Nu ART is happy to connect you with any of the artists listed below:
SEDER 11.20.13 Project Proposals
Danny Lobell
Project Name: Farmers Market
Description: A short film about the goings on in the different lives of the characters in my local farmers I will submit it to Jewish Film festivals and hopefully arrange an event to screen it to the Seder peoples as well. There is also a kosher stand at the market which will be in the film.
Judith Prays
Project Name: Commandment Couture
Description: 10 artists will be chosen to create a bracelet embedded with one of the 10 commandments. Selected writers will be given pieces to wear and document what it brings up, all to be put together in a multimedia experience. If chosen I will invite the community to an art show in LA this winter.
Steven Wolkoff
Project Name: Yizkor
Description: I will invite the SEDER community to share the names of their departed loved ones with me. Then I will paint the names. Once the names are all painted and dry, we will meet to share memories and assemble the names into a pile, symbolic of the stones traditionally left on Jewish graves. If chosen, I will invite the LA Jewish Community to actively contribute to the making of this project by sharing their names and memories. I will then invite the Community to gather to build the final project out of their names and memories. After that, I will plan to show the Yizkor piece in a larger art show exploring Jewish themes. I also plan to photograph the individual names, and then post them on the internet, accompanied by memories written by members of the community.
Project Name: Farmers Market
Description: A short film about the goings on in the different lives of the characters in my local farmers I will submit it to Jewish Film festivals and hopefully arrange an event to screen it to the Seder peoples as well. There is also a kosher stand at the market which will be in the film.
Judith Prays
Project Name: Commandment Couture
Description: 10 artists will be chosen to create a bracelet embedded with one of the 10 commandments. Selected writers will be given pieces to wear and document what it brings up, all to be put together in a multimedia experience. If chosen I will invite the community to an art show in LA this winter.
Steven Wolkoff
Project Name: Yizkor
Description: I will invite the SEDER community to share the names of their departed loved ones with me. Then I will paint the names. Once the names are all painted and dry, we will meet to share memories and assemble the names into a pile, symbolic of the stones traditionally left on Jewish graves. If chosen, I will invite the LA Jewish Community to actively contribute to the making of this project by sharing their names and memories. I will then invite the Community to gather to build the final project out of their names and memories. After that, I will plan to show the Yizkor piece in a larger art show exploring Jewish themes. I also plan to photograph the individual names, and then post them on the internet, accompanied by memories written by members of the community.
SEDER 10.17.13 Project Proposals
Eyal Resh
Project Name: Playground (working title)
Description: As a continuation story to my first short film in the series, Berlin-- Keren (35), her son, Robbin (5) and her father Hannes (80) arrive in Berlin from Israel in order to get back for the first time to Hannes’ unspoken past, and perhaps understand more about it.
After showing what led to their meeting on the platform at “Ostkroitz”, Berlin- in this piece, the family continues together to their next destination - Hannes’ childhood playground. With Robbin playing in the background (just like Hannes did 71 years earlier), the story will focus on the internal, fundamental family conflict (a conflict that the family carries since its very first day). Through encounters with locals, which evoke anger and raise the big question of reconciliation, Keren manages to confront her father with unanswered questions.
As a second generation to the holocaust, the main, unquestioned proof that the Jewish nation is “here to stay”, accompanied by her son (the third generation), Keren is able to change the pattern of silence, shame and anger. She finally breaks loose from the past’s strings that prevented her from living her life peacefully, a life that was influenced, in so many ways, by her father’s (and nation’s) past.
Since the crew and cast from “Berlin” are still available and eager to shoot the second part of our story, I will use the grant in order to pay my airfare to Berlin. I believe questions regarding Jewish identity, history and the relationship between them, are common among Jewish people all over the world. We all share the same history; we are all deeply influenced by our tragic past in Europe and the way it has shaped (and is still shaping) our identities. The Jewish community in LA is familiar with the importance of preserving this identity in the Diaspora, while continuing to ask questions regarding our special nation, our past and future. I will screen the final version of the first movie in the series, Berlin, and pitch my new idea of how to create another short film that (based on the same bits and characters) continues the story from where it stopped.
Howard Seth Cohen
Project Name: SEDER PLAGUER
Description: SEDER PLAGUER is an interactive project that uses cell phones and tablets as tools to inspire interactive, engaging play AND educate ages 5 and up about the plagues as retold in the Haggadah.
Utilizing LAYAR, a Netherlands based Augmented Reality (AR) software program (app) freely available for download on both ios (apple) and Android platforms, our team of artists and technicians will create our interactive program. Monies raised will be utilized to pay participating artists: physical animators, sculptors, digital animators, conceptual artists and technical consultants. Funds will also defray costs of purchasing certain pieces of hardware for testing, to ensure the project will work flawlessly on multiple iterations of various technological platforms. Monetary assistance will be necessary to procure domain names and a small amount of server space to allow for a branded, unified, easily found online home for PLAGUER SADER.
My goal is to have SEDER PLAGUER manifest itself in the LA Jewish community virally, starting with personal contacts at SIJCC, Six Points, the Sholem community, and personal friends and family. Our team will make contact and inroads with other groups that can help to disseminate the work through social platforms and actual (non virtual/ internet) communication with local Jewish organizations and congregations. I plan to showcase this project during a live event (perhaps at SIJCC) with technical assistants and interactive areas. The SEDER Arts Night community would be invited to this event. It will take place during the week of Passover, 5774.
Corrie Siegel
Project Name: On The Map
Description: On the Map is a Curriculum resource and map exchange program geared at K-12 students, primarily focussing on 6th graders , however the curriculum and program will be tailored in such a way that it is easily adaptable to older groups as well as Hebrew day schools.
The program provides a curriculum resource that is aligned with California standards and builds upon students already developing knowledge of cartography and trade through creatively connecting them to maps today and a larger global community through personal map exchanges in Israel and Europe.
Students will explore historic maps and appreciate the artistry of these documents. They will discuss the way form and content are intertwined in cartography and they will also explore the concept of ideological mapping. Then the students will create their own map, which they will send to partner schools across the world. The partner schools will send their own map images back in return.
Each pilot teacher will be provided with a material starter set, a dvd with powerpoint presentations, as well an artist visit to the classroom." I would use the funds if award to help off set the classroom costs. Additionally, the funds will help cover postage, so that these students will have a tangible work of art from a partner organization, and so that these artworks are properly documented so that they may be shared with more individuals.
I am partnering with several Jewish organizations in Los Angeles including JCC’s such as the Silverlake Independent JCC. In addition to general enrichment of these schools existing studies this project intends to highlight skilled Jewish Cartographers and thinkers in order to introduce an informed personal exploration of mapping for each student. The guided mapping activities intend to connect students to history, space and their place. At the same time the exchange of these maps creates a creative dialogue and different awareness of space, another culture, and different form of creative expression for the student/ participant
The tactility of the actual art sent from school to school intends to break through fleeting images on the internet through providing something handmade and personal. It is my hope that this will increase empathy and curiosity amongst participants and redraw where we may place ourselves in relationship to others in this world.
