Draft:Trumpeldor Gallery

• Comment: What has been written in reliable sources about the gallery by people -- curators, art critics/journalists/historians, etc -- whose opinions are worth noting and who are unrelated to and entirely independent of the gallery? Hoary (talk) 05:26, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

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Trumpeldor Gallery is located at 19, Trumpeldor Street in the Old City of Beersheba, Israel. The gallery was funded by Ben Gurion University of the Negev, the municipality of Beersheba, Kivunim, and the Rashi Foundation, and is managed by Ben Gurion University’s Department of the Arts. The gallery’s motto is “Quality, but friendly art”.

Entrance to the gallery building

The gallery mounts different exhibitions changing every three months, including group exhibitions, solo exhibitions and joint projects with guest curators. The gallery acts as a "lab" for curatorship and contemporