The Levinsky Park Library in south Tel Aviv has been in existence for more than two and a half years, providing welcome cultural services to many of the city’s disadvantaged residents.
During that time, foreign workers and their families, as well as socioeconomically disadvantaged people from the area, have benefited from the facility’s stock of 3,500 books in 16 languages. The library also provides the locals with a convenient place for socializing, as well as premises for a wide variety of cultural activities. Now funding has run out, and the library is in danger of closure.
American-born Israeli urban artist Know Hope has come to the rescue and has organized a sale of works by a wide range of Israeli artists from various disciplines. The sale started yesterday and will continue today at the Ba’alei Hamelacha Workshop arts venue at 15 Peretz Street in Tel Aviv, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
All the works on sale cost NIS 1,000 each. They include contributions from such artists as veteran painter Yair Garbuz, painter-photographer Michal Heiman, Jerusalemite photographer David Adika, illustrator-paintersculptor Keren Shpilsher, and illustrator-cartoonist Yeremy Pinkus, besides works by Know Hope himself.
“I have admired the work of the Levinsky Park Library from afar and have seen how it has impacted on the community,” says Know Hope. “It is important to help keep this activity going and to help the library to develop. The library’s location and multicultural agenda means it has the potential to generate fundamental change in the evolution of a new perception of the identity of ‘the Israeli.’”
Know Hope has also created a logo for the event, and prints on T-shirts and bags will be sold for NIS 60 and NIS 30 respectively. All purchases will be cash or check only.