All results will be documented and the project will be evaluated. It is my hope that this project can become a widespread initiative. Documentation will be available online, with free downloadable teaching guide, art examples and historic context.
Project Name: Playground (working title)
Description: As a continuation story to my first short film in the series, Berlin-- Keren (35), her son, Robbin (5) and her father Hannes (80) arrive in Berlin from Israel in order to get back for the first time to Hannes’ unspoken past, and perhaps understand more about it.
After showing what led to their meeting on the platform at “Ostkroitz”, Berlin- in this piece, the family continues together to their next destination - Hannes’ childhood playground. With Robbin playing in the background (just like Hannes did 71 years earlier), the story will focus on the internal, fundamental family conflict (a conflict that the family carries since its very first day). Through encounters with locals, which evoke anger and raise the big question of reconciliation, Keren manages to confront her father with unanswered questions.
As a second generation to the holocaust, the main, unquestioned proof that the Jewish nation is “here to stay”, accompanied by her son (the third generation), Keren is able to change the pattern of silence, shame and anger. She finally breaks loose from the past’s strings that prevented her from living her life peacefully, a life that was influenced, in so many ways, by her father’s (and nation’s) past.
Since the crew and cast from “Berlin” are still available and eager to shoot the second part of our story, I will use the grant in order to pay my airfare to Berlin. I believe questions regarding Jewish identity, history and the relationship between them, are common among Jewish people all over the world. We all share the same history; we are all deeply influenced by our tragic past in Europe and the way it has shaped (and is still shaping) our identities. The Jewish community in LA is familiar with the importance of preserving this identity in the Diaspora, while continuing to ask questions regarding our special nation, our past and future. I will screen the final version of the first movie in the series, Berlin, and pitch my new idea of how to create another short film that (based on the same bits and characters) continues the story from where it stopped.
Howard Seth Cohen
Project Name: SEDER PLAGUER
Description: SEDER PLAGUER is an interactive project that uses cell phones and tablets as tools to inspire interactive, engaging play AND educate ages 5 and up about the plagues as retold in the Haggadah.
Utilizing LAYAR, a Netherlands based Augmented Reality (AR) software program (app) freely available for download on both ios (apple) and Android platforms, our team of artists and technicians will create our interactive program. Monies raised will be utilized to pay participating artists: physical animators, sculptors, digital animators, conceptual artists and technical consultants. Funds will also defray costs of purchasing certain pieces of hardware for testing, to ensure the project will work flawlessly on multiple iterations of various technological platforms. Monetary assistance will be necessary to procure domain names and a small amount of server space to allow for a branded, unified, easily found online home for PLAGUER SADER.
My goal is to have SEDER PLAGUER manifest itself in the LA Jewish community virally, starting with personal contacts at SIJCC, Six Points, the Sholem community, and personal friends and family. Our team will make contact and inroads with other groups that can help to disseminate the work through social platforms and actual (non virtual/ internet) communication with local Jewish organizations and congregations. I plan to showcase this project during a live event (perhaps at SIJCC) with technical assistants and interactive areas. The SEDER Arts Night community would be invited to this event. It will take place during the week of Passover, 5774.
Corrie Siegel
Project Name: On The Map
Description: On the Map is a Curriculum resource and map exchange program geared at K-12 students, primarily focussing on 6th graders , however the curriculum and program will be tailored in such a way that it is easily adaptable to older groups as well as Hebrew day schools.
The program provides a curriculum resource that is aligned with California standards and builds upon students already developing knowledge of cartography and trade through creatively connecting them to maps today and a larger global community through personal map exchanges in Israel and Europe.
Students will explore historic maps and appreciate the artistry of these documents. They will discuss the way form and content are intertwined in cartography and they will also explore the concept of ideological mapping. Then the students will create their own map, which they will send to partner schools across the world. The partner schools will send their own map images back in return.
Each pilot teacher will be provided with a material starter set, a dvd with powerpoint presentations, as well an artist visit to the classroom." I would use the funds if award to help off set the classroom costs. Additionally, the funds will help cover postage, so that these students will have a tangible work of art from a partner organization, and so that these artworks are properly documented so that they may be shared with more individuals.
I am partnering with several Jewish organizations in Los Angeles including JCC’s such as the Silverlake Independent JCC. In addition to general enrichment of these schools existing studies this project intends to highlight skilled Jewish Cartographers and thinkers in order to introduce an informed personal exploration of mapping for each student. The guided mapping activities intend to connect students to history, space and their place. At the same time the exchange of these maps creates a creative dialogue and different awareness of space, another culture, and different form of creative expression for the student/ participant
The tactility of the actual art sent from school to school intends to break through fleeting images on the internet through providing something handmade and personal. It is my hope that this will increase empathy and curiosity amongst participants and redraw where we may place ourselves in relationship to others in this world.
All results will be documented and the project will be evaluated. It is my hope that this project can become a widespread initiative. Documentation will be available online, with free downloadable teaching guide, art examples and historic context.
SEDER 9.9.12 Project Proposals
Barbara Heller
Project Name: Finding Barb: An Original Musical Comedy
Description: An Original Hilarious Musical Comedy about One Jewish Girl’s Unorthodox Quest for Love. This project is critical because it reflects the adventures of a Jewish woman who grew up very disconnected to Judaism-both in practice and community, and then we see her get very influenced by the Orthodox world and then struggle to find the balance between where she was prior to that influence and where she was led. The project takes people on a journey-one which most people (about 80% of the Jewish people in fact who may never come into direct contact with Orthodox people) are unaware of. Our hope is that this musical will shed some light on struggles we all have in the singles LA Jewish Community as well as shed light on how all of us struggle (Yisrael) with G-d and trying to find a comfy space with that struggle.
If selected, I would offer a $5 off discount to all SEDER particpants to see one of my upcoming show.
For Tickets: Eventbrite- http://findingbarbshow.eventbrite.com/
Claire Bergen & Bergen/The Shpil
(Isaac Schankler, John Graves, and T.J. Troy)
Project Name: The Art of Creative Remembering
Description: The Art of Creative Remembering is an oral history project that asks young American Jews of Eastern European descent the question, “what do you know about where you are from?” Inspired by my trip to my grandmother’s hometown in Rzeszow, Poland nine summers ago, I have been audio-recording interviews with friends about this question and related ruminations on identity and place.
The goal of the larger project is to produce a series of “This American Life”-style podcasts with original music composed and performed by my klezmer band, The Shpil. The project would also be presented in a series of participatory events inspired by Jewish weddings, with live music, Yiddish dance and Jewish foods, all inspired by the stories and themes that come up in the interviews.
If selected, I will use the funds to create a prototype of the larger project to be used as a work sample for further funding, and to get feedback from audiences about the project. I will edit 5-7 minutes from the interviews I have already conducted, and commission a short piece of instrumental music by composer and member of The Shpil, Isaac Schankler, to be performed and recorded by the band. I will edit the music and interview into a 10-minute podcast, which I will then have professionally mixed and mastered.
