Culture club
The Foundation for Jewish Culture held its annual Jewish Cultural Achievement Awards gala Thursday night at the Center for Jewish History in New York.
The FJC, which was started in 1968 by the precursor to the UJC, the Council of Jewish Federations, has given out the awards since 1985, and recipients have included the likes of Arthur Miller, Phillip Roth, Saul Bellow, Tony Kushner and Art Spiegelman.
But this year's awards ceremony was focused on looking forward to new Jewish artistic talent. The FJC honored NYU professor of performance studies Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett for "They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland," her collaborative effort with her father; Ohad Naharin, the artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company, and Macy B. Hart, the president and founder of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life and the outgoing chair of the Council of American Museums.
In the end, the gala seemed more about the artists that performed before between and after the the three different award presentations.
The FJC brought its entertainment from in-house, as all of its performers were recipients of Six Points Fellowships, a collaboration of the UJA-Federation of New York, the FJC, JDub Records and Avoda Arts. The fellows – 12 of whom were selected in February – will be given $45,000 over two years, professional consulting services and high-profile mentors to help cultivate their talent.
Over the past year, the fellows have indeed begun to emerge, with several taking their art public to critical acclaim.
The gala included performances by the LeeSaar Dance Company, whose artistic director Saar Harari was recently also granted a Guggenheim Fellowship. LeeSaar performed a shortened adaptation of its piece Geisha, a study in femininity that was lauded by the New York Times, The New Yorker and the Village Voice. (In the original performance, one dancer performs topless ... so be aware that this link features partial nudity.)
The adaptation included two companion pieces in solo dance. One, shown in the video at the top of this post, features an Asian woman, on stage, alone, in silence aside from the sound of her own violent, forced and uncomfortable contortions that at times make her look more marionette than dancer. The other, in the video below, involves a white woman, dressed in a satin kimono, lip-synching to an Israeli song as she dances around as if in her bedroom.
The evening also included a shortened adaptation of Fabrik: The Legend of M. Rabinowitz, the story – told in puppetry – of a Polish Jew who fled to Norway and sounded out the Nazis. The piece, created by Six Points Fellow Gabrielle Boehner's Wakka Wakka Productions, was also lauded by the Times when it ran in New York this February.
The event ended with a musical performance by Galeet Dardashti and her group Middle Eastern influenced ensemble Divahn.
The performances certainly made a case that the $1 million that the UJA has spent on this project is well spent. But the FJC's chairwoman, Carol Brenngass Spinner, also made her own memorable plea to support the Jewish arts: "Support someone who sings a song, tells a joke, paints a painting or dances a dance, for that is what makes Jewish culture both for our generation and for future generations."
(On a side note, the culinary arts were well represented as well. In lieu of a sit-down dinner, the FJC pulled out all the stops on a cocktail hour featuring everything from southern fare such as ribs and collared greens, to Polish sausages and cabbage, to sushi. Other organizations beware; it set a high standard as the first gala the Fundermentalist has blogged about…)
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Very nice, but its worth noting that 6 points fellowship is a NEW YORK initiative and the FJC is a NATIONAL organization. Its one thing to claim that this NYC collective is a pilot program but another to make it the sole beneficiary of nation wide efforts.
There are compelling Jewish artists and arts organizations west of the Hudson; if Carol Brenngass Spinner is to be taken at her word, why is her organization doing so little to assist those outside of the Tri-State area? FJC receives significant funding from Federations across the country, so its a question worth asking from a funding perspective as well.
Jcaob
i thoroughly enjoy the interactive viceo, like looking thru the “looking glass” in Alice and Wonderland.
keep up the creative enjoyable content.
I have been following JTA messages since my grad school days at U, of Michigan in An Arbor beginning in January 1966, more than 4 decades has elapsed.
Jerry
I agree with Ploni-
Its disheartening that FJC doesn’t do more to support artists beyond New York in the various communities comprising its funding base. Perhaps instead of “6 Points,” they should consider a program that supports Jewish artists and performers who are as numerous as the “Sands and Stars.”
Adam and Ploni -
Hi! I just found your comments - so here’s the deal:
The 6 Points Fellowship is not “the sole beneficiary of nation wide efforts.” It is a NYC-based program because it was made possible by major funding -and planning and logistical support- from UJA-Federation of New York. It has been a very successful program and we are actively exploring expanding to other cities.
In order to do that we need to demonstrate that there is demand for the program as well as capacity and resources to support it.
The best way to get a 6 Points Fellowship program in your community is to let us know that there is need/demand in your community and also convey that to your local Federation. If your local Federation sees that there is a demand, hopefully they will be interested in providing resources and support. We would be thrilled to expand 6 Points to other cities.
As far as national scope goes - all of our other grant programs (film, scholarship, literature) are national, we have recently launched the Jewish Studies Expansion Project, which is a national initiative.
We are always working on increasing our involvement and engagement outside of NYC and welcome your input and future collaboration.
Thanks!
Andy
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DK
06/16/08 06:54 PM
The other, in the video below, involves a white woman, dressed in a satin kimono, lip-synching to an Israeli song as she dances around as if in her bedroom.
The woman being lip-synced to was Rita, an Israeli superstar from the early 90s. And it wasn’t like in her bedroom, but rather, like she was truly Rita, hence the live version of the song.