LunArt aims to increase the number of Israeli-Arab art and design professionals in the general population, foster supportive networks for the Israeli-Arab art community, and generate opportunities for cross-cultural discourse through joint Jewish-Arab art projects, within Israel and abroad.

The following projects represent Lunart’s core activities to date:

1) A free theatre, performance, and interdisciplinary arts prep-course for Arab-Israeli students

In 2019, the School of Visual Theatre in Jerusalem (SVT) launched a free preparation program for theatre, performance, and interdisciplinary arts. The program, funded by the Jerusalem Municipality and the LunArt Fund is aimed at students from the Arab community of East Jerusalem, who hold a multidisciplinary artistic outlook and see themselves as performance artists, in the present or in the future. The program offers introductory courses in the disciplines taught at SVT in the full program, in order to provide the students with fundamental tools and understanding of the basics of performance art and theatre.

The teachers in the program are SVT senior faculty members and have extensive teaching experience. The courses are accompanied by a simultaneous translation into Arabic. Classes are held one day a week in the afternoons and evenings, allowing students to continue to work and study while attending the program. Students who successfully complete the preparatory program will be able to apply for the full track and join the SVT as regular students.

Study Program:

Haim Abramsky – Acting

Dr. Idit Suslik – Theoretical Aspects of Theatre and Performance

Orna Levy – Cinema

May Zarhy – Movement and Choreography

Maya Levy – Introduction to Interdisciplinary Art

Guy Gutman – Image, Action and Performance

Dolly Baruch – Translation

Special Guests: 

Talks with the artists Raida Adon and Raafat Hattab were held on May 1 and 22, respectively.

2) ’’Mechina’’ – LunArt Pre-Academic art education initiative for Arab-Israeli High School Graduates

From 2008 to date, LunArt initiated and funded six tuition-free college level prep courses in the visual arts (“מכינה קדם אקדמאית”) for gifted Arab Israeli high school graduates featuring basic art-training by Jewish and Arab established artists and art educators, portfolio development as well as gallery and museum exposure.

  • Our first three pilot Pre College art prep-courses piloted at Minshar for Art, Tel Aviv (2008 – 2011). They were planned and managed by Dr. Tal Ben Zvi and were taught by Arab Israeli artists such as Anissa Ashkar and Hana Farah-Kufr Birem, among others.
    • Out of 48 graduates of the first three year pilot, 28 graduates went on to attend college-level academic art and design programs. The LunArt Mechina model was adopted by Shenkar Art College in Ramat Gan (2012) without any further help or funding by LunArt.
  • in 2012, a new Mechina Program completed two years of intensive art courses at Oranim College of Education in the Lower Galilee (2012-2014). Two tuition scholarships were granted by LunArt to two of the Oranim graduates.
  • On December 5, 2016 LunArt moved its Mechina to the Kaye College Art School in Beersheva.  %d7%91%d7%99%d7%a7%d7%95%d7%a8-%d7%91%d7%9e%d7%95%d7%96%d7%99%d7%90%d7%95%d7%9f-%d7%94%d7%a0%d7%92%d7%91-%d7%9e%d7%9b%d7%99%d7%a0%d7%94-%d7%9c%d7%90%d7%9e%d7%a0%d7%95%d7%aa-%d7%9e%d7%9b
Above: group photo of the pre-college prep course at Kay College on its visit to the Negev Art Museum.

3) The Jaffa Mosaic: Traveling Art Exhibition

A travelling exhibit featuring the artistic work product of a joint Jewish-Arab-Israeli women’s photography workshop was brought to the United States by LunArt in partnership with the Inter-Agency Task Force for Israeli Arab Issues (www.IATF.org). The purpose of this travelling photography exhibit is to raise awareness outside of Israel to the issues facing Arab-Israelis living in mixed cities such as Jaffa.

4) Videos on the “Jaffa Salon for Palestinian Art” and the “Jaffa Mosaic” Exhibition

LunArt commissioned Sternthal Books to produce two short video clips on the “Jaffa Mosaic” Exhibition as well as the “Jaffa Salon for Palestinian Art”. These videos are currently posted online for educational and promotional purposes (Vimeo, Facebook and YouTube).

5) Introduction to Palestinian Art Youth Project at Beit Hagefen Jewish-Arab Culture Center

Project leader and instructor: Layan Said, assistant curator at Beit HaGefen Art Gallery. Co- instructor: Yasmina Hujerat, BFA Haifa University, artist and graduate of the LunArt Pre-College Prep Course 2009.

The project seeks to expose adolescents to Palestinian art through a series of guided sessions in conjunction with independent research. The project is aimed at students who have an interest and affinity with art, and will be comprised of approximately three participants from each Arab school in Haifa. In a series of sessions the students will encounter a world of artworks, artists, contents and concepts in art, contemporary art and Palestinian art, accompanied by discussion and support of independent research that will be conducted between sessions. The project will culminate in a day tour and meeting with senior Palestinian artists, about whom the students will learn beforehand. The tour will be documented by a professional filming crew that will edit the meeting into a short film that will serve the students in the final part of the project. In the conclusion of the project, the students will present an introduction of Palestinian art for the students of the school they attend. The first class of the project commenced in April 2013. The project is funded by the Art Gallery at Beit HaGefen – Arab Jewish Culture Center, Haifa and LunArt Fund. 