If I win the grant, my band will play a short set (3-4 songs) at a future SEDER event, and my collaborator, choreographer Bruce Bierman, will lead the SEDER guests in Yiddish dancing to the music. Furthermore, my other collaborator, chef Rebecca Elswit, will serve a sample dish related to the project, as part of the dinner. Lastly, when the 10-minute "prototype" podcast that the grant would fund is complete, I will certainly send a link for the SEDER community to download it.
Jessica Shokrian
Project Name: Shahjhan’s Teas, Tonics and Spices To Feed the Body, Mind, and Soul
Description: My installation will be a part of the “Light and Shadows” exhibition opening this fall at the Fowler Museum. The exhibition will run from October 21, 2012 through March 10, 2013. It is the first comprehensive exhibition on Iranian Jews that will take place in a secular museum.
As a testament to my grandmother, Shahjhan, and to the other matriarchs in my family and culture, my installation will focus on a marketplace of God’s natural gifts: plants, herbs, and spices. These resources, having fed “our souls” for generations, nourish and inspire creativity for me. The aromatic experience of the spices overwhelms us – not just in a natural state, but also through culinary traditions: recipes that have been passed down over thousands of years. I admire and respect the sacrifices these women have made, in becoming the medium that feeds us, filling the home with smells and flavors. In my presentation, then, I become the spice rack. Assuming this role, I become the Persian Bride, delivering the goods from the earth, to the body, and fundamentally to the soul.
My installation at the Fowler will include a 15-minute looping video that will incorporate footage shot over the last 20 years which documents my Iranian-Jewish family, such as, my aunt on her errands, purchasing groceries at the local market, and most significantly, preparing the customary specialties that utilize these ingredients. Running below the video will be a series of jars containing spices, oils and other fragrant liquids. Each vile will be marked with the name of the substance, how it relates to Iranian-Jewish heritage and the item’s connection to my video. Each scent will activate the video.
If selected as the next SEDER Winner, this group will be credited at the Fowler Museum as helping to fund my project. Additionally, at the future SEDER event I will screen my video and lead a cooking demonstration sharing with this community a Shokrian family recipe from my grandmother, Shahjhan’s table to yours B'tayavon!
Your Persian Bride
Dear Tehrangeles rich and scandalous
Oh Teherangeles my heart’s entwined
Dear Teherangeles some can’t handle us
Oh Teherangeles tell me why
Querido Teherangeles, ciudad de Los Angeles
My Teherangeles carpet ride
Dear Teherangeles Cyrus alive in us
Oh Teherangeles Esther cries
Dear Teherangeles the revolution ignited us
Oh Teherangeles though many died
Dear Teherangeles we made our exodus
Oh Teherangeles as the stars aligned
Dear Teherangeles you light shines bright for us
Oh Teherangeles now we kiss your skies
Dear Teherangeleslost and glamorous
One day, I’ll Be Your Persian Bride
by Jessica Shokrian copyright 2012
Project Name: Finding Barb: An Original Musical Comedy
Description: An Original Hilarious Musical Comedy about One Jewish Girl’s Unorthodox Quest for Love. This project is critical because it reflects the adventures of a Jewish woman who grew up very disconnected to Judaism-both in practice and community, and then we see her get very influenced by the Orthodox world and then struggle to find the balance between where she was prior to that influence and where she was led. The project takes people on a journey-one which most people (about 80% of the Jewish people in fact who may never come into direct contact with Orthodox people) are unaware of. Our hope is that this musical will shed some light on struggles we all have in the singles LA Jewish Community as well as shed light on how all of us struggle (Yisrael) with G-d and trying to find a comfy space with that struggle.
If selected, I would offer a $5 off discount to all SEDER particpants to see one of my upcoming show.
For Tickets: Eventbrite- http://findingbarbshow.eventbrite.com/
Claire Bergen & Bergen/The Shpil
(Isaac Schankler, John Graves, and T.J. Troy)
Project Name: The Art of Creative Remembering
Description: The Art of Creative Remembering is an oral history project that asks young American Jews of Eastern European descent the question, “what do you know about where you are from?” Inspired by my trip to my grandmother’s hometown in Rzeszow, Poland nine summers ago, I have been audio-recording interviews with friends about this question and related ruminations on identity and place.
The goal of the larger project is to produce a series of “This American Life”-style podcasts with original music composed and performed by my klezmer band, The Shpil. The project would also be presented in a series of participatory events inspired by Jewish weddings, with live music, Yiddish dance and Jewish foods, all inspired by the stories and themes that come up in the interviews.
If selected, I will use the funds to create a prototype of the larger project to be used as a work sample for further funding, and to get feedback from audiences about the project. I will edit 5-7 minutes from the interviews I have already conducted, and commission a short piece of instrumental music by composer and member of The Shpil, Isaac Schankler, to be performed and recorded by the band. I will edit the music and interview into a 10-minute podcast, which I will then have professionally mixed and mastered.
If I win the grant, my band will play a short set (3-4 songs) at a future SEDER event, and my collaborator, choreographer Bruce Bierman, will lead the SEDER guests in Yiddish dancing to the music. Furthermore, my other collaborator, chef Rebecca Elswit, will serve a sample dish related to the project, as part of the dinner. Lastly, when the 10-minute "prototype" podcast that the grant would fund is complete, I will certainly send a link for the SEDER community to download it.
Jessica Shokrian
Project Name: Shahjhan’s Teas, Tonics and Spices To Feed the Body, Mind, and Soul
Description: My installation will be a part of the “Light and Shadows” exhibition opening this fall at the Fowler Museum. The exhibition will run from October 21, 2012 through March 10, 2013. It is the first comprehensive exhibition on Iranian Jews that will take place in a secular museum.
As a testament to my grandmother, Shahjhan, and to the other matriarchs in my family and culture, my installation will focus on a marketplace of God’s natural gifts: plants, herbs, and spices. These resources, having fed “our souls” for generations, nourish and inspire creativity for me. The aromatic experience of the spices overwhelms us – not just in a natural state, but also through culinary traditions: recipes that have been passed down over thousands of years. I admire and respect the sacrifices these women have made, in becoming the medium that feeds us, filling the home with smells and flavors. In my presentation, then, I become the spice rack. Assuming this role, I become the Persian Bride, delivering the goods from the earth, to the body, and fundamentally to the soul.
My installation at the Fowler will include a 15-minute looping video that will incorporate footage shot over the last 20 years which documents my Iranian-Jewish family, such as, my aunt on her errands, purchasing groceries at the local market, and most significantly, preparing the customary specialties that utilize these ingredients. Running below the video will be a series of jars containing spices, oils and other fragrant liquids. Each vile will be marked with the name of the substance, how it relates to Iranian-Jewish heritage and the item’s connection to my video. Each scent will activate the video.
If selected as the next SEDER Winner, this group will be credited at the Fowler Museum as helping to fund my project. Additionally, at the future SEDER event I will screen my video and lead a cooking demonstration sharing with this community a Shokrian family recipe from my grandmother, Shahjhan’s table to yours B'tayavon!
