Over the past year, a small group of Jewish performing artists, led by Asylum alum Nick Cassenbaum, had been meeting regularly to provide support and dialogue around their challenges presenting Jewish-themed work in mainstream spaces in the UK. We realised that these challenges have been more relevant than ever with the rise of far-right antisemitism, and a growing conflation between the actions of the Israeli government and feelings towards the British Jewish community.
As a response to these challenging times, Asylum Arts put together a 3-day intensive retreat for British Jewish performance-based artists. The program addressed the specific concerns of artists working in performance-based media, and particularly addressed the current political and social concerns of Jewish artists in the UK. The retreat created a safe space for the exploration of Jewish and artistic identity, and the many creative manifestations of those identities. In our time together, we created a mentorship and support structure and strategies for responding to the continuing struggles of Jewish artists that have been arising in the performance world.
We were pleased to collaborate with the Manchester Jewish Museum and JW3, the Jewish Community Centre London on this retreat.
