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Tel Aviv’s Push For Art Tourism
Tel Aviv — In the past few years, Tel Aviv has been dubbed a top travel destination for everyone from beach lovers to gays and lesbians, but until relatively recently few overseas tourists traveled to the city specifically to take in its contemporary art scene.
That’s starting to change, thanks to efforts by the Tel Aviv municipality and Israel’s tourism ministry to acquaint the world with the city’s artists, studios and galleries. While the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s stunning new wing is reason enough to spend a day in the city, it should be just the starting point for those who appreciate a wide variety of art forms.
Launched in March, Tel Aviv Art Year 2012 is offering a dizzying assortment of exhibitions, performances and events in Israel’s cultural capital. It will showcase not only Israeli artists with an international following, but dozens of independent, emerging artists as well.
Just as New York’s artists and gallery owners gravitated to Soho and Chelsea in search of larger, more affordable space, many of Tel Aviv’s artists are moving to the city’s southernmost neighborhoods, on the border of Yafo (Jaffa). Though most of the buildings are quite grungy, the studios and galleries are warm and inviting.
During a tour of Kiryat Hamelacha, the southern neighborhood where some 100 artists now work, Tzachi Rosenfeld, owner of the venerable Rosenfeld Gallery, said he relocated from tony Dizengoff Street in the city center in order to expand, and “to be where the artists are.”
The Dizengoff gallery, which his family established decades ago, “was small and there wasn’t any parking,” Rosenfeld said in his current, spacious downtown space. He was surrounded by the very large oil paintings by Marik Lechner, some of which go for more than $20,000, that were recently on view there.
Yuval Caspi, one of the first artists to purchase a space in the downtown neighborhood, said the flow of so many artists into south Tel Aviv is starting to push up real estate prices.
“I was lucky I bought when I did,” said Caspi, who shares his 600-square-foot studio with artist Ido Shemi. Their cramped workshop is packed with bright papier-mache figures in comic or ironic poses, and innovative 3D posters — many of them depicting New York scenes — that are popular with foreign art collectors.
To defray costs, several artists, or aspiring artists, may share a studio.
“That leads to a lot of collaboration,” said a 20-something children’s book illustrator who works in a cozy studio alongside an equally young costume designer and an artist who sculpts in metal. Many of the materials they use in their work come from their neighbors – small factories that have been in the neighborhood for decades.
During the inaugural weekend of Tel Aviv Art, Caspi and Shemi opened their studio to visitors, who were also given access to dozens of art spaces — many of them ordinarily invisible to the public — taking place in the city. These art tours are run by the Association of Tourism Tel Aviv-Yafo.
While galleries and museums operate day in and day out, Tel Aviv Art Year offers clusters of events several times this year.
The Fresh Paint Contemporary Art Fair (May 14-19) is Israel’s largest, most influential art event. The focus is on the top art galleries, promising emerging galleries and the Greenhouse, which showcases the work of up-and-coming Israeli artists.
The wildly popular Houses from Within (May 18-19) offers rare glimpses inside 100 Tel Aviv homes with special architectural value. The include the homes of some of Israel’s most influential artists, and homes with unique art collections.
The annual White Night (June 28) is an all-night happening that includes 100 events, during which cultural institutions stay open till sunrise.
Loving Art, Making Art (Sept. 6-8) officially launches Tel Aviv’s new art exhibition season, with the collaboration of 60 museums, galleries and exhibition halls. At the same time, 240 local artists will simultaneously open their studios to the public. There will also be street exhibitions.
Gay Pride Week (June 1-8) includes a number of art-related activities as well as the ultra-colorful annual Gay Pride Parade down the main streets of Tel Aviv.
During warm weather, the Tel Aviv Pixel Hotel (opening Oct. 15) on the Burgrashav Beach is a lifeguard shack. Next winter, as part of a project to repurpose interesting but unused space, it will become a one-room hotel open to the public.
Unrelated to Tel Aviv Art Year 2012, visitors to the city can attend performances of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Opera, and the Israeli Chamber Orchestra, or hit the many performance spaces that feature everything from Israeli folk music to jazz (listings in the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, or Time Out Tel Aviv).