Your Persian Bride
Dear Tehrangeles rich and scandalous
Oh Teherangeles my heart’s entwined
Dear Teherangeles some can’t handle us
Oh Teherangeles tell me why
Querido Teherangeles, ciudad de Los Angeles
My Teherangeles carpet ride
Dear Teherangeles Cyrus alive in us
Oh Teherangeles Esther cries
Dear Teherangeles the revolution ignited us
Oh Teherangeles though many died
Dear Teherangeles we made our exodus
Oh Teherangeles as the stars aligned
Dear Teherangeles you light shines bright for us
Oh Teherangeles now we kiss your skies
Dear Teherangeleslost and glamorous
One day, I’ll Be Your Persian Bride
by Jessica Shokrian copyright 2012
SEDER 3.29.12 Project Proposals
Annie Wharton Los Angeles
Project Name: Rona Yefman (May, 2012), Annie Wharton Los Angeles
Description: Annie Wharton Los Angeles submitted a proposal to help fund the Rona Yefman and Davida Nemeroff exhibition entitled Shellfish. The funds requested where to cover travel and program costs. If selected the SEDER community would be invited to a private a private tour of the exhibition, there will be a lively panel discussion with the artist, curator Annie Wharton, and special guests (photographers Barak Zemer and Davida Nemeroff). AWLA will provide a delicious kosher brunch with refreshing homemade mint lemonade.
Rona Yefman (Haifa, Israel, 1972) is engaged in notions of freedom, and the gap between what we are and what we want to be. Yefman often collaborates with individuals that have formed a radical persona, documenting her relationship to them and exploring identity with photography, video, and text. Her practice reveals the humanity of her subjects, reinventing positive and complex notions of a customized conception of identity. Rona Yefman interweaves second-wave feminism, gender politics, and Israeli identity. Her work speak directly to the young, female Jewish community. Concurrently AWLA will be showing the solo show of Davida Nemeroff, a local artist who moved here from Canada. The two women were classmates in Columbia for their MFAs, where they met years ago. Both women are important emerging Jewish female artists who bring exotic voices to the experience of Judaism.
Update: The Annie Wharton Gallery did not receive a SEDER grant. However, our Planning Team was able to introduce them to several key community figures who provided support for this exhibition. Rona Yefman was able to come to LA to install the exhibition and gave several artist talks. Annie Wharton Los Angeles invited the members of the SEDER community to a special event at the gallery on 5.17.12 in celebration of the solo show of Israeli artist Rona Yefman, who will be in town for the exhibit. The exhibition ran from May 12 through June 12, 2012. Rona Yefman and Davida Nemeroff exhibition entitled Shellfish was a wonderful success and was even selected on 6.14.12 as one of LA Weekly's Five Artsy Things to Do This Week.
Andrea Hodos and Ayesha S. Chaudhry
Project Name: Sinai and Sunna: Two Women Covering, Uncovering and Recovering
Description: “Sinai and Sunna: Two Women Covering, Uncovering, Recovering” is a dance/theater performance and discussion about balancing tradition and modernity with integrity -- geared toward Jews, Muslims and others. The performers -- one Jewish, the other Muslim, one an artist, the other an academic – tell their personal narrativesabout their own religious journeys. The pieces lead audiences through stories about covering, hair, body and culture in the performers’ lives and in their respective traditions. We will blend two solo shows to create the evening-long performance with community-based discussion. Andrea Hodos and Ayesha S. Chaudhry plan to create multiple versions of ‘Sinai Sunna’ for community venues (universities, high schools, synagogues, mosques, churches, community centers) as well as more highly produced stage settings. We will commission a score from Academy award-winning Yuval Ron Ensemble (an interfaith middle-eastern ensemble) that will be recorded or live, depending upon the setting. We will commission simple and adaptable sets that can easily travel.
We hope to stage performances in Los Angeles at various junctures of the project. If we are successful in our initial fundraising, the first will be a staged reading as a work in progress, July 2012. We will consider ourselves fortunate to have among our audience-members people from the SEDER community who are thinking about culture and religion in nuanced ways and can give us thoughtful feedback on our work.
Nina T. Becker (Jonas)
Project Name: The Mobile Pinhole Project
Description: Using a giant camera on wheels, the Mobile Pinhole Project makes visual arts geographically and technologically accessible by allowing youth in neighborhoods across Los Angeles inside the mechanism of photography to empower a collective visual exploration of identity, culture, and place. The Mobile Pinhole Project engages LA youth in hands-on, day-long photography workshops using the VanCam, a van retrofitted into a giant pinhole camera. We are committed to providing access to visual expression as a fundamental building block for the development of individual identity, communication, and critical thinking. Through innovative mobile programming, youth of all backgrounds and levels of experience are able to benefit from experiential arts learning in neighborhoods across Los Angeles.In workshops guided by professional local artists, young people go inside the camera and experience photography at its most basic components: light and paper. Prompted by guiding questions, youth work together to create a large format photograph that represents their collective insight into identity, culture, and place. By bringing the VanCam to local neighborhoods, demonstrating photography at a human scale, and guiding youth to visually explore their communities, the Mobile Pinhole Project makes artistic expression geographically, technologically, and conceptually accessible.
I want to use this funding to focus our programming on the Jewish areas in LA, bringing the VanCam to Jewish schools and community centers in LA. I am interested in using the existing VanCam programming to hone in on the pockets and sprawl of Jewish community across LA. Many of the Jewish communities in LA are very insular, while others seamlessly meld into the general population of LA. With both cases i am interested in giving youth a voice, through photography, to visually represent their own identity and community. The photographs that the youth take in each workshop will ultimately be shown publicly in a youth oriented setting - such as a school - allowing the images to communicate different ideas of community across many subgroups of youth in LA. Ultimately, this next step of the Mobile Pinhole Project will allow Jewish youth across LA to share their vision of community and young Jewish identity with youth across LA.
Cassio Tolpolar
Project Name: Mamaliga Blues
Description: Mamaliga Blues tells the story of my family adventure in Moldova. Having the camera as my eye, everything is seen through its lens. We walk through the capital Chisinau, Edinitz, Orhei and many other cities and villages, experiencing what Moldova is, its variety of ethnicities, and the few Jews who still live there. This Jewish population is not renewing itself, it is not getting any younger, and its memories are dying. It belongs to a past that is slowly vanishing. Monuments, buildings, and landmarks of the once vibrating Jewish community are in decay.
Former Soviet Republic and independent since 1991, Moldova is a country in construction; in search of identity - it is a country without being a nation. Moldovans are divided between the ones who miss the old days of Russian communism and those who dream of progress and identify with Romania. Ironically, I traveled to look for the traces of my people in a country with troubled memories of its own history and uncertain of its past.
Mamaliga is a staple food in Moldova. Going back to our roots meant something like Mamaliga: something basic, warm and strangely familiar.
