Arts-based Education
On a personal level, art and culture have always been my go-to places for inspiration, understanding, safety and release. Simply put, I understand and experience myself and the world around me best when I listen to music, watch a film/theater/dance, or enter into a work of visual art.
As an educator, I've experimented with the teaching of artistic production and in the use of methods that educate through the making of art. I've come to see value in both of these roads.
Diving into the story of how a culture evolved and what its artists have produced, offers a unique insight into that culture. it also allows the individual to see themselves, either in relation to a specific culture or as a member of the broader human family. Artworks, even complicated and esoteric forms, can somehow let an individual situate themselves, provided of course that they can enter into and engage with the work. My teaching in this context aims to give students keys to those works.
Making art is even more visceral, it engages all the senses and bypasses many of the intellectual gatekeepers, going straight for the emotional epicenter. Beyond the fact that art has been shown to positively impact a whole host of cognitive and affective functions, it can be a tool for expressing and encountering the deeper existential core.
Jewish Education
As I work mostly in Jewish contexts, my arts-based teaching has centered on issues of Jewish identity, intersectionality and the study of modern Hebrew/Israeli arts and culture. Some of my courses have delved into the story of Israeli society using the lens of culture and art, while others have allowed students to meet and even work with artists. My Jewish art courses can help students delve into texts, understand Jewish ideas and to ask real questions regarding their personal relationship to their Jewish heritage.
Classes and lectures I offer on non-theistic Judaism are meant to explore points of connection and the discovery of meaningful ritual and celebration for those who feel ambivalent about or disenfranchised from more traditional forms of Jewish expression.
Psychology
The discipline of psychology runs through all the work I do. I apply it to the study of arts and culture, as it helps understand the reasons and process of development. I use it in the art I make and that I make with others, as a path toward deeper insight and clarity. I love to talk and teach psychology in its own right, its view onto the world offers so much to so many who want to perceive or improve.
Recently, I have begun to work with educators (classroom and experiential), applying the skills and ideas I have developed. This is an area that particularly excites me as I am confident that colleagues will apply their wisdom and creativity to these ideas with great power and innovation.
Here are some examples of work that I have done in recent years:
Courses
Lectures
Seminars
Publications
Crafting an Identity: Arts-based learning with young Jewish adults . Journal
of Jewish Educational Leadership. Volume 9,3. (2011 ).
Going Deep: Intersecting the self as researcher and researched . In, Lives in
context: The art of life history research , edited by Ardra L. Cole & J. Gary Knowles,
Alta Mira Press, Walnut Creek, CA. (2001).
Deconstructing Leviticus: Finding a queer spiritual path back from the exile
of scared text . In, ReCreations , edited by Catherine Lake. The Queer Press, Toronto. (1999).
‘Who Causes the Blind to See’: Disability and quality of religious
life . Disability and Society , volume 12, number 3. Pp. 395-405. (1997).
Metaphor with an attitude: The use of ‘Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers’
television series as a therapeutic metaphor. International Journal of Play Therapy ,
volume 4, number 2.(1995).
On a personal level, art and culture have always been my go-to places for inspiration, understanding, safety and release. Simply put, I understand and experience myself and the world around me best when I listen to music, watch a film/theater/dance, or enter into a work of visual art.
As an educator, I've experimented with the teaching of artistic production and in the use of methods that educate through the making of art. I've come to see value in both of these roads.
Diving into the story of how a culture evolved and what its artists have produced, offers a unique insight into that culture. it also allows the individual to see themselves, either in relation to a specific culture or as a member of the broader human family. Artworks, even complicated and esoteric forms, can somehow let an individual situate themselves, provided of course that they can enter into and engage with the work. My teaching in this context aims to give students keys to those works.
Making art is even more visceral, it engages all the senses and bypasses many of the intellectual gatekeepers, going straight for the emotional epicenter. Beyond the fact that art has been shown to positively impact a whole host of cognitive and affective functions, it can be a tool for expressing and encountering the deeper existential core.
Jewish Education
As I work mostly in Jewish contexts, my arts-based teaching has centered on issues of Jewish identity, intersectionality and the study of modern Hebrew/Israeli arts and culture. Some of my courses have delved into the story of Israeli society using the lens of culture and art, while others have allowed students to meet and even work with artists. My Jewish art courses can help students delve into texts, understand Jewish ideas and to ask real questions regarding their personal relationship to their Jewish heritage.
Classes and lectures I offer on non-theistic Judaism are meant to explore points of connection and the discovery of meaningful ritual and celebration for those who feel ambivalent about or disenfranchised from more traditional forms of Jewish expression.
Psychology
The discipline of psychology runs through all the work I do. I apply it to the study of arts and culture, as it helps understand the reasons and process of development. I use it in the art I make and that I make with others, as a path toward deeper insight and clarity. I love to talk and teach psychology in its own right, its view onto the world offers so much to so many who want to perceive or improve.
Recently, I have begun to work with educators (classroom and experiential), applying the skills and ideas I have developed. This is an area that particularly excites me as I am confident that colleagues will apply their wisdom and creativity to these ideas with great power and innovation.
Here are some examples of work that I have done in recent years:
Courses
- Jewish Art: Learning and Making
- Zionism & the Arts
- The Jewish Story Through Film
- 3,000 Years of Figurative Jewish Art (in development with Rabbi Sivan Maas)
- Psychology Today, Critical Thinking, Positive Psychology
Lectures
- Women in Israeli Art
- The Power of the Visual: Holocaust and Art
- New Jew-New Calendar: The Development of Israeli National Holidays and Memorials
- Food in Israeli Art & Culture
- Tel Aviv & Jerusalem Architecture: A Tale of Two Cities
Seminars
- Teaching with Art: How to Enter a Gallery or Studio as an Educator
- Masks: Hiding and Revealing
- Blue: From Fringes to Flags (Learning and Making)
- Jewperheroes: Mapping the Hero within
- Journalling, Dialoguing and Summarizing: A Guide for Experiential Educators
Publications
Crafting an Identity: Arts-based learning with young Jewish adults . Journal
of Jewish Educational Leadership. Volume 9,3. (2011 ).
Going Deep: Intersecting the self as researcher and researched . In, Lives in
context: The art of life history research , edited by Ardra L. Cole & J. Gary Knowles,
Alta Mira Press, Walnut Creek, CA. (2001).
Deconstructing Leviticus: Finding a queer spiritual path back from the exile
of scared text . In, ReCreations , edited by Catherine Lake. The Queer Press, Toronto. (1999).
‘Who Causes the Blind to See’: Disability and quality of religious
life . Disability and Society , volume 12, number 3. Pp. 395-405. (1997).
Metaphor with an attitude: The use of ‘Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers’
television series as a therapeutic metaphor. International Journal of Play Therapy ,
volume 4, number 2.(1995).