A visit to Tel Aviv isn’t complete without a tour of Tel Aviv’s historic district, which boasts the largest collection of International Style (Bauhaus) buildings in the world. Nine years ago, UNESCO proclaimed the area where these iconic buildings are located The White City. The 4,000-plus structures, with their modern, clean lines, date back to the 1930s and ’40s. They are being lovingly restored, one at a time.
Before hopping into a taxi, consider renting a bike (the municipality recently introduced the park-and-ride system so popular in Europe). The most cycling-friendly city in Israel, Tel Aviv has 60 miles of bike trails including the one that runs parallel to the beach. The city’s mild climate encourages cycling almost any time of the year.
Source: The Jewish Week
PICTURES: Tel Aviv gets rainbow sidewalks as city gets ready for biggest pride yet
There is something to say about a city that paints its sidewalks and gives away free pride flags… Tel Aviv is a city like no other, Proud (VERY) and Beautiful!
Intriguing Israel: Biblical echoes, Bauhaus buildings and breakfast in tempting Tel Aviv
Primo Levi isn’t an obvious choice for a light beach read. But this is Tel Aviv, and the beach is a mixture of the lowbrow and the very highbrow indeed.
Girls are sashaying past to the welcoming bellows of the lifeguard’s Tannoy, others are running barefoot, and plenty more are reading serious tomes. The sun is out, there are acres of sand to relax into and the sea ruffles away.
This is as far east as the Mediterranean will stretch, so there’s enough swell to surf – just – and a dedicated line of boys in wetsuits wait for the smallest riff.
The clean and tidy beach is lined with cafes and rows of red plastic chairs. Here young couples, friends, families spanning the generations gather, sporting everything from woolly jumpers to bikinis. Planes criss-cross the skyline and the Israeli coastguard chugs up and down day and night.
Security is understandably tight in Israel, and in the airport particularly, though the staff are helpful and efficient. On the way out, you absolutely must leave plenty of time to get through all the checks.
Ben Gurion airport’s new terminal (opened in 2004) is of extraordinary design – clad in the same stone as the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem – but you still won’t want to spend the night there.
I am staying in the Dan Panorama, which has a Seventies business-like feel, but is brilliantly placed for the beach and Jaffa.
The lighthouse belonging to this ancient port, which dates from Biblical times, is visible from my bedroom window. The oldest part the city dates from 1909 and is almost directly behind the hotel.
Breakfast in the Dan Panorama is an event of epic portions. The buffet begins at one end with cakes, pastries, puddings, and ends with Nile perch, salads and shakshuka (an Israeli dish of tomatoes and eggs). Portions are enormous – troughs of hummus, giant herby salads and the crispest falafel.
As our waiter puts it: ‘We like to think big.’
But people aren’t, as you might assume, fat, but fit. They seem to take lots of exercise. The weekend I am here, Tel Aviv is hosting a marathon, half-marathon and in-line skating event.
I am here with two friends to run the marathon. We line up at 6.30am (to avoid the heat) and the city’s mayor is there to welcome visitors from 38 countries. The mood is as buoyant as runners in springy trainers limber up. The finish line is only a stumble from the beach. Thank goodness.
A friend described Tel Aviv as New York on sea. I wouldn’t go that far, but it has some of that city’s energy. Tel Aviv is known for its bars, clubs and ad-hoc roof parties. High-rise hotels, experimental in design, line the coast, Miami-style. This is one of the great Bauhaus cities of the world.
It’s also full of museums and galleries – and this year is dedicated to art. The new Tel Aviv Musuem of Art, which hosts the world’s largest collection of Israeli art, makes a statement in a smart airy square.
The angular gallery is currently hosting an exhibition by German artist Anselm Kiefer on Jewish tradition, faith, mysticism and literature. Designed specifically for the space and exploring the themes through large and muted canvasses, it’s as challenging as it sounds.
But there are more accessible offerings. The gallery is within walking distance of Rothschild Boulevard, a wide, expensive-looking street known for its Bauhaus architecture, it’s tree-lined central boulevard just made for strolling and sipping. A group of grannies in their wheelchairs are playing an intense game of cards, their grandchildren messing about with balloons at their feet.
For a grungier feel, try the Gan Hahashmal area, home to artist’s collectives, cool cafes and basement clubs. This area is tipped to be the next big thing.