Mamaliga Blues will be available for word-of-mouth screenings and limited runs at Community Centers, museums, cultural institutions, schools, consulates, Universities and conferences/events, where the director will make himself available for Q&A and press interviews. We will generate a discussion forum on the film’s website for anyone interested in genealogy and specially Moldova travel, as it is still a country to be discovered either for tourism or genealogical research. I will share the project with the SEDER Community by showing film clips, if possible. If not, I will show pictures and materials from our previous Moldova trip.
Project Name: Rona Yefman (May, 2012), Annie Wharton Los Angeles
Description: Annie Wharton Los Angeles submitted a proposal to help fund the Rona Yefman and Davida Nemeroff exhibition entitled Shellfish. The funds requested where to cover travel and program costs. If selected the SEDER community would be invited to a private a private tour of the exhibition, there will be a lively panel discussion with the artist, curator Annie Wharton, and special guests (photographers Barak Zemer and Davida Nemeroff). AWLA will provide a delicious kosher brunch with refreshing homemade mint lemonade.
Rona Yefman (Haifa, Israel, 1972) is engaged in notions of freedom, and the gap between what we are and what we want to be. Yefman often collaborates with individuals that have formed a radical persona, documenting her relationship to them and exploring identity with photography, video, and text. Her practice reveals the humanity of her subjects, reinventing positive and complex notions of a customized conception of identity. Rona Yefman interweaves second-wave feminism, gender politics, and Israeli identity. Her work speak directly to the young, female Jewish community. Concurrently AWLA will be showing the solo show of Davida Nemeroff, a local artist who moved here from Canada. The two women were classmates in Columbia for their MFAs, where they met years ago. Both women are important emerging Jewish female artists who bring exotic voices to the experience of Judaism.
Update: The Annie Wharton Gallery did not receive a SEDER grant. However, our Planning Team was able to introduce them to several key community figures who provided support for this exhibition. Rona Yefman was able to come to LA to install the exhibition and gave several artist talks. Annie Wharton Los Angeles invited the members of the SEDER community to a special event at the gallery on 5.17.12 in celebration of the solo show of Israeli artist Rona Yefman, who will be in town for the exhibit. The exhibition ran from May 12 through June 12, 2012. Rona Yefman and Davida Nemeroff exhibition entitled Shellfish was a wonderful success and was even selected on 6.14.12 as one of LA Weekly's Five Artsy Things to Do This Week.
Andrea Hodos and Ayesha S. Chaudhry
Project Name: Sinai and Sunna: Two Women Covering, Uncovering and Recovering
Description: “Sinai and Sunna: Two Women Covering, Uncovering, Recovering” is a dance/theater performance and discussion about balancing tradition and modernity with integrity -- geared toward Jews, Muslims and others. The performers -- one Jewish, the other Muslim, one an artist, the other an academic – tell their personal narrativesabout their own religious journeys. The pieces lead audiences through stories about covering, hair, body and culture in the performers’ lives and in their respective traditions. We will blend two solo shows to create the evening-long performance with community-based discussion. Andrea Hodos and Ayesha S. Chaudhry plan to create multiple versions of ‘Sinai Sunna’ for community venues (universities, high schools, synagogues, mosques, churches, community centers) as well as more highly produced stage settings. We will commission a score from Academy award-winning Yuval Ron Ensemble (an interfaith middle-eastern ensemble) that will be recorded or live, depending upon the setting. We will commission simple and adaptable sets that can easily travel.
We hope to stage performances in Los Angeles at various junctures of the project. If we are successful in our initial fundraising, the first will be a staged reading as a work in progress, July 2012. We will consider ourselves fortunate to have among our audience-members people from the SEDER community who are thinking about culture and religion in nuanced ways and can give us thoughtful feedback on our work.
Nina T. Becker (Jonas)
Project Name: The Mobile Pinhole Project
Description: Using a giant camera on wheels, the Mobile Pinhole Project makes visual arts geographically and technologically accessible by allowing youth in neighborhoods across Los Angeles inside the mechanism of photography to empower a collective visual exploration of identity, culture, and place. The Mobile Pinhole Project engages LA youth in hands-on, day-long photography workshops using the VanCam, a van retrofitted into a giant pinhole camera. We are committed to providing access to visual expression as a fundamental building block for the development of individual identity, communication, and critical thinking. Through innovative mobile programming, youth of all backgrounds and levels of experience are able to benefit from experiential arts learning in neighborhoods across Los Angeles.In workshops guided by professional local artists, young people go inside the camera and experience photography at its most basic components: light and paper. Prompted by guiding questions, youth work together to create a large format photograph that represents their collective insight into identity, culture, and place. By bringing the VanCam to local neighborhoods, demonstrating photography at a human scale, and guiding youth to visually explore their communities, the Mobile Pinhole Project makes artistic expression geographically, technologically, and conceptually accessible.
I want to use this funding to focus our programming on the Jewish areas in LA, bringing the VanCam to Jewish schools and community centers in LA. I am interested in using the existing VanCam programming to hone in on the pockets and sprawl of Jewish community across LA. Many of the Jewish communities in LA are very insular, while others seamlessly meld into the general population of LA. With both cases i am interested in giving youth a voice, through photography, to visually represent their own identity and community. The photographs that the youth take in each workshop will ultimately be shown publicly in a youth oriented setting - such as a school - allowing the images to communicate different ideas of community across many subgroups of youth in LA. Ultimately, this next step of the Mobile Pinhole Project will allow Jewish youth across LA to share their vision of community and young Jewish identity with youth across LA.
Cassio Tolpolar
Project Name: Mamaliga Blues
Description: Mamaliga Blues tells the story of my family adventure in Moldova. Having the camera as my eye, everything is seen through its lens. We walk through the capital Chisinau, Edinitz, Orhei and many other cities and villages, experiencing what Moldova is, its variety of ethnicities, and the few Jews who still live there. This Jewish population is not renewing itself, it is not getting any younger, and its memories are dying. It belongs to a past that is slowly vanishing. Monuments, buildings, and landmarks of the once vibrating Jewish community are in decay.
Former Soviet Republic and independent since 1991, Moldova is a country in construction; in search of identity - it is a country without being a nation. Moldovans are divided between the ones who miss the old days of Russian communism and those who dream of progress and identify with Romania. Ironically, I traveled to look for the traces of my people in a country with troubled memories of its own history and uncertain of its past.
Mamaliga is a staple food in Moldova. Going back to our roots meant something like Mamaliga: something basic, warm and strangely familiar.
Mamaliga Blues will be available for word-of-mouth screenings and limited runs at Community Centers, museums, cultural institutions, schools, consulates, Universities and conferences/events, where the director will make himself available for Q&A and press interviews. We will generate a discussion forum on the film’s website for anyone interested in genealogy and specially Moldova travel, as it is still a country to be discovered either for tourism or genealogical research. I will share the project with the SEDER Community by showing film clips, if possible. If not, I will show pictures and materials from our previous Moldova trip.
