role in the expansion of civil rights and the role models who preceded and inspired her.

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TO GATHER WITH

PURPOSE

A morning of poetry, music, and discourse sparks a recommitment to civic engagement.

Farah Sosa

Many months before the midterm elections of 2018, Skirball programmers knew what they wanted to present come November: a chance to break free from the relentless news cycle, think beyond partisan politics, and come together around what unites us. To create this opportunity, the team turned to Civic Saturday, an innovative model for connecting friends and strangers and nurturing a spirit of common purpose as fellow Americans.

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Eric Liu, pictured on the facing page, was the keynote speaker at the Skirball’s Civic Saturday, where attendees sang, listened, and reflected upon what it takes to become Americans who are “steeped in a sense of civic character, educated in the tools of civic power, and are problemsolving contributors in a self-governing community.”

Civic Saturday is an event series founded by Citi-

the audience to think about the responsibilities of

culture of powerful, responsible citizenship across the

read excerpts from a speech Abraham Lincoln delivered

zen University, an organization dedicated to building a country. Structured like a traditional worship service,

Civic Saturday convenes people for songs, readings, and even a sermon—all designed to promote civic engagement and rekindle our faith in the promise

of democracy. “We see it as a salve for the civic soul,” explained Citizen University’s Kayla DeMonte, as she

citizenship across the centuries. One audience member in 1838, in which the president warned of threats to the republic. Another audience member recited a poem writ-

ten almost two hundred years later: Elizabeth Alexander’s “Praise Song for the Day,” about how everyday Americans have made this nation what it is.

Eric Liu took the podium for his “civic sermon,”

greeted Skirball visitors to LA’s first Civic Saturday in

titled “Faith in Each Other.” In this keynote address,

and rededicate ourselves to the common values and

exploration of topics both timely and timeless—from

the fall of 2018. “[It’s] a place to gather face to face … practices of being an American.” This was just days af-

ter the hotly contested elections. With the state of the

union on everyone’s mind, the congregation, so to speak, took their seats for an hour of reflection and renewal. In lieu of an opening prayer, the service began with

poetry and folk music. West Coast Youth Poet Laureate

Mila Cuda read a poem she wrote in response to the Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations. Her

words were a clarion call to act on behalf of human

rights: “Let us diminish the dim / and bring forth bright-

the Citizen University co-founder led a soul-stirring the question of “settled law” during the age of slavery to the historic diversity of the newly elected 116th Con-

gress. Drawing on the wise words and diligent efforts

of change makers throughout history, Liu made an

impassioned case for developing our own civic creed: “The antidote to law without values is having values. The cure for power without character is cultivating

character …. Justice is not an outcome; it is a perpetual effort to set things right.”

As Civic Saturday came to a close and the audience

ness.” Artist-activist Marisa Martínez led the group in a

prepared for open dialogue on how to live as engaged

Your Land,” bringing life to Woody Guthrie’s lyrics about

democracy worth believing in by believing in it—and

rousing rendition of the American classic “This Land Is our shared claim to the American dream.

Readings of two great American texts—or “civic

scripture,” as Citizen University likes to call them—moved

citizens, Liu offered parting words, “We make American

then by organizing in small circles of citizens to bring those beliefs to life …. Have values. Make choices. Pass the baton. Your country is counting on you.”

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Mercie Ghimire

ACROSS THREE GENERATIONS

On view at the Skirball last winter, the recreation of Sara Berman’s one-of-a-kind closet was complemented by twelve new paintings by her daughter Maira Kalman that depict pivotal scenes in Sara’s life—from growing up in Belarus to living life to the fullest dressed in her allwhite apparel. Above left: Maira Kalman, Sara Berman on the Terrace in Rome with Bougainvillea, 2018. Above right: Maira Kalman, In the River “My Favorite Things,” 2014. Both paintings gouache on paper. © Maira Kalman. Courtesy Julie Saul Gallery, New York.

