NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater: Applications are now open for writers, editors or producers who report on theater and musical theater, for an 11-day Fellowship at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism in Los Angeles (May 17-27, 2010). This is an intensive program of practical experience, instruction and discussion of major issues in theater and arts journalism. Applications are available online. Application deadline: received by March 11, 2010.

Monday, February 8th, 8:00 pm: director and Film Fund grantee Michal Goldman will be discussing the making of “At Home in Utopia” on Art and Susan Zuckerman’s “Z” Travel and Leisure Show on Radio WVOX 1460

Learn about the radio show here and listen online:
http://ztravelandleisure.com/the_z_travel_%26_leisure_hour.html.

We’ve just returned from Los Angeles where we attended the Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM) conference. Every year the folks at CAJM put on a rigorous and compelling series of panels, plenaries, symposia and events that are sure to engage and enlighten. This year was no different.  With discussions on topics ranging from “Exhibitions of Influence” to engaging new audiences, the three day conference was packed with useful information and provocative conversation. Over 130 participants from museums of all shapes and sizes were in attendance.

Elise Bernhardt, Aaron Paley, Peter Stein and Limor Tomer

Above is a picture of our panel at the conference – “Programming for the 21st Century”. We discussed how economic circumstances encourage collaboration and today’s audiences expect a full spectrum of multidisciplinary programming;  how do programmers and curators work together to move beyond the exhibition? How can we develop collaborative cultural programs that embrace multiple disciplines and attract new audiences?  We invited Aaron Paley of Yiddishkayt, Peter Stein of the SFJFF and Limor Tomer of the Whitney to talk about different kinds of programming that work in concert with exhibitions and how bodies and objects and work together and supplement each other.

There were panels on a wide variety of topics, as well as some amazing site visits including UCLA’s Fowler Museum, the Museum of Tolerance, the Skirball Cultural Center and the collection at the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation.

For more info on the conference, visit the CAJM website….

Dubbed the first searchable index of fine art and folk images devoted solely to the Bible and its commentaries, “Visual  Midrash”  has just launched.

“Virtual Midrash” is the brainchild of Dr. Jo Milgrom, a prominent Israeli lecturer in art as midrash at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies graduate school, as well as biblical scholar Dr. Joel Duman, lecturer at the Schechter Institute and Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem . The website features some 560 works of art, along with essays in English and Hebrew on themes including Creation, Cain and Abel, Abraham, Hagar and Sarah, Jacob and his Dreams, and Moses.

Each art image on the web site includes referenced biblical sources, artistic medium, date and short description of the work, as well as biographies of the artists. Topical hypertext essays examine a total of twenty themes explored in “Virtual Midrash,” and  include links to related texts from Jewish Midrash and Commentary as well as from Christian and Muslim writings on biblical subjects. The collection is searchable by artist, subject, medium and/or biblical source.

The website is the work of the TALI Education Fund, which provides support for Jewish studies at more than 185 Israeli schools and pre-schools. It was funded by Howard and Carole Tanenbaum, Targum Shlishi, and David Klein. Additional funding is being sought to enable all 3,000 art images to be processed and included on the site.

On Wednesday, march 10 at 7:30 pm, Josh Kornbluth opens the world premiere of his new show ANDY WARHOL: GOOD FOR THE JEWS?, created with long-time collaborator, Director David Dower, at Theater J in association with Jonathan Reinis Productions. This comedic one-man-show is a penetrating take on ten Jewish luminaries as painted by Andy Warhol in his controversial 1980 series, Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century.

The original Warhol silkscreen prints that comprise Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, depicting such notables as Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud George Gershwin, Franz Kafka, the Marx brothers, Golda Meir and Sarah Bernhardt, will be on exhibit in The Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery, located in the main lobby of the Washington DCJCC, from February 25 through May 2. The Gallery is open Sunday through Thursday 10:00 am–10:00 pm and Fridays 10:00 am–4:00 pm. Admission is free.

This limited engagement of ANDY WARHOL: GOOD FOR THE JEWS?, produced in association with Jonathan Reinis productions, runs March 6–March 21, 2010 at Theater J in the Washington DCJCC’s Aaron and Cecile Goldman Theater. Performances on Saturday, March 6 at 8:00 pm and Sunday, March 7 at 3:00 pm are $30 previews. Performances on Sunday, March 7 and Tuesday, March 9 at 7:30 pm are pay-what-you-can previews. Press night is Wednesday, March 10 at 7:30 pm. A talk-back with the cast will follow the performance on Thursday, March 11. Tickets are available for $30-$55 at boxofficetickets.com or (800) 494-TIXS. Limited tickets for patrons 35 and under are half-price for all performances!

When Kornbluth first saw Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century exhibited at The Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco, he had a strong reaction to it, leading him to deface the exhibition catalogue. Kornbluth says “I put a Jewish beard and sidelocks and a yarmulke on him. I thought, if Warhol is going to Warholize the Jews, then I’m going to Jewify Warhol.” Far from being upset, the museum commissioned Kornbluth to create one of his irreverent monologues about his Warhol journey. Raised as an atheist by Marxist parents, Kornbluth decided to investigate his unease with the show by exploring its history, the subjects and their creator. In wrestling with Warhol’s motives and techniques, Kornbluth learned something about his own suppressed religious identity and the spiritual dimensions of Warhol’s art.