SEDER 12.12.11 Project Proposals
Julia Adolphe
Project Name: “Sylvia: a one-act chamber opera”
Description: Sylvia will be a one-act chamber opera set in psychodrama therapy, a unique branch of psychoanalysis where patients work together to explore past traumas through the medium of theater. Psychodrama, invented by Jewish immigrant Dr. Jacob Moreno, enables patients to step in and out of multiple characters, imagine alternate outcomes to difficult situations, and even portray inanimate objects or abstract concepts. Sylvia is the session’s “protagonist,” the patient selected by the doctors to act out scenes from her life with the aid of the group. The opera explores the personal and cultural past of a young Jewish woman who, as a teenager, engaged in a sexual relationship with a much older man who was a friend of her father. As Sylvia grapples with her personal past, she reflects on the history of her culture: both Sylvia and her father’s friend are the descendants of Holocaust survivors.
The 40-minute chamber opera will be scored for flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, marimba, violin, viola, and cello. The characters include Sylvia, a soprano, Female Doctor, a mezzo, Male Patient, a tenor, and Male Doctor, a baritone.
If awarded, I would use these funds to set up an initial performance of my chamber opera that will be free and open to the public. It will take the form of a workshop and panel discussion so that the audience can give feedback that I can incorporate into subsequent drafts. The performance will be on April 14, 2012 at the Lost Studio Theater. I hope to also perform excerpts of the opera around LA in diverse spaces: religious centers, art galleries, music festivals, universities, and community or cultural centers.
Update: The latest e-news from SEDER Art Night and Nu ART misquoted information on her project, our deepest apologies. The SEDER team mistaken thought they helped to facilitate a program opportunity. This wonderful event held at the LA Museum of the Holocaust was the result of Adolphe's contacts. We are still extremely excited to report the growing success of her project and hope everyone in the community will see "Sylvia," soon.
Julia Adolphe was able to raise funds to complete her project. "Sylvia" the opera premiered on April 14th & 15th at The Lost Studio in Los Angeles, CA. It was sold out both nights. Additionally, Adolphe was invited by the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust to perform an excerpt from Sylvia as part of their Yom HaShoah Holocaust Commemoration held on Sunday, April 22, 2012. Mazel Tov - Julia.
Polly Hall
Project Name: Ma Tovu Redux
Description: The 7th grade class at Pressman Academy Religious School is on a mission: to make a new melody for Ma Tovu that DOESN'T STINK! These first-time songwriters are hoping to create a melody that's catchy and way less sad. After the class has created its masterpiece, they will be responsible for teaching the tune to the Kindergarten and First Grade classes, who will be leading the prayer at our all-school Shabbat morning service in February.
With a Seder grant, I'm able to offer the kids some extra incentive. As a professional music-maker, I can help them turn their tune into a track. Partly in my studio and partly on-location at the school, we can stage recording sessions and even have the song professionally mixed. A special incentive could be that a few of the most engaged kids could visit the studio.
I will be providing the gear necessary for our recording sessions and video editing at a discounted rate and will donate my time as well. A friend of mine, Justin Hergett (Assistant Engineer: Lady Gaga, Robin Thicke, Robbie Robertson, Jason Derulo, Javier Colon, Jason Mraz), is also willing to mix the song at a discounted rate. Finally, the kids would like to make a music video and put it on Youtube. Both the new tune and music video would be shared with the SEDER community. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to help the Pressman Academy Religious School Redux Ma Tovu and support music education in Jewish settings!
Update: As a result of the SEDER Art Event, the Planning Team approached Temple Beth Am to support this project. We are excited to report that the Religious School received a generous grant from the LA Federation in support of the arts. The Polly Hall project "Ma Tovu Redux" has received full support from Temple Beth Am. The kids learned how to compose Jewish music and spice up Ma Tovu. Click here to see the final music video written and directed by the kids. Thanks, Polly Hall and Temple Beth Am for keeping it real.
Jessie Kahnwiler
Project Name: "Dude, Where's my Chutzpah?"
Description: “Dude, Where’s my Chutzpah?” is an exploration in friendship, identity, and self-growth. My goal with is to create work that can both entertain and inspire an audience to discover their inner chutzpah; that part of themselves that may not necessarily get nourished on a daily basis. There is the perception that there are strict parameters in what it means to be Jewish (being Jewish means going to this place at this time and reciting this prayer not eating this). Often focusing about what you CAN’T do. The purpose of this project is TO SHOW how self-empowering it can be to define your own spiritual identity. How Religion can be a springboard in helping you understand society, the environment, and most importantly the voice within. The project will be a series of comedic webisodes centering a young woman's adventures in Los Angeles discovering her chutzpah.
The grant will help cover production costs of the webisodes. I want to evolve the LA Jewish community by creating an interactive website through which the Chutzpah Movement can grow. I also plan on hosting a series of parties/screenings with other members of the local creative artists community in order to spread the chutzpah message!
Jessie Kahnwiler is a current Los Angeles Six Points Fellow. You can learn more about her project "Dude, Where's my Chutzpah" and upcoming events by visiting her Six Points Page.
Project Name: “Sylvia: a one-act chamber opera”
Description: Sylvia will be a one-act chamber opera set in psychodrama therapy, a unique branch of psychoanalysis where patients work together to explore past traumas through the medium of theater. Psychodrama, invented by Jewish immigrant Dr. Jacob Moreno, enables patients to step in and out of multiple characters, imagine alternate outcomes to difficult situations, and even portray inanimate objects or abstract concepts. Sylvia is the session’s “protagonist,” the patient selected by the doctors to act out scenes from her life with the aid of the group. The opera explores the personal and cultural past of a young Jewish woman who, as a teenager, engaged in a sexual relationship with a much older man who was a friend of her father. As Sylvia grapples with her personal past, she reflects on the history of her culture: both Sylvia and her father’s friend are the descendants of Holocaust survivors.
The 40-minute chamber opera will be scored for flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, marimba, violin, viola, and cello. The characters include Sylvia, a soprano, Female Doctor, a mezzo, Male Patient, a tenor, and Male Doctor, a baritone.
If awarded, I would use these funds to set up an initial performance of my chamber opera that will be free and open to the public. It will take the form of a workshop and panel discussion so that the audience can give feedback that I can incorporate into subsequent drafts. The performance will be on April 14, 2012 at the Lost Studio Theater. I hope to also perform excerpts of the opera around LA in diverse spaces: religious centers, art galleries, music festivals, universities, and community or cultural centers.
Update: The latest e-news from SEDER Art Night and Nu ART misquoted information on her project, our deepest apologies. The SEDER team mistaken thought they helped to facilitate a program opportunity. This wonderful event held at the LA Museum of the Holocaust was the result of Adolphe's contacts. We are still extremely excited to report the growing success of her project and hope everyone in the community will see "Sylvia," soon.
Julia Adolphe was able to raise funds to complete her project. "Sylvia" the opera premiered on April 14th & 15th at The Lost Studio in Los Angeles, CA. It was sold out both nights. Additionally, Adolphe was invited by the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust to perform an excerpt from Sylvia as part of their Yom HaShoah Holocaust Commemoration held on Sunday, April 22, 2012. Mazel Tov - Julia.