At the age of sixty, after spending years raising her

family, Sara Berman (1920–2004) left Tel Aviv with one suitcase. She moved into a studio apartment in New

York City and began to live life on her own terms. One morning, in another burst of independence, she began

to wear only white, storing her garments in a meticu-

lously organized closet. With the same loving care with which Sara arranged her belongings, acclaimed artists Maira Kalman and Alex Kalman—Sara’s daughter and

grandson, respectively—have recreated their beloved matriarch’s cherished closet in celebration of how we can

all build order out of chaos and create a life of beauty and meaning. At the Skirball, visitors to the exhibition

Sara Berman’s Closet delighted in this story of reinvention and the labor of love across three generations. “It

doesn’t feel like Maira and I are making something about Sara because Sara really made it,” Alex Kalman told the

Los Angeles Times. “I really feel like it’s a collaboration between Sara, Maira, and myself.”

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PROFILES IN Schoolchildren unpack what people brought to America in their suitcases and in their hearts.

About 100 years ago, as war waged on around them, Reva Nebrat and her family fled northern Ukraine and took passage to the United States. In a suitcase they packed a few photos, Reva’s favorite doll, and Shabbat candlesticks, among other meaningful belongings. How do you think they felt as they made this voyage? What would you bring if you were moving to a new land? These are just some of the questions posed to Grade 5 students during the Skirball’s Americans and Their Family Stories school tour—an immersive program that links our unique journeys to one another and to American lives across time.

During the acclaimed school tour Americans and Their Family Stories, Grade 5 students learn about true-life immigrants Reva Nebrat of Russia and Jose Antonio Vargas of the Philippines (pictured above in color).

COURAGE Today’s class was visiting from Peter Burnett Elementary School in Hawthorne. After a warm welcome by Skirball staff, the group convened in the core exhibition, Visions and Values: Jewish Life from Antiquity to America. Oriented right away to the topic of the day, the students were asked why some people leave their homelands in the first place. One by one they revealed a strong awareness of the circumstances, incentives, dreams, and realities that drive the movement of populations around the globe. “To get a job,” replied a child standing in the front. “Because they want to vote?” proposed a classmate nearby. Two others raised their hands eagerly. “Maybe they have

a bad ruler in their own country,” suggested one of them, while the other explained, “So they can be back with their families.” Keeping in mind the many reasons for migration worldwide, the class approached the exhibition’s awe-inspiring replica of the Statue of Liberty torch. Here the students began to role-play a particular American immigration experience: that of European Jews arriving at New York Harbor at the turn of the twentieth century. “Let’s go back in time to 1908,” announced the lead docent on the tour, as she helped the kids get into character. Together the “passengers” boarded a ship, waved goodbye to loved ones, and

The students also explore composite narratives based on the experiences of people who came to the US—by choice, by need, or by force—from Gambia, China, Mexico, and Vietnam. skirball.org

Lindsey Best Lindsey Best

Through objects, storytelling, role play, and conversation, students consider how new Americans adapt, overcome challenges, and find opportunity in their new homeland.

endured weeks of arduous travel. Costumed in shawls and vests reminiscent of the era, the students imagined catching sight of Lady Liberty on the horizon. As they re-enacted the process of inspection on Ellis Island, the historical moment came to life and students expanded upon what they knew about US immigration. Feelings of great empathy took hold of the student-actors. Some of them played characters who were granted easy entry into America, so they identified with the thrill of freedom and opportunity. “I made it!” exclaimed one student, who was among those who could pretend to pursue new beginnings upon arrival. By contrast, other “passengers” were questioned extensively about their health, literacy, and job prospects. “It was sad to be separated from my parents,” noted one student, whose character was quarantined due to illness.“How long would they have to wait?” asked another student, upon learning that women and girls could not enter unless claimed by a male relative. Around the gallery, the students reflected upon the triumphs and tribulations that characterize so many stories of Ellis Island. As they came to understand, it was an island of hope but also one of tears.

Lindsey Best

Throughout the school tour, staff educators help students recognize the commonalities and differences between family stories across different times, geographic locations, and cultures.