Beit HaGefen – a Jewish-Arab Culture Center in Haifa, is a nonprofit organization which strives for the creation of common and equal spaces that encompass the variety of identities and cultures in Haifa in particular and in Israel in general. Beit HaGefen holds various cultural, educational and tourism activities.

www.beit-hagefen.com

6) Financial and/or advisory support

LunArt provided small contributions and/or advisory support to several organizations using visual arts as a “culture bridge” between Jewish and Arab Israelis:

  • Umm Al Fahem Art Gallery (acting as supporter and contributor)
  • Tsadik Foundation Art Fellowship (acting as a consultant)
  • Inter-Agency Task Force on Israeli-Arab Issues (art-committee member)
  • Jaffa Salon for Palestinian Art Gallery Tel Aviv-Yaffo (supporter)
  • Scholarships: Lunart donated 29,000 NIS in September 2011 and May 2012 for tuition scholarships for Arab students at Minshar Art School in Tel Aviv and at “Oranim” College of Education.
  • HomeBase VI – Jerusalem: LunArt donated 25,000 NIS for an art “nano- residency” of a Druze-Israeli artist (Fatma Shanan) and an Arab-Israeli curator (Nissreen Najjar) at the HomeBase International art residency project. The project started in August 2014 and ended in December 2014 at the historic home located at 23 Derech Beit Lechem in the Baqqa neighborhood in Jerusalem. This project culminated in an art panel event that took place in spring 2015 and a second panel event that took place in December 2016 (See: LunArt – HomeBase Curatorial and Residency Project. Fatma Shanan- Artist HomeBase Invitation). In addition to our funding of the HomeBase Jerusalem project, LunArt was able to obtain a Matching Grant of $10,000 from the Leichtag Foundation which helped, among other projects, in funding a guided visit by the “Mechina” (LunArt Pre-Academic art education initiative) students at the residency site in Jerusalem.
  • LunArt is a member of the advisory board of the art gallery at Umm-El-Fahem. LunArt donated 30,000 NIS in 2014 in order to help the UEF gallery in its ongoing joint Arab-Jewish art projects. In 2016 LunArt participated in a benefit art sale and an additional donation of 33,000 NIS was made for the upgrade and renovation of the Gallery.
  • LunArt donated 7,300 NIS to help fund the publication of a catalogue for an exhibition by the artist Osama Said opening on May 2017 at the Afula Art Gallery. The exhibition was sponsored by the Israeli Culture Youth Movement (Tnuaat Tarbut).
  • LunArt donated 4,000 NIS to help fund an installation by the artist Mahmud Kais (a graduate of LunArt’s first Mechina Prep Course) for an art exhibition titled “a village you are and to the village you will return” that was curated by Raafat Hattab and opened on June 2017 at the Janco Dada Art Museum in Ein Hod.

7) Manofim Street Art Festival – “Asael Stories”

LunArt was one of the sponsors of a joint Jewish-Arab art event conducted on September 20, 2016, in the mixed neighborhood of Abu-Tor, Jerusalem. The event took place under the auspices of the Manofim Art Festival.

See: http://manofim.org/en/specialpage/house-project-stories-made-by-god/

8) LunArt Scholarship for a Graduate Degree in Art Administration – Sapir College (2021-2023)

According to a survey on the status of Arts and Culture within the Arab-Israeli communities commissioned by the Israeli Ministry of Culture in 2015, one of the major problems hindering the development of a vibrant arts and culture scene in the Israeli Arab society was the total lack of specially appointed and well-trained professional arts and culture administrators in Arab-Israeli local government bodies. Out of 87 local government bodies surveyed, only the two municipalities of Nazareth and Shefaram had a specially designated employee assigned to administrate the arts and culture activities in their respective towns. Still, those two professionals worked under the general title of community affairs and were also given to deal with the management of public holiday events and sports.

At the beginning of 2021, LunArt in cooperation with Sapir College, awarded study scholarships covering 80% of the tuition for the two-year M.A degree program in Art Administration to three candidates from the Bedouin society in the Negev. The three scholars were chosen by a specially appointed advisory board that screened a dozen eligible applicants.

LunArt is also involved in helping the three scholars network with Bedouin and Jewish Art and Culture NGO’s in the Negev, by forming a special study group led by the personal guidance of the head of the academic department of Arts Administration, Ms. Shira Lapidot, and aided by a specially appointed group mentor funded by the Dean of the College.

LunArt will work in close cooperation with Sapir College Center for Innovation & entrepreneurship (“HIE Sapir”) and the academic staff and head of the Art Administration Department to aid the scholars in networking with culture and art leaders and art NGOs in the southern periphery of Israel. LunArt will also endeavor to place the scholars, during the last semester of their studies, in a paid internship program at the West Negev Cluster Association or within the municipality of Rahat.

The mission of our endeavor is to groom a small cadre of professionals whose post-graduate task would be to create a vibrant arts and culture hub operating on the municipal government level.  The LunArt Fund will further aid the scholars in creating a digital interactive network mapping all arts and culture centers and individual initiatives in that area, Aiming to serve the general Bedouin population in the south. We hope that the new culture administration network will function as an economic growth engine for the local communities in the smaller municipalities and unrecognized villages surrounding the major metropolitan hub of Rahat.

Plans for Growth 2021-2022

LunArt recognizes the need to reach more Israeli Arabs and sustain connections beyond initial participation in the core pre-college art education prep programs for Arab Israeli High School Graduates. As we grow, we plan to network in order to make additional professional opportunities available to our prep-course graduates (via help with grant proposals) and deepen the role of art education as an agent for social change, open-mindedness and community building within the Israeli-Arab society. Our most ambitious plan, yet to materialize, is a three-hour course on the importance of art education for Arab Israeli School Principals. LunArt aims at introducing this course as part of the School Principal Mandatory Continuing Education programs under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. LunArt is currently looking for a hosting Israeli NGO to adopt and advance this project.