Welcome...
to the Jewish Artists' Laboratory, an arts initiative that began through the Sabes Jewish Community Center. The lab explores specific themes through study and art making, bringing together a diverse group of artists who have an interest in the relationship between Jewish thought and creativity. Our topic in 2020-2021 grows out of our current climate: Brokenness and Wholeness. It differs from our past labs in that we are working in a Hevruta style of learning, in partnership with a person of a younger generation. Each month we meet first with the lab and then separately with our partner, each learning from each other. Past topics have included Muddy Waters:Climate Change, the Environment and Jewish text, Crossing the Threshold, Boundaries and Otherness, Wisdom, Water, Light and Text-Context-Subtext. We began the lab with a multi-year grant from the Covenant Foundation and deeply appreciate their generosity in supporting the birth of this gathering. We were part of the Midwest Jewish Artists' Lab, a group of six organizations in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Madison, Kansas City, Chicago and Cleveland. Each group engaged in similar programs on a common theme. Minneapolis is the only site that is still actively meeting as a lab, but the artistic community that developed out of this effort has continued to stay connected more informally in other sites. You can read more about the project eleven years after that first grant in this article from the Covenant Foundation. The original groups that were involved with this effort included The Sabes Jewish Community Center, Minneapolis, The Harry & Rose Samson Jewish Community Center of Milwaukee, the University of Wisconsin Hillel of Madison, Wisconsin, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership of Chicago and the Beachwood Mandel Jewish Community Center of Cleveland. This website is the creative initiative of Artists’ Laboratory participant, Susan Weinberg. Since 2013 I have served as the Resident Writer of the Laboratory, documenting each session through our blog. I share the rich material that our facilitators introduce, material that triggers much discussion and ultimately our creative efforts. I invite you to share in our past journey by referencing our blog. Facilitators
Robyn Awend is the Twin Cities Jewish Cultural Arts Director of the Sabes Jewish Community Center and the St. Paul JCC as well as the Coordinator of the Minneapolis Jewish Artists' Laboratory. She is a practicing artist who uses her Jewish identity as a focal point of her work, and is a founding member of Form+Content Gallery in downtown, Minneapolis. Meryll Page is a teacher and writer who rejoins us to guide us in exploration of Jewish text. She has taught history and Jewish studies for many years. Meryll is a consultant to the Minnesota Humanities Institute and writes about the connection between food and the weekly Torah portion at the Tasting Torah site. Meryll is also the co-author of the non-fiction work, Jewish Luck. *header on this website is based on an image of a cut-paper sketchbook by lab artist Rani Halpern |
News on the Lab
Reflections on Wisdom Read more in the American Jewish World about how the lab has explored the 2016 theme of Wisdom through many mediums. A Place Where Art and Culture Intersects Read more in St. Louis Park magazine about the Minneapolis Artists' Lab and the way it brings art and culture together. And view the photos from our 2014 closing event. The Artists' Lab: Finding Judaism through Art Read more about our facilitators Avi and Anat and the work that they have created for the 2014 Artists' Lab Exhibition. Artists' Labs become an Active Part of Jewish Communities Hadassah Magazine takes a look at the burgeoning movement of Jewish Arts Salons. A Midwest Movement Creates and Elevates Jewish Art The first Jewish Artists Lab began in Milwaukee and was so successful that additional labs were funded by the Covenant Foundation in Madison and Minneapolis. A Culmination of a Year of Exploration In 2013, the Lab did its first exhibition on the theme of Text-Context-Subtext, exploring a range of topics through a multitude of mediums. And another review by the American Jewish World. |
7 Site designed by Susan Weinberg
©Minneapolis Jewish Artists' Laboratory 2017
©Minneapolis Jewish Artists' Laboratory 2017