Interfaith CincinnatiThursday, October 26, 2023 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Join artist Ellie Beth Scott and curatorial consultant Abby Schwartz for coffee and conversation about the artist’s latest fabric installation and its relationship to the Skirball’s collection.
After a lengthy closure, the galleries devoted to Torah, Life Cycle, and Holidays and Festivals in the Skirball’s core exhibition An Eternal People: The Jewish Experience, are once again open with new cases, new signage, and ritual objects from the B’nai B’rith Klutznick Collection that have never been on view before. Old favorites are seen in a whole new light, literally and figuratively.
This grand reopening is made even more meaningful by the opportunity to bring the work of Santa Fe-based artist Ellie Beth Scott to the Skirball’s second floor foyer. For her exhibition Eve: I Understand, Scott was inspired by selected ritual objects in the Skirball collection used by women and by practices performed by women, rendering richly colored pieces using fabric, thread, paint, buttons, and beads.
In the fourth-floor gallery, the focus on women continues with Motherhood Essence and the Feminine Divine: Cincinnati and Israeli Artists Interpret The Female Experience, organized by ish in celebration of Israel at 75. Ish, whose mission is to create intentional spaces for connection and acceptance through the arts, brings together four Israeli and four Cincinnati artists to create eight original works of art and four additional works that interpret and “re-art” the work of their colleagues. The works respond to the power of women as community builders, organizers, and healers through times of crisis and change.
All events below will take place at Mayerson Hall, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 3101 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati, OH.
Thursday, October 19, 2023 from 5:30 – 8:00 p.m.
5:30 p.m. | Reception
6:15 p.m. | Welcome: Abby Schwartz, curatorial consultant to the Skirball Museum and Marie Krulewitch-Browne, executive director of ish
Remarks: Ellie Beth Scott, Israeli artist Dana Cohen, and Cincinnati artist Avery Plummer share insights on their respective exhibitions, Eve: I Understand and Motherhood Essence and the Feminine Divine.
One might not immediately associate Frank Stella (b. 1936), the American painter, sculptor, and printmaker noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction with a cumulative, lyrical poem that concludes the traditional Seder, or festive meal, on the Jewish holiday of Passover.
Had Gadya (One Little Goat) is one of the earliest recorded songs for children. Just as each verse of the song builds on one before it, Stella builds on the original 1919 series of prints by Russian-Jewish avante-garde artist El Lissitzky (1890–1941). Lissitzky, who began his career illustrating Yiddish children’s books, created a print for each stanza of the famous song. Stella first encountered these works in the Tel Aviv Art Museum in 1981 and was profoundly inspired by their movement and the vibrancy of the simplified, graphic forms.
Frank Stella’s Had Gadya print series took two years to complete. The large prints were created using a combination of various techniques—lithography, linoleum block, silkscreen, and rubber relief with collage elements and hand-coloring. The prints were finally published by Waddington Graphics, London, in 1984. After completing the edition, Stella created between two and nine variants of each of the twelve Had Gadya illustrations.
The Skirball Museum is the second venue for a national tour of the three Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion campuses in North America. Frank Stella: Had Gadya appeared at the Los Angeles campus March 31–December 31, 2022 and will be on view at the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum on the New York campus September 7, 2023 – March 2, 2024.
Siona Benjamin has been making intricately detailed, transnational art with a feminist, Jewish, and political bent for almost two decades. Her distinct and unusual heritage as a descendant of the Bene Israel Jewish community of India informs her artistic perspective. Immigration, gender, the concept of “home”, and the role of art in social change are explored through vibrantly hued paintings.
The identity of Siona Benjamin, an Indian-American-Jewish artist, is layered and multi-faceted, just like her artwork. Raised as a Jew and a member of the Bene Israel community in largely Hindu and Muslim Mumbai, Benjamin addresses inclusion and exclusion through her art, and considers and challenges perceptions about culture, race, and religion. In crossing boundaries and building bridges, she asks viewers to do the same.
Thursday, April 20 at 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm ET
5:30 pm ET | Reception (in-person only).
6:15 pm ET | Siona Benjamin takes us “Beyond Borders” with an illustrated talk about her artistic journey to this deeply personal and wide-ranging body of work. In-person and via Livestream.
Registration required.
| Siona Benjamin has been making intricately detailed, transnational art with a feminist, Jewish, and political bent for almost two decades. Her distinct and unusual heritage as a descendant of the Bene Israel Jewish community of India informs her artistic perspective. Immigration, gender, the concept of “home”, and the role of art in social change are explored through vibrantly hued paintings.
All in-person events below will take place at Mayerson Hall, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 3101 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati, OH. Livestream links will be provided upon registration. |
Enjoy this final day to self-tour the exhibition (in-person only).
Join Skirball Museum curatorial consultant Abby Schwartz for a guided tour of the exhibition (in-person only).
Registration required at THIS LINK
Dr. Samantha Baskind, Distinguished Professor of Art History at Cleveland State University and curator of this exhibition, will discuss how Siona Benjamin’s layered and multifaceted identity influences her artwork. Mingling styles derived from comic books, Pop Art, Bollywood, Indian and Persian miniatures, and Hebrew illuminated manuscripts, Benjamin blends tradition with innovation, while navigating feelings of inclusion and exclusion. Dr. Baskind is the author of five books and more than 100 articles, mainly on Jewish American art.
Registration required at THIS LINK.
Join fifth-year cantorial student Ella Gladstone Martin for a multi-media virtual presentation on Had Gadya. The Passover Seder is an inherently musical experience, filled with beloved prayers and songs. Ella will discuss the research behind her graduating thesis, a historical examination of hagaddot (Passover Seder compendiums) that expressly set out to disseminate music, and survey the unique history, symbolism, and musical settings of Had Gadya.
Participate from the comfort of your home or join us at the Skirball where the program will be broadcast on the large screen in the very room where the Stella prints are displayed. The program will have live and recorded components, followed by opportunities for questions and comments from the audience.
Registration required.