Saturdays – the Sabbath in Tel Aviv – have the feel of our lost Sundays. They are carefree. No shops are open, and few cafes. We find one in old Tel Aviv, which is scruffy – with hectic power cables and yawning building sites, but still attractive and quiet. Most people head to the beach. And in the evening the promenade buzzes. Groups of teens hang out on the rocks.
The nightclub, Dolphinarium, which was bombed in June 2001, sits sad and empty on the front. There’s a memorial to the 21 youngsters who died there that evening and a scattering of flowers with an old jacket and a candle.
But life carries on briskly around it. On the way to Jaffa is the wonderful restaurant, Manta Ray, considered to be one of the best in Israel. Here, fish is cooked so beautifully you almost forget to enjoy the view. It’s right on the edge, and has big windows that let in the sight and sound of the sea.
Across the busy main road is The Old Railway Station, which is exactly what the name suggests, complete with now-defunct track and carriages, but with the addition of restaurants and cocktail bars where you can drink sitting beneath a lantern-lit tree. We even find a bar serving prawns wrapped in parma ham. ‘That would be a problem in Jerusalem,’ the barman tells us.
But if you’d prefer to be cossetted by the warmth of ancient bricks, Jaffa has several restaurants and lots of pretty, arched walkways that lead you into shops selling crafty earrings and oil paintings. This part of town feels more like a Greek island.
People say that Tel Aviv and Israel are like two separate countries. Some might find that reassuring; others will welcome travelling to a place that offers so extraordinarily varied and unusual a holiday.
REPORT: Tel Aviv – Yaffo Municipality will be giving away pride flags
According to reports, the Tel Avviv-Yaffo municipality is giving away pride flags (FOR FREE) to all residents who wish to display one off their balcony. Residents that are interested need to call, ask for it and the municipality will ship it directly to their homes.
NOW THAT’S A PROUD CITY
VIDEO: Tel Aviv – La città che non dorme mai (The city that never sleeps) – Italian Subtitles
Entertainment and action galore for revelers and vacationers of every stripe – that’s Tel Aviv, proud to live up to its distinction as “The City That Never Sleeps.” Throughout Tel Aviv, many pubs and bars open early in the afternoon and don’t close until an hour or two before dawn. Many feature live music at least once a week – everything from “dance” and “house” to Middle Eastern, reggae to rock, and jazz to blues.
Night clubs and dance clubs open their doors around 11 pm or midnight and rarely close before 3 or 4 – if then! Ethnic nightclubs draw patrons of all ages and feature performers and entertainers from just about every community making up the city’s complex social fabric. Artists presenting repertoires that reflect the entertainment culture of Turkey, Iran, Greece, Israel, and Russia abound in Tel Aviv, especially in Jaffa and the “Little Tel Aviv district in the north of the city, but not only there.
After midnight the serious nightlife scene begins, as Tel Aviv’s younger residents in particular flock to the dance clubs in south Tel Aviv and Allenby Street, or, in the summer, to the beaches and the Tel Aviv and Jaffa ports, where the partying often continues until after dawn. One significant focus of late-night action in south Tel Aviv is Lilienblum St. and the surrounding area, with their ever growing number of bars, bistros and restaurants. Neve Tzedek, not far away, is another focal point for night life.
Israel lures Russian tourists with beauty pageant
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Russian beauties compete in Eilat as part of ministry’s effort to boost tourism to Israel. Winner gets diamond ring, opportunity to swim with sharks
The final of the “Miss Russian Tourism” pageant was held in Eilat this week as part of Israel’s efforts to attract more Russian tourists.
Out of more than 300 women who competed in the first of its kind beauty pageant, which was sponsored by the Tourism Ministry, 25 made it to the final round. The contestants, aged 18 to 30, all work in the tourism industry.
The semi-finals were held in March as part of a tourism fair in Moscow. Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, who served as one of the judges, drew harsh criticism for posting a Facebook photo in which he poses with one of the contestants.
The 13 finalists landed in Eilat on Sunday, along with a large number of Russian reporters, cameramen and make-up artists. A special video showing the contestants at various locations, including the Dead Sea and Jerusalem, was aired in Russia in order to boost tourism to Israel.
The final was held on Tuesday at Eilat’s Princess Hotel. The winner, Svetlana Dubovenko, was awarded a diamond ring and a week-long stay at an Isrotel hotel. On Wednesday she was invited to swim with sharks at the Underwater Observatory Marine Park.
Source: Ynetnews.com