Art is for Everyone

Sketching Workshops at the JMM

A blog post by Collections Manager Joanna Church. To read more posts by Joanna click HERE.

As a former arts-and-crafts camp counselor, and someone who takes art classes for fun, I’m really excited about our new sketching workshops.  Earlier this summer we hosted artists both inside and outside the Lloyd Street Synagogue, and in November we’ll bring people into B’nai Israel for the chance to draw the sanctuary.

Last night’s program focused on our collections, so I not only had the fun of participating, I also had the pleasure of choosing a variety of artifacts to create a challenging still life.  This required a lot of over-thinking on my part – after all, we have over 11,000 objects to choose from! – and not everything made the cut this time, but it came together into a nice display, with an assortment on one pedestal and a single item – a Russian samovar, which was one of the first things that came to my mind when this program was first mentioned – on another.

Thanks to our wonderful workshop facilitators, Matt Adelberg and Christen Chiori, JMM staff have had the chance to relax and participate, taking some time to really look at and enjoy our buildings and collections.

We welcome artists of all ages at these events, as the young ladies below attest. After all, our collections – from small wooden blocks to the buildings themselves – are held in the public trust, for research and study as well as preservation and exhibition. Whether you have mad skills with a pencil or just want to give it a try, we hope you take these opportunities to closely examine, with an artist’s eye, our fabulous pieces of history.

Next workshop: Sketching inside B’nai Israel – Sunday, November 6^th at 10:30 a.m.