Polly Hall
Project Name: Ma Tovu Redux
Description: The 7th grade class at Pressman Academy Religious School is on a mission: to make a new melody for Ma Tovu that DOESN'T STINK! These first-time songwriters are hoping to create a melody that's catchy and way less sad. After the class has created its masterpiece, they will be responsible for teaching the tune to the Kindergarten and First Grade classes, who will be leading the prayer at our all-school Shabbat morning service in February.
With a Seder grant, I'm able to offer the kids some extra incentive. As a professional music-maker, I can help them turn their tune into a track. Partly in my studio and partly on-location at the school, we can stage recording sessions and even have the song professionally mixed. A special incentive could be that a few of the most engaged kids could visit the studio.
I will be providing the gear necessary for our recording sessions and video editing at a discounted rate and will donate my time as well. A friend of mine, Justin Hergett (Assistant Engineer: Lady Gaga, Robin Thicke, Robbie Robertson, Jason Derulo, Javier Colon, Jason Mraz), is also willing to mix the song at a discounted rate. Finally, the kids would like to make a music video and put it on Youtube. Both the new tune and music video would be shared with the SEDER community. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to help the Pressman Academy Religious School Redux Ma Tovu and support music education in Jewish settings!
Update: As a result of the SEDER Art Event, the Planning Team approached Temple Beth Am to support this project. We are excited to report that the Religious School received a generous grant from the LA Federation in support of the arts. The Polly Hall project "Ma Tovu Redux" has received full support from Temple Beth Am. The kids learned how to compose Jewish music and spice up Ma Tovu. Click here to see the final music video written and directed by the kids. Thanks, Polly Hall and Temple Beth Am for keeping it real.
Jessie Kahnwiler
Project Name: "Dude, Where's my Chutzpah?"
Description: “Dude, Where’s my Chutzpah?” is an exploration in friendship, identity, and self-growth. My goal with is to create work that can both entertain and inspire an audience to discover their inner chutzpah; that part of themselves that may not necessarily get nourished on a daily basis. There is the perception that there are strict parameters in what it means to be Jewish (being Jewish means going to this place at this time and reciting this prayer not eating this). Often focusing about what you CAN’T do. The purpose of this project is TO SHOW how self-empowering it can be to define your own spiritual identity. How Religion can be a springboard in helping you understand society, the environment, and most importantly the voice within. The project will be a series of comedic webisodes centering a young woman's adventures in Los Angeles discovering her chutzpah.
The grant will help cover production costs of the webisodes. I want to evolve the LA Jewish community by creating an interactive website through which the Chutzpah Movement can grow. I also plan on hosting a series of parties/screenings with other members of the local creative artists community in order to spread the chutzpah message!
Jessie Kahnwiler is a current Los Angeles Six Points Fellow. You can learn more about her project "Dude, Where's my Chutzpah" and upcoming events by visiting her Six Points Page.
SEDER 5.4.11 Project Proposals
Georgia Freedman-Harvey
Project Name: Connections & Community
Description: This project is about connecting with other creative people in the Jewish community through the exchange of handmade amulets. The idea for the project began 3 years ago when a friend of mine moved to the east coast. We wanted a way to stay connected that went beyond phone calls and emails. We wanted a way to dialogue with each other that focused on our connection to Judaism and involved our artistic abilities. What came to be has been a three-year exchange of hamsas. Along the way other artists and like-minded people have asked if they can be a part of this dialogue. This grant provides the opportunity to broaden the dialogue and recognize that people want to connect on a very personal level. Through this exchange there is an opportunity to explore what it means to be Jewish, to create dialogues about sacred spaces, rituals, the transforming of old symbols into new, and the importance of doing mitzvot as part of our daily lives.
This project will expand the conversation and allows other creative Jewish members of the community to become involved. To take the leap to a larger group we need some seed money to formalize and track the exchanges of amulets. Connections and Community will focus on all types of amulets. It will allow artists who want to share their creativity, who want to connect with other Jewish artists and are interested in the value of art and dialogue in a Jewish context to join in the project. An important aspect of the project is that the dialogue happens across the country with artists that otherwise would not connect with each other and yet share common interests, concerns and passions for Judaism and Jewish art. The project encourages creativity, dialogue and a sharing of ideas centered around Jewish traditions.
The grant will give the seed money to formalize the exchange of amulets with artists on both coasts. The money will be used to track the exchange of pieces and create a secure site for posting information about the project. The project will start with a small pool of artists that have already expressed interest in the project, but the funds will allow us to document the project with the goal of expanding it.
Mikey Pauker
Project Name: The Lost Tribe Minyan Series
Description: The Lost Tribe Minyan is a gathering of Jews who are disconnected from the traditional and halacha-bound forms of Judaism who connect with progressive and transformative approaches to spirituality. Transformative Judaism allows us to connect with Judaism though experiential methods through singing, dancing, hiking, surfing, eating, hugging, biking, praying, doing!!!!!
I will create this independent minyan this fall for Jews from ages 18-40 who are looking for out-of-the-box progressive and transformative approaches to minyanim. I will set up a monthly minyan using the melodies we created and camp style folk melodies that exist in Jewish summer camps and shabbatons. We will participate in locations including Jewish Camps, Beaches, Mountain Hikes, Houses, all depending on the activities included in the prayer. There will also be a potluck included. LA Jews will now have the option of attending these transformative prayer opportunities with other Jews who are like minded and searching for deeper meaning.
I have been writing purely liturgical music inspired by this new prayer idea, and this money will help finance the actual recording of the project. This grant will help pay for a short documentary that will summarize this creative experience. I will use the grant to help with distribution and a website that will promote the minyanim, documentary and recordings. I hope to expand this idea to work with guest producers per track including names like: Dan Nichols, Craig Taubman, Neshama Carlebach, Sam Glaser, David Broza.
Julie Auerbach
Project Name: Taking charge of your health: in the kitchen
Description: “Let your food be your medicine” – Hippocrates. As a raw food chef and an individual who has been eating, primarily, living foods for nearly 2 years, I have seen my health, energy, and overall well-being skyrocket. Through an intimate cooking class, in your own home, I will teach you and your friends, how to prepare gourmet, living foods into your daily routine.
Ask anyone in your immediate family if they have any friends or relatives with stomach issues, low energy or other health problems and I guarantee they will say yes. I want to help make this Jewish Community, the SEDER community, and the world a healthier place, through food. As Jews, we spend most of our time thinking about food, eating, or talking about what food we will be eating next, and I want to make the eating experience a nourishing experience as well as one that is enjoyed by all!
I will use this grant to help buy the raw-cooking materials, new kosher knives, and the basic kitchenware needed to host my first class.
