Seeing (and hearing) is believing, By Barry Davis
“There’s nothing like a cross-sensory experience to set the grey matter in motion and, possibly, the blood rushing. At least that’s what Menahem Zur from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (JAMD) and his cohorts in the upcoming Visible Sounds conference presumably expect from the five-day event.  As strange as the notion of “visible sounds” may initially seem, there appears to be growing interest around the globe in this kind of artistic juxtaposition. “The idea came about when [JAMD] deputy head Michael Melzer suggested to Yaarah [Bar-on, a historian from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design] to do something connected to the artistic areas of both institutions,” said Zur. “Yaarah then got in touch with [Bezalel musicologist and a philosopher of music and art] Yael Kaduri and things took off from there.””
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Group Therapy, By Yuval Sa’ar
“One of the problems designers face is the lack of a creative framework that is not geared toward customers or market forces. Making one’s way into the business, whether as an independent operator or working for someone else, usually channels creative forces in one direction and does not allow for broader personal expression – or to use a term designers do not typically like, “artistic” expression. Inyanim, a group of nine Israeli jewelers formed about a year ago, seeks to focus on this issue and offers a model that will enable its members to combine commercial design with artistic endeavor. The group, established by Prof. Deganit Stern Schocken, includes in addition to her, another eight jewelers. Four are graduates of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design’s jewelry and metal design department: Michal Oren, Shirly Bar Amotz, Rory Hooper and Edda Vardimon Gudnason…”
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Art in ’self-motion’ in Hightstown, By Michele Alperin
“When Eric Drotch, an art teacher at the Peddie School in Hightstown, discovered that his own school and the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem had a common benefactor, he used that fact to begin establishing a cross-cultural relationship between the two institutions.  He got the ball rolling in the summer of 2008 during a trip to Israel, funded by a continuing-education grant from Peddie, to explore Israel’s art scene. While there, Drotch began conversations with Bezalel’s director of international relations, and now, a year-and-a-half later, he has completed the first step toward realizing his dream of creating a relationship between the two schools — an exhibition by a 2008 Bezalel graduate, Yonatan Ullman, titled “Gremlins,” which will run through Feb. 17. Drotch’s discussions with Bezalel started by exploring how a high school could develop a mutually beneficial connection with a college and graduate school, and they decided a good place to start was to find a Bezalel graduate with an interest in teaching. Ullman fit the bill perfectly. He was not only interested in education, but he was also easy to transport since he is now studying for a master of fine arts at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.”
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Ron Arad: a rock star and his thrones, By Alan Franks
“Arad, who is now 58, has been famous for nearly 30 years. Determined categorisers have had him down at different times as an artist, a designer and an architect, but have now given up trying to put him into pigeon holes. He doesn’t fit, and he never did. One year he is developing his Misfits modular seating system for Moroso, the next he is designing a concrete opera house for his native city, Tel Aviv. His massive sofas adorned the first Big Brother house, and Michael Jackson sat in his Big Easy model for the Scream video. Then he produces The Big Blue, his big circular sculpture for Canada Square Park at Canary Wharf, East London. “He is somewhere between all of them,” says Lydia Yee, curator of the Barbican exhibition. “An unstoppable force in world design” is how Kate Bush, its head of art galleries, describes him.  He grew up in a liberal, artistic family in Tel Aviv and studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem.”
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Growing Pains, By Emily Hochberg
“Visitors to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art last week were lined up in a queue extending to the lobby of the museum, all in order to catch a glimpse of Israeli artist Zadok Ben David’s latest work. The installation, part of the exhibit Human Nature, currently on display through the end of February, presents over 20,000 steel cutouts of plants and flowers in two entirely different ways…The exhibit comes at a time when the career of Ben David, 60, is already well established. He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem 40 years ago, before continuing his advanced sculpture education at St. Martin’s School of Art in London, where he later went on to teach. He now calls London home.”
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Wishing on a star(chitect), By Lauren Gelfond Feldinger
“[Holon] in trying to attract larger and more diverse crowds, has been betting that the creation of the country’s first design museum will now ensure its place on the culture map for local and international tourists. Opening to the public next week, the museum will be the only one here to exclusively showcase international and local designs, from contemporary and historical graphic design to product, furniture, jewelry, textile and architectural design. The building, more than three years in the making, is also expected to be both landmark and work of art in its own right, with help from international design darling Ron Arad, whose name has started to be associated with lists of so-called starchitects…A week before the opening, Arad discusses his childhood, his aesthetics and on his bold design of the Holon Design Museum….
Why did you leave Israel for London?
Ron Arad: I studied product design and environmental design at Bezalel [and] one day I just packed a suitcase. All my friends were in the fine arts and I am still friends with all the people I grew up with.”
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