50 Years After Harold Rosenberg: Is there a Jewish Art (Yet?)
In 1966, the eminent critic Harold Rosenberg’s seminal essay, Is There A Jewish Art? was published in the pages of Commentary. Now, fifty years beyond its publication, has that question been adequately addressed? What are the tensions that still exist in relation to Rosenberg’s proposal and what are the contemporary problematics of asking the question again? The question demands to be asked and answered again and in the context of the polyvocality of the 21st Century, the answers may offer a new perspective on the original question.
The 2017 Conney Conference on Jewish Arts will focus on the legacy of Harold Rosenberg’s great rhetorical gesture and its continued resonance across the arts. Our keynote speakers will be Judith Brin Engber and Ben Schachter.
Judith Brin Ingber graduated from Sarah Lawrence College as a dance major. After dancing professionally in NY she moved to Tel Aviv to teach & choreograph for Batsheva Dance Company and work at Inbal Dance Theatre. Her writing on dance in Israel appears in encyclopedias, book chapters, & in her seminal book Seeing Israeli and Jewish Dance. Brin Ingber lectures internationally (recently at the Prague Arts Academy) & for universities (Faber lecturer at Princeton University), in Israel and at conferences including the Society of Dance History Scholars. She co-founded the dance and music chamber group Voices of Sepharad, touring the US and internationally.
Ben Schachter is professor of visual art at Saint Vincent College. He earned MFA and MS degrees from Pratt Institute. Recently, he was an ELITalks speaker and discussed Jewish creativity. He also received the Hadassah Brandeis research award. His artwork has been exhibited at Yale University, YU Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, the Mattress Factory, and other venues throughout the United States. His artwork has also appeared in New York Magazine and Hadassah Magazine. His writing can be found in Drawing in the Twenty-First Century: The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary Practice, and in It’s a Thin Line: Eruv from Talmudic to Modern Culture. He is working on a book on contemporary Jewish art to be published by Pennsylvania State University Press. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife and four children.
Papers and Proposals are due December 1 (click here for more information). We hope that you will join us for this historically significant conference.
Very Best,
Douglas Rosenberg
Director, Conney Project on The Jewish Arts