As the school tour continued, Skirball educators told the stories of several first- and second-generation American Jews, such as German-born entrepreneur Levi Strauss, Polish-born labor union leader Rose Schneiderman, and Reva Nebrat and her family, who came to the US in the wake of the Russian Revolution. Turning to a suitcase prop filled with the kinds of things the Nebrats brought with them, the docent asked students what they would bring if they had to flee their homes. Not unlike Reva’s family, the students chose objects of comfort and sustenance, such as a teddy bear and fresh water. “We took more than just things though,” reminded the docent, who played the role of Reva herself. “We took our intelligence, courage in our hearts, and hope that we’d have better lives once we reached America. That is how we really survived.” During the final portion of Americans and Their Family Stories, the class moved beyond the narrative of European Jewish immigration to explore composite stories of people from different times and places. They learned that Aduke was forcibly transported to America from Gambia and sold into slavery in 1830. Lee-Yao emigrated from China in 1948 during the Gold Rush, while Refugio found safe haven from the Mexican Revolution in 1912. Tuyen fled Vietnam on a boat in 1974 and was rescued on the high seas by the US Navy. Much more

recently, Jose was brought from the Philippines as a child in 1993 and only much later found out he was undocumented. Each story was represented by a suitcase of its own, packed with props that illustrate aspects of the person’s particular journey. Split up into five groups, the class opened each suitcase and examined what lay therein. One group looked at the kind of map Refugio might have used to cross the border. A student tried on a “Made in America” jacket similar to the one Jose wore on the flight from Manila. A statue of Buddha in the Tuyen suitcase prompted students to consider why a religious object might be important enough to carry across the miles. “Maybe all they had left were their prayers,” they wondered. As the field trip came to a close, the fifth graders gathered in a circle to share what they took away from the experience. For several of them, learning about the harrowing challenges faced by past generations taught them “to have gratitude.” Others drew inspiration from the persistence of those seeking a brighter future, saying, “Their hard work must have paid off.” From the other side of the room, a group of classmates called out a lasting lesson for everyone: “When you think you can’t do something, you should think of people who fought hard before,” they concluded, “ then have the courage not to give up.” skirball.org

NOURISHMENT

Farah Sosa

FOR BODY AND SPIRIT

A holiday celebration beckons us to learn from the past and take action today. On a pleasant Friday night in early April, friends and families arrived at the Skirball to find tables elegantly set with matzah, haroset, and beitzahâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;just some of the traditional ceremonial foods of the Passover Seder. The holiday was still many days away, but all who came were ready to break bread, reflect upon the age-old story of the Exodus, and connect it to the experiences of those who have found safe haven right here in LA.

As the guests took their seats, Rabbi Sarah Bassin

of Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills greeted the crowd. In her address, she explored the themes of hope, freedom, and redemption that are central to Passover—the seven-day festival that commemorates the deliverance of the ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Rabbi

Bassin stressed the holiday’s lasting significance: “It is not enough to tell the story of the past. We know that

there is still work to be done [and] we vow that this year we will work harder for all to be free.”

nered with an esteemed organization that also lives

by the tradition of welcoming the stranger and works

hard on behalf of those seeking freedom. Founded in 2016, Miry’s List supports refugee families who have

fled violence and persecution in their home countries and are in the process of establishing new homes for

themselves in America. Miry’s List also organizes New

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To drive this message home, the Skirball part-

More than 100 guests gathered for the dinner and storytelling program Let My People Come.

Following the meal, Evan Kleiman, host of KCRW’s

Arrival Supper Clubs, which give newly arrived families a

Good Food, took the stage with Chef Abeer and Abeer’s

culture through food.

Mother and son relayed the many hardships one encoun-

chance to earn money, meet neighbors, and share their Tonight’s gathering was the first Passover-themed

dinner in the New Arrival Supper Clubs program. Behind

the scenes, Abeer Aljrafi, a Miry’s List client from Syria, had prepared a sumptuous menu of Syrian dishes, includ-

ing fattoush salad and beef kibbeh. Around the room, the guests savored each bite, feasting not only on the

cuisine but also on the sense of community. Several of the attendees had chosen to host new arrivals to dine

with them—a gesture in keeping with the spirit of a Seder, where everyone is welcome at the table.

son, Nasser, who have been living in the US since 2016. ters as a refugee, from finding an apartment in a matter

of weeks to the long process of learning a new language. Nasser reminded the audience, “When we leave our countries, we aren’t leaving it because we want to, but

because we’re forced to.” Abeer and Nasser continue

to feel lost at times, but food helps to ground them by serving as a bridge between cultures and people.

