NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release
CONVERSATIONS
Contact:
Jay E. Nachman
215.923.5978 /
215.868.8057 (c)
Ilana Blumenthal
215.391.4662 /
267.294.8425 (c)
“CASUAL CONVERSATIONS” EXHIBIT EXPLORES IDENTITY THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHS
Museum Visitors Can Add Their Photos To Project
The National Museum of American Jewish History invites visitors to explore questions of identity and heritage through the photographs of Alina and Jeff Bliumis in an exhibit, Casual Conversations, opening to the public Sunday, May 6. The exhibit includes 10 photographs – four large scale (60 x 42 inches) and six smaller images (24 x 13 inches), which were taken between 2007 and 2009 on the boardwalk at Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, home to a large Russian Jewish immigrant community. The subjects were asked to pose with signs signifying their identities – “Russian,” “Jewish,” “American,” and given the option to write their own description as well.
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The exhibit will also include an interactive component that invites visitors to take “identity” photos of themselves as if they were standing on the boardwalk. The photos will be uploaded to the Museum’s Flickr site and shared with the artists.
“This exhibition goes to the heart of one of the major themes of this Museum: How do we define ourselves as Jews, as Americans or as whatever identity one may choose, given the freedoms America provides. All of our visitors, Jews and non-Jews, Americans and non-Americans, grapple with the complexities of heritage, homeland, and identity” said Josh Perelman, the Museum’s chief curator and director of exhibitions and programs.
In describing Casual Conversations, the artists, Alina, from Minsk, Belarus, and Jeff, from Kishinev, Moldova, have said it is “an anthropological inquiry into Brooklyn's immigrant communities. Confronted by a radically different reality these new Americans are bound together by pursuing their American dreams and searching for new identities reflective of their new lives. How does one retain cultural roots while creating a new identity?
“The project is based on a series of public dialogues, interactions, and conversations staged in the Brighton Beach community in Brooklyn. By bringing contemporary art out of the gallery and into the community, we create a kind of art/research laboratory in the public realm.” More information about the work of Alina and Jeff Bliumis can be found at bliumis.com.
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Alina and Jeff Bliumis received support from the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists, a partnership of Avoda Arts, JDub Records, and the Foundation for Jewish Culture, as well as major funding from UJA-Federation of New York.The Six Points Fellowship believes that creative expression is essential to Jewish community, identity, and an understanding of the world.
The Museum is presenting Casual Conversations as part of Jewish American Heritage Month, held annually in May in recognition of the more than 350-year history of Jewish contributions to American culture. The exhibition closes Sunday, Aug. 19.
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Þ Contact Jay Nachman, or Ilana Blumenthal, for additional art.
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The National Museum of American Jewish History, located in the heart of historic Philadelphia, tells the story of American Jews from their arrival in North America more than 350 years ago to the present – exhibiting and interpreting the American Jewish experience in a 100,000-square-foot, five-story building on Independence Mall. It is the only museum in the nation dedicated solely to telling the story of Jews in America.
The Museum interprets how Jews shape and are shaped by America, explores the blessings and challenges of freedom, and provides opportunities for visitors to contribute their own stories.