We are so pleased to continue our long-time collaboration with Artport, holding our 6th Artist Professional Development Program (ACDP) in Tel Aviv in June. Since we began this program in 2014, 141 artists have been through this retreat. This training program remains unique within the Israeli context, even after our many years of this partnership. In many ways it is our most specific retreat – we are building skills to prepare Israeli artists to work on the international contemporary art stage, as well as strengthen their local practice and community. We continue to hear from prior alums that the skills learned in the program have direct results on their successes, both in Israel and worldwide. Asylum Arts and Artport are both committed to the importance of artist’s voices in society, and recognize the importance of having Israeli artists as part of the contemporary international art scene.
This retreat was particularly special as it was the opening program of the gorgeous new location of Artport in the center of Kiryat Hamelacha, a neighborhood growing into the Tel Aviv gallery district. We worked our way around some last-minute construction work, and thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful terrace planted with flowers and herbs, phenomenal exhibition of alumni, and we even danced together on the roof. The first day of ACDP focused on helping the artists develop a concrete narrative and vision of their creative work, and how to speak about that narrative and their practice in English. We brought in Inbar Amir, an Asylum Alum who is a theater-maker and public speaking coach to provide outside guidance for how to create meaningful messages and stories.
On the second day, we focused on what they wanted the future of their career to look like, and began laying out a practical plan to achieve their goals. We held sessions on fundraising, proposal writing, and how to write in English. These sessions included both conceptual framing as well as concrete tools for the artists to use every day in their work. We also brought in a local gallery owner to share her wisdom about the best practices in working with for-profit galleries. The second day also included a movement session led by Sharon Vazanna, who had attended the 2014 Asylum Arts retreat in Garrison, NY. The third day included workshops on how to work with museums (led by Mira Lapidot, Chief Curator of Fine Art at the Israel Museum), writing artist statements, and social media and online presence (led by Oh-So-Arty and Artsource founder Sarah Peguine, pictured below). We are extremely pleased that we continue to see significant impact and appreciation for this program, which remains our longest running partnership. We are grateful to Artport and the Arison Foundation for working with us to elevate Israeli artists across the world.