When Warhol created these prints in 1980, The New York Times noted that “Critics were appalled and denounced the series as crassly exploitative; audiences responded far more favorably.” Now thirty years later, the exhibition is returning to the nation’s capital. Looking back from a 30-year vantage point, Susan W. Morgenstein, who curated both the original and current exhibitions, says “This exhibit of Ten Portraits addresses several important questions: Why is Warhol and his work so popular today? How has our view of Ten Portraits changed since its first showing? And why do these images continue to intrigue viewers and provoke books, films, plays and major museum reconsiderations?”  In the Gallery, patrons have an opportunity to go through an experience similar to Kornbluth’s, finding their own meaning in these works of art.

The Foundation’s own Nicole Fix has a story forthcoming in Boston College’s Post Road Magazine. She will be a featured reader at the Four Stories Reading Series on Monday, January 25 / The Enormous Room / 7-9pm (music starts @ 6) / 569 Massachusetts Ave / Cambridge, MA, 02139 / (Central Square, Red Line subway stop).

To find out more about Post Road or to purchase the issue, please visit their website at www.postroadmag.com

From FJC President Elise Bernhardt:

My worlds (experimental dance and Jewish culture) have finally come together and I urge you to get to Montclair, New Jersey to witness the collision.  David Gordon, the inimitable curmudgeon of post-modern dance, has pulled out all his pedestrian magic – chair moving, exits on fabric, and impeccable gestural punning – to give Isaac Bashevis Singer his true due.  It boasts a brilliant score my Hankus Netsky whose Klezmer Conservatory Band inspired this effort – an adaptation by his eminence Robert Brustein, back in the 90’s) – performed by a fantastic band.  The music is coordinated masterfully with the perfectly choreographed action by conductor/pianist Zalman Mlotek (Folksbiene).  Throughout are absolutely  hysterical, moving performances by an all star cast. My personal favorite is Kristine Zbornek, who transforms from Chelm’s chief wiseman’s wife,Yenta Pesha, to one of the wise men, to Shlemiel’s daughter Gittel, with a “simple” onstage change of costume (and oh what costumes).

For a student of theater its worth going just to see Robert Israel’s  gorgeous, crooked sets and how Gordon moves them in, on, and around the action – for it is all part of his dance.   My friend Grace Chow said it reminded her of Chinese Opera.  Bill T. Jones said he didn’t get all the Yiddish but he found it engaging just the same.  It is in English – and the lyrics, by the late Arnold Weinstein are themselves worth a second viewing – but Yiddish is plentifully woven through. I could go on but my words won’t capture the spirit, the energy, or the intelligence.

Just go – this show should go to Broadway and hopefully enough critics and investors will go or hear about it so it will.  But it may take awhile and in the meantime who knows when such a brilliant cast of actors and musicians will inhabit this loving, acerbic, brilliantly staged, universal work.  Thank you Jed Wheeler (Executive Director of the Kasser Theater at Montclair State and still the most adventurous presenter in the US) for producing it.

Shlemiel the First runs through next Sunday, Jan 24 . Go to www.peakperfs.org for information and tickets.  It’s a beautiful theater and easy to get to by car or public transportation.

If you are thinking of a way to help the hundreds of thousands of victims of yesterday’s earthquake in Haiti, please consider making a donation to AJWS’s new Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund.

David Gordon’s klezmer-infused take on I. B. Singer’s Shlemiel the First is being revived at Montclair State University, in association with The National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene. It will run from January 16th through January 24th. Get more details and buy tickets here.

The IJPA (International Jewish Presenter’s Association) Schmooze 2010 Jewish culture conference (Jan. 11-12)  is exactly what its title suggests–a chance for people involved in all aspects of Jewish culture to schmooze!  Held at the City Winery in downtown NYC, the conference allows Jewish organizations, venues, foundations, and performers to network and share their ideas regarding Jewish culture.  The conference is filled with panels discussing everything from the “Jewie-ness of Jon Stewart”, a discussion on Jewish comedians and how they incorporate Jewish identity into their jokes,  to “Innovation and the New Economy” (featuring FJC’s own Elise Bernhardt as a panelist), which discussed how organizations have dealt with the current economy.  Schmooze ‘10 also features several “Art Bursts”, which showcase several Jewish artists and gives attendees a sample of what is going on in today’s Jewish culture. 

On Thursday, January 8th, the Foundation co-hosted an intense panel discussion at the NYU/Wagner School for Public Policy based on the film. The panel included an evangelical Christian, a rabbi, and David Elcott, now with the Wagner school and before at AJC, among other institutions. Writer Michelle Goldberg moderated with flair. It was a wonderfully mixed audience and showed the power of film to get difficult issues on the table and frame meaningful conversation.

The film, by David Heilbroner, Kate Davis and Franco Sacchi, 2007 grantees of the Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film, is an exploration of the relationship between US Evangelical and Jewish communities. It opens Friday, January 8th in New York City at Cinema Village, before expanding to Providence, RI and Boston, MA.

Check out the trailer here, and read some of the glowing reviews:

The New York Times

The Jerusalem Post

The Onion A.V. Club

Variety