Art and the city

How to groom a city by making its artists feel at home: Jerusalem’s city center as an example.

By JUDITH SUDILOVSKY
Art by Muslala’s art group (photo credit: ARIK FUTTERMAN)
Art by Muslala’s art group
(photo credit: ARIK FUTTERMAN)
For years after it was built, the drab concrete Clal building on the edge of the open-air Mahaneh Yehuda market in downtown Jerusalem remained a lingering symbol of a failed attempt at innovative architecture in the city. Storefronts remained empty, artificial lighting and horrendous acoustics only added to its saddened state, and one could easily get disoriented going up its circular stairs.
But then last year Muslala, a community of artists, stepped in and saw the beauty in the much-maligned building. As a group of creative artistic innovators who deal with urbanization, they decided to create for themselves a home at the very top floor of the building which had long been neglected and ignored. With its floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding doors leading onto an enormous rooftop, they saw the opportunity of not only bringing new life to the building but also designing a space where the residents of the surrounding community could be invited to participate in creative activities as well.
Muslala is part of a growing art community in Jerusalem that sees itself as an integral and socially active part of the city’s landscape and social tapestry, using the urban background of Jerusalem’s communities and neighborhoods as a canvas for its work as it explores and discovers the city’s uniqueness – among the artists themselves and the city’s residents.
Art by Muslala’s art group (photo credit: MATAN ISRAELI)
Art by Muslala’s art group (photo credit: MATAN ISRAELI)
Together with professional guidance from independent architect Ze’ev Arad and with the help of a donation from the Jerusalem Foundation, they were able to fulfill a potential that others had overlooked to build what they now call The Terrace – a gathering place for community art creation, urban agriculture, workshops, concerts and more in an urban setting.
True to their belief in community involvement, they invited the local community to participate in parts of the planning and creation of the space via a focused workshop that included hands-on work as well as various lectures.
“The Clal building had all the potential to succeed, you just needed a certain imagination to see what had been planned here and find out what its potential was. They were willing to give us a chance on something never done before: let artists be decision- makers. We deal with urbanization in all its elements, the environment, education, the community,” says Matan Israeli, founder and artistic director of Muslala.
“We grow and change our program according to what is happening around us...
We are artists who create on a background, and the city itself inspires us and inspires our vision of what kind of community and city we would like to live in and create...”
Israeli notes that they also go out into the community to bring creative works to a larger audience.
“We have the capacity to surprise the city, to show how very fast change can happen,” he says. “People sometimes fall asleep in their daily routine. We are trying to change, to think differently about things.”
UNLIKE TEL Aviv, where the art scene is propelled by the gallery and art collection market, many feel that Jerusalem artists are focused on the creativity aspect of their work, creating more for the pure sake of creating.
Some, like Atcha Bar, director of culture and art at the Jerusalem Foundation and director of the Yellow Submarine live music venue, shudder at the thought of having the city’s scene compared to Tel Aviv.
“Jerusalem is not Tel Aviv and it does not need to be like Tel Aviv,” says Bar. “The city needs to use what it has.”
“There is a uniqueness to Jerusalem, but it is not something you can put your finger on as one straight line,” agrees Eyal Sher, CEO of the Israel Festival. “It is more of a feeling, a subtext of the thing, than the overtone of it. Jerusalem with its religious, political and social demographic complexity creates a rich cultural lens for artists.”
As the city’s demographics have changed over the past several decades, so has its cultural scene, he notes, and growing communities such as the ultra-Orthodox as well as Arab residents of east Jerusalem also need art and culture appropriate to their communities.
“We see buds of art and culture blooming in those communities,” says Sher.
Nevertheless, the decrease in the secular middle class of the city has by nature also decreased the potential audience for culture and art in the city, according to Bar.
“There is a clear connection between a blossoming art and culture scene and a society more open to that,” says Bar, “so while nurturing an audience for the arts in the other communities is laudable, it is still vital to strengthen and support those who already value arts and culture in the city.”
One of the city’s strengths, Sher says, remains its numerous flagship cultural and educational institutions, such as the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, the Sam Spiegel School of Film, the Center for Classical Middle Eastern Music and Dance, the Khan Theater, the Cinematheque, the Israel Museum, the Bible Lands Museum and the Tower of David Museum.
“There are a lot of students in the art scene here, and they are an integral part of the scene. People from Jerusalem and elsewhere come here and they become part of the face of Jerusalem,” he says.
The building of new campuses of several of these art schools in the city center is also an important physical process that will contribute to the increasing vibrancy of the Jerusalem art scene by bringing in a younger demographic to the area, notes Sher.
(photo credit: KEREN FRENKEL)
(photo credit: KEREN FRENKEL)
THOUGH THE city budget for art and culture is small, and although the municipality under Nir Barkat has supported some artistic and cultural initiatives, some who are involved in the city’s art scene say that a distinction needs to be made between “art and culture” and “street festivals.”
Art should be a goal unto itself and not used as an attraction for another purpose such as tourism, they say.
“I am of the belief that art is important enough to create for its own sake. The creation of high art and culture should not be for another side effect,” says Bar, voicing the opinion of many in the community. “There is an atmosphere of real study and creation here... The government has to decide that this is something they want to invest in. It is difficult though because we are a poor city.
They have to decide what they want to prioritize.”
INDEED, SOMETIMES the daily reality of the city becomes an active player in the art, says Lee He Shulov, co-director together with Rinat Edelstein of the week-long Manofim Contemporary Art Festival that has recently completed its ninth iteration.
Last year the opening of the festival coincided with the outbreak of what became known as the “knife intifada,” and while there were tensions in the city, the festival continued and the feedback was very supportive, says Shulov.
“People told us how important it was at that moment to touch art and to open their hearts and minds and air themselves out and think and hope for something else. That also has importance. Suddenly, we can open our thinking and widen our hearts,” she says.
Reacting to the reality in which it exists is precisely the role art should take in a society, she says.
“Maybe that is why some artists prefer to stay here. Because of the complexity of the situation, they can find all kinds of meetings with all kinds of people. It is not a homogeneous environment,” says Shulov. “There is more possibility of things happening here, because of this meeting of people different than you. I have to be optimistic; I do believe and see and think that we and others need to meet in a place free of tension, to see them as people and not just the way the media shows them.”