Project Name: Connections & Community
Description: This project is about connecting with other creative people in the Jewish community through the exchange of handmade amulets. The idea for the project began 3 years ago when a friend of mine moved to the east coast. We wanted a way to stay connected that went beyond phone calls and emails. We wanted a way to dialogue with each other that focused on our connection to Judaism and involved our artistic abilities. What came to be has been a three-year exchange of hamsas. Along the way other artists and like-minded people have asked if they can be a part of this dialogue. This grant provides the opportunity to broaden the dialogue and recognize that people want to connect on a very personal level. Through this exchange there is an opportunity to explore what it means to be Jewish, to create dialogues about sacred spaces, rituals, the transforming of old symbols into new, and the importance of doing mitzvot as part of our daily lives.
This project will expand the conversation and allows other creative Jewish members of the community to become involved. To take the leap to a larger group we need some seed money to formalize and track the exchanges of amulets. Connections and Community will focus on all types of amulets. It will allow artists who want to share their creativity, who want to connect with other Jewish artists and are interested in the value of art and dialogue in a Jewish context to join in the project. An important aspect of the project is that the dialogue happens across the country with artists that otherwise would not connect with each other and yet share common interests, concerns and passions for Judaism and Jewish art. The project encourages creativity, dialogue and a sharing of ideas centered around Jewish traditions.
The grant will give the seed money to formalize the exchange of amulets with artists on both coasts. The money will be used to track the exchange of pieces and create a secure site for posting information about the project. The project will start with a small pool of artists that have already expressed interest in the project, but the funds will allow us to document the project with the goal of expanding it.
Mikey Pauker
Project Name: The Lost Tribe Minyan Series
Description: The Lost Tribe Minyan is a gathering of Jews who are disconnected from the traditional and halacha-bound forms of Judaism who connect with progressive and transformative approaches to spirituality. Transformative Judaism allows us to connect with Judaism though experiential methods through singing, dancing, hiking, surfing, eating, hugging, biking, praying, doing!!!!!
I will create this independent minyan this fall for Jews from ages 18-40 who are looking for out-of-the-box progressive and transformative approaches to minyanim. I will set up a monthly minyan using the melodies we created and camp style folk melodies that exist in Jewish summer camps and shabbatons. We will participate in locations including Jewish Camps, Beaches, Mountain Hikes, Houses, all depending on the activities included in the prayer. There will also be a potluck included. LA Jews will now have the option of attending these transformative prayer opportunities with other Jews who are like minded and searching for deeper meaning.
I have been writing purely liturgical music inspired by this new prayer idea, and this money will help finance the actual recording of the project. This grant will help pay for a short documentary that will summarize this creative experience. I will use the grant to help with distribution and a website that will promote the minyanim, documentary and recordings. I hope to expand this idea to work with guest producers per track including names like: Dan Nichols, Craig Taubman, Neshama Carlebach, Sam Glaser, David Broza.
Julie Auerbach
Project Name: Taking charge of your health: in the kitchen
Description: “Let your food be your medicine” – Hippocrates. As a raw food chef and an individual who has been eating, primarily, living foods for nearly 2 years, I have seen my health, energy, and overall well-being skyrocket. Through an intimate cooking class, in your own home, I will teach you and your friends, how to prepare gourmet, living foods into your daily routine.
Ask anyone in your immediate family if they have any friends or relatives with stomach issues, low energy or other health problems and I guarantee they will say yes. I want to help make this Jewish Community, the SEDER community, and the world a healthier place, through food. As Jews, we spend most of our time thinking about food, eating, or talking about what food we will be eating next, and I want to make the eating experience a nourishing experience as well as one that is enjoyed by all!
I will use this grant to help buy the raw-cooking materials, new kosher knives, and the basic kitchenware needed to host my first class.
SEDER 2.22.11 Project Proposals
Eileen Levinson
Project Name: Haggadot.com
Description: Haggadot.com is an online workspace for Jews of all backgrounds to upload, exchange and personalize Passover Haggadot.
Marcie Kaufman
Project Name: The LAtke Project
Description: The LAtke Project is a performance based arts initiative that will reconnect historical Jewish sites around Los Angeles with Jewish culture through the distribution of latkes, traditional Jewish potato pancakes. With a team of LAtkettes, I will cook 360 latkes and give them out for free on the street at different historically Jewish sites that no longer have a Jewish presence. Each latke will be served on a printed napkin that shares what a latke is and gives a brief historical fact about the Jewish community at that place. The napkins will be printed in English and another dominant language spoken in that community
Kate Alkarni
Project Name: Beauty in Modesty
Description: I want to draw attention to the beauty in modesty while promoting both religious and cultural tolerance through art. I will take photographs of women dressed covered traditionally Orthodox, in a nontraditional way. I will be hand-making sheitels/wigs in a way that no Orthodox woman has worn a wig before. I will then take the photographs and make a Calendar for 2012 which 50% of the profits will go to a Charity chosen by you, the voter. I plan to sell the Calendar within the Jewish Community as well as outside. Religious tolerance, acceptance and appreciation are cornerstones of peace.
Ayana Morse & Josh Feldman
Project Name: Same Old Story
Description: We are t-shirt poets dedicated to putting our words in new places. We propose, for SEDER, telling the story of the Breed Street Shul in Boyle heights. The Shul was built in 1915 and is one of the last standing pieces of Jewish history in this vibrant neighborhood. Each shirt is silkscreened by hand, and is set-up like the page of a picture book. Same Old Story is a collaboration between Ayana Morse and Josh Feldman.
Project Name: Haggadot.com
Description: Haggadot.com is an online workspace for Jews of all backgrounds to upload, exchange and personalize Passover Haggadot.
Marcie Kaufman
Project Name: The LAtke Project
Description: The LAtke Project is a performance based arts initiative that will reconnect historical Jewish sites around Los Angeles with Jewish culture through the distribution of latkes, traditional Jewish potato pancakes. With a team of LAtkettes, I will cook 360 latkes and give them out for free on the street at different historically Jewish sites that no longer have a Jewish presence. Each latke will be served on a printed napkin that shares what a latke is and gives a brief historical fact about the Jewish community at that place. The napkins will be printed in English and another dominant language spoken in that community
Kate Alkarni
Project Name: Beauty in Modesty
Description: I want to draw attention to the beauty in modesty while promoting both religious and cultural tolerance through art. I will take photographs of women dressed covered traditionally Orthodox, in a nontraditional way. I will be hand-making sheitels/wigs in a way that no Orthodox woman has worn a wig before. I will then take the photographs and make a Calendar for 2012 which 50% of the profits will go to a Charity chosen by you, the voter. I plan to sell the Calendar within the Jewish Community as well as outside. Religious tolerance, acceptance and appreciation are cornerstones of peace.
Ayana Morse & Josh Feldman
Project Name: Same Old Story
Description: We are t-shirt poets dedicated to putting our words in new places. We propose, for SEDER, telling the story of the Breed Street Shul in Boyle heights. The Shul was built in 1915 and is one of the last standing pieces of Jewish history in this vibrant neighborhood. Each shirt is silkscreened by hand, and is set-up like the page of a picture book. Same Old Story is a collaboration between Ayana Morse and Josh Feldman.