While enjoying an array of halva donated by

Hebel & Co, guests of diverse backgrounds expressed

how much they valued sharing the Passover-inspired

meal with one another. “It was a bonding experience,” said one attendee, who was moved by the stories of both the speakers and those seated at her table. As

conversations continued around the tables, a message on the stage reminded one and all that Passover has

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always been about more than the past: spelled out in

Facing page: Chef Abeer Aljrafi, together with dinner guests. Above: At the buffet line, guests conversed with Miry Whitehill (pictured on the left), founder of Miry’s List.

large wooden block letters were the Arabic words ana

huna, or I am here. Indeed, as this program illustrated, the season of Passover is an occasion not only to recount an ancient tale, but also a calling to step into

the present and imagine how we can secure a more free and safe world for all.

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FREE TO BE Rudi Gernreich passed down a style statement for the ages: “You are what you decide you want to be.”

Larry Sandez

When asked about the American style icon and his friend Rudi Gernreich, the artist Ed Ruscha observed, “He borrowed from the future if that is possible.” Through his experimental design work, Gernreich gestured to a world yet to be—one in which women (and men) could dress, move, and live without constraint. This vision was at once forward-thinking and rooted in history: having escaped persecution, Rudi Gernreich championed freedom for all.

The first exhibition to focus on his social consciousness, Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich was more than a display of clothing. It shed light on how the fashion designer best known for his controversial “monokini” came to develop his worldview. Born in Vienna in 1922, Rudolf Gernreich grew up as Adolf Hitler rose to power. In 1938, upon the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany, sixteen-year-old Rudi left for America with his mother. Like many Jews of the twentieth century, he escaped danger and oppression in Europe. It was up to him to decide what to do with this gift of freedom. New to Los Angeles, Gernreich encountered antiSemitism and homophobia; but he found sanctuary in the performing arts world and the nascent gay rights movement. The Lester Horton Dance Company—a cutting-edge troupe that addressed urgent topics such as police brutality and racial discrimination—brought out the dancer in Gernreich and introduced him to the power of connecting art to activism. Years later, another community welcomed him into the fold: the Mattachine Society, an advocacy group dedicated to supporting the gay community and “contributing to the reform of judicial, police, and penal practices.” Risking his personal safety and emerging career, Gernreich signed on as a founding member. As the exhibition contends, these experiences of finding common cause informed Gernreich’s ambition to use his platform for good. During his heyday, in the 1960s and 1970s, he created womenswear that spoke to calls for equality. Devoid of underwiring, padding, or boning, a Gernreich swimsuit assumed that a woman, like a man, should enjoy ease of movement and be celebrated for the body as it is, not as it is expected to look. By retailing skirts for men, pantsuits for women, and caftans for the whole family, he rejected the practice of typecasting on the basis of gender. He reached out instead for what he called “our common humanity.” Over the years, in response to major societal concerns like the Vietnam War and gun violence, Gernreich put forth collections that were about much more than another outfit. “I would not be in this if that were the only thing required of me,” he explained.

Fulfilling a greater responsibility, he expressed his ideals through his clothing. “His medium was fashion, but he really used it to speak about the things that mattered to him,” remarked Humberto Leon, who served as creative adviser to the exhibition and counts himself as one of many fashion designers who look up to Gernreich for his value system. Speaking at the Skirball on the late designer’s lasting influence, Leon and his fellow speakers lauded the ACLU Rudi Gernreich – Oreste Pucciani Endowment Fund, which was established by his life partner, Oreste Pucciani, in Gernreich’s memory. To this day, the fund supports efforts to protect LGBTQ+ rights. As celebrated in the exhibition, Gernreich’s enduring commitment to those who cannot yet live fully and safely as themselves may well be the most important of his legacies. For him, fashion had the power to promote fearlessness. As he himself put it in 1964, “It was about changing culture throughout society, about freedom and emancipation.”

Facing page: The stylish gallery provided the perfect setting to examine Rudi Gernreich as émigré, fashion innovator, and social commentator. Above: Gernreich with models wearing his designs in front of the Watts Towers, ca. 1965. He was a true Angeleno, serving on one of LA Mayor Tom Bradley’s advisory committees to advocate for arts education for the city’s youth. Photograph © William Claxton, LLC, courtesy of Demont Photo Management & Fahey/Klein Gallery Los Angeles, with permission of the Rudi Gernreich trademark. skirball.org

TREASURING OUR

SHARED HUMANITY

Ben Gibbs

Archaeology programs unearth human connections across the millennia.

