City curator

Hana Hertsman, the municipal general manager who helped turn Holon into an art center, has opened an exhibition for the first time.

By SHULY WASSERSTROM
The Beit Meirov Art Gallery (photo credit: Courtesy)
The Beit Meirov Art Gallery
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Twenty years ago, the city of Holon, located a mere three kilometers south of Tel Aviv, consisted of a much different atmosphere than today. The small city, on the outskirts of a bustling metropolis, was hiding in the big city’s shadows, struggling to make a place for itself among other up-and-coming cities in Israel. Located alongside the coast, the city’s name, Holon, derived from hol, meaning “sand,” serves as a reminder of what it once was: a whole lot of sand.
Fast forward to 2014, and Holon has successfully adopted a whole new face for itself. The city, still relatively small in size, but boasting a lower cost of living than up the road in Tel Aviv, is becoming known around the world for world-class art museums, events and programming and architecture that make up the city.
The city’s new and flattering international reputation is largely due in part to the city’s general manager, Hana Hertsman. Hertsman, who has been in the position since 1993, sees the ever-evolving city as an artistic hub for the country.
Humble to admit her personal influence over the gentrification process, she acknowledges the drastic change that has overcome the city since she took office more than 20 years ago.
“Art is a trigger for change,” she says. “The vision of the city of Holon is having accessible art be available by all means and to all people.
“The city did not exactly look like this when I started my job,” she says.
Large, colorful sculptures are spread throughout the city, representing and promoting the notion that art does not always have to come in traditional forms, hung inside gallery walls closed off to many. Adapting art to fit into a youthful, modern city, and especially incorporating into the “aesthetics of the city,” she says, makes gentrification possible and helps insert new life into places that need it.
The city’s emphasis on outdoor, accessible art, including the importance of the architecture of many buildings, “bridges gaps between many people,” says Hertsman.
Motti Sasson, who has been the mayor of Holon alongside Hertsman since 1993, also pushes for change through the arts.
Together the duo have launched hundreds of city-wide initiatives that incorporate art into the landscape of the city in order to bring new life to it.
One of their greatest successes together has been the Design Museum Holon, whose iconic building was designed by designer Ron Arad. The internationally recognized museum hosts a range of exhibitions throughout the year, presenting the best of international design from a diverse set of disciplines, including industrial design, fashion, textiles and jewelry. The museum brought international attention when it was chosen to represent Israel as a “guest country” in Spain during Barcelona Design Week, which takes place June 2 through 14.
The initiative, the collaboration of Design Museum Holon and the Israeli Embassy in Spain, will include exhibitions, conferences, business meetings and networking sessions.
Hertsman’s personal vision for the city is not limited to the arts.
She also puts a large emphasis on children and young families as a means to enrich the city’s culture. She dubbed Holon “The City of Kids,” which takes form in festivals and other accommodating events for families with young children. Her initiative to integrate arts and youngsters throughout the city’s scenery presents itself in various forms: The Israeli Children’s Museum, Hertsman’s personal initiative, offers entertainment for children as young as two and a half years old, with five “adventure routes” tailored to different age groups. As well, the Israeli Cartoon Museum, the only one of its kind in the country, presents both permanent and rotating exhibitions of the best of Israeli and international cartoonists and comics creators.
The Israel Puppet Center, with a museum dedicated to the art of puppetry, holds guided tours for groups that include workshops and experiential performances.
As well, there are 40 “Story Gardens” scattered throughout the city and are open all day long to the public, free of charge.
Providing activities for young families that incorporate the arts into daily life also draws more young families to live in the city, which has much to offer them. The growing population, currently standing at 200,000, benefits from the various initiatives of the city and young families are able to prosper alongside the evolving city.
Hertsman’s goal to push the arts to be integrated into daily life for residents starts with education for all ages, and comes from a belief that “lives can be enriched greatly by art,” she says.
She explains it was her personal mission to incorporate arts into the Holon school system. “We teach arts in the schools here, and it’s always emphasized in the curriculum.”
School groups of all ages visit the various landmarks throughout the city as part of daily learning, Hertsman says.
She says arts and culture, across various discienriched and exciting.
“I want to send the message to children and young families that through art we can bring change,” she says.
“The message in Holon is that arts are essential for children and youth to grow up with.”
HERTSMAN’S PERSONAL connection and appreciation for the arts world runs even deeper than her connection to Holon. A graduate of museum studies at Tel Aviv University, she was able to fulfill a dream by opening an exhibition this past weekend at the Beit Meirov Art Gallery in Holon. The gallery hosted an international exhibit from Poland, called Revolt, as well as a juxtaposed exhibit, Polish Jewel, curated by Hertsman herself.
“Revolt” is an annual jewelry competition, which takes place in Legnica, Poland. The competition challenges artists to create a piece that juxtaposes the notion of jewelry, usually associated with wealth, against the harsh realities and challenges facing the world today.
This past month, for the 22nd time, around 50 art pieces from 43 countries won prizes in the international competition.
They are being presented in the Beit Meirov Art Gallery in an exhibit that runs through June.
The theme of this year’s competition was silver, and required artists to incorporate the material into their works.
There were 319 artists who presented their unique pieces to a panel of international judges, including Israeli artist Galit Gaon. The jewelry used art to explore forms of rebellion and revolt, and did so through a unique creative process.
Using basic materials, such as wood, glue, plastic and even household items, the artists created pieces that represented crisis and change in their hometowns. A necklace made of razor blades was presented, as well as items with plastic toy guns and feathers, all representing various challenges faced by people throughout the world.
The winning piece of this year’s competition is on display at the Beit Meirov Art Gallery, alongside other worthy pieces from the collection. The winning piece, screened onto a T-shirt, is from Dutch artist Janjaap Luijt and is a representation of a “request of a goldsmith to fight against the establishment of the academy of the arts and the canonization of design and its concepts.”
THE DAUGHTER of Holocaust survivors who lived in Lodz, Poland, before escaping during the war, Hertsman says she carries the burden of needing to remember the tragedy. She was struck by the idea of the Polish exhibition Revolt and decided to use it as a platform to curate her own exhibition.
She set to work creating an exhibit to juxtapose the negative connotations that come alongside many struggles that people face, often represented through art, as shown in Revolt.
She says the exhibit she created, titled Polish Jewel, is meant to serve as an “anti” to the negativity of Revolt, which used jewelry to admonish the idea of wealth. Hertsman wants to glorify the use of jewelry to represent wealth and prosperity for Poland.
The two exhibits are displayed in the gallery on separate floors, presenting viewers with an experience intended to create an opposing impression. The pieces featured in Hertsman’s exhibit are all from her personal jewelry collection. She displayed expensive, chic and elegant jewelry to remind the audience that Poland was wealthy in culture before the war, and is making its way back to that point today. She displayed porcelain items that were typically found in Polish homes and made sure her media were made from a variety of materials, to remind people of the wealth and beauty in Polish culture.
“I featured my amber necklaces, all made by Polish jewelers, because amber is a treasure of Poland,” Hertsman explains. She says the light, beautiful material is a source of prosperity for the country.
Displayed along the walls of her exhibit space are photos of Hertsman’s family in 1930s Poland, experiencing vibrant daily life, stopping to pose for photographers who captured their lives, filled with spirit, culture and trade. Mixed among her family’s personal prewar photos are pictures of Polish landscapes that show the beauty and magnificence that existed before the Holocaust.
The exhibitions are open until June 21 at the Beit Meirov Art Gallery, 31 Herzfeld Street, Holon.