Above: An exciting discovery in the Archaeology Dig offers friends and family members a chance to bond with one another and with people of the past. Facing page: In the research tent, a staff educator with formal training in archaeology shows a young visitor how to analyze his findings.

Under the sun in July, a group of budding archaeologists spent the day in the sand. Equipped with shovels, brushes, and buckets, they sifted and sorted to unearth objects in the Skirball’s simulated archaeology dig inspired by an Iron Age town called Kiryat Ha Malachim—or “City of Angels” in Hebrew. As the kids struck upon the city wall, temple, olive press, kitchen, and well, they formed an appreciation for what we have in common with peoples of long ago. This summertime pilot program was the latest

expression of the Skirball’s longstanding interest in archaeology as a teaching tool. Since its early days, the

Museum has housed a significant collection of artifacts from the ancient Near East, ranging from coins to clay pots to ceremonial statues. On view in Visions and Values: Jewish Life from Antiquity to America, as well as in the newly refreshed Discovery Center, these treasures

elucidate how ancient peoples—including the Jews—

and leave with a renewed appreciation for what has been passed down to us across the ages. As students dig up reproductions of pilgrims’ flasks or oil lamps of antiquity, they relate them to the water bottles and

flashlights we use today. A jug sparks a conversation

about the timeless human need for water purification, while a cuneiform receipt prompts students to think about the business of accounting, then and now. The

chance to excavate is an eye-opening experience for the

middle schoolers. “Seeing what ancient people used in

their everyday lives made me realize that [they] were the same as us and made me feel like a person from

that time period,” said one recent field trip participant.

In addition to these time-honored offerings,

the Skirball presents an array of newer archaeology programs. Each weekend, the mobile Hands on His-

tory cart invites the public to touch actual artifacts

from 500 BCE. An olive oil tasting is a visitor favorite

at the annual Harvest Festival. In October, during California Archaeology Month, specialists in ancient

ceramics, basketry, and stonework lead participatory demonstrations for families. And most recently, visitors

to the Discovery Center could try on garment styles from ancient Egypt, Bronze Age Israel, and Classical

Greece. Whether digging for sherds or admiring the

craftmanship of a clay pot, visitors of all ages have delighted in the chance to engage with the past—and

discover something new about what connects us to people and ideas that came long before us.

lived, prayed, worked, and communicated and how their customs and beliefs relate to our modern lives today.

To bring the practice of archaeology to life, the

Skirball designed the simulated dig site, where replicas of

collection objects are buried. A popular destination year round, the five shaded sandpits and adjacent research

tent aquaint families with the daily responsibilities of the profession. Using tools of the trade, they uncover and Age history, commerce, religion, and cultural practices.

The dig is now integral to the Archaeology of the

Near East school tour for sixth graders. On field trips

throughout the year, classes explore ancient civilizations

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analyze their findings to present hypotheses about Iron

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INVESTING IN THE FUTURE

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Each year, the Skirball commits to training the next

generation of arts leaders through dynamic internship programs. In the summer of 2019, undergraduates from

across LA County joined the Skirball community as in-

terns on the marketing, curatorial, education, and public programming teams. Guided by seasoned mentors, these

up-and-coming professionals took on projects designed to impart valuable skills and on-the-job experience—from

producing Sunset Concerts to developing promotional

materials to conducting exhibition research. As each year’s interns move on to complete their degrees and pursue careers—several have even returned to the Skir-

ball as full-time staff—they build upon this foundational experience to make their mark in the rich cultural life of LA and beyond.

Rhoda Nazanin

editorial

Mia Cariño, editor Gail Acosta Helen Alonzo Elena Bonomo Kathryn Girard Anna Schwarz design

Picnic Design printing

Timothy Norris

Colornet Press

Lindsey Best

Page 7:

Facing page and above top: The 2019 summer interns pose with their supervisors. Internships made possible by the Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship program, the LA County Arts Internship program, the UCLA Center for Community Learning, and CSUN’s internship program in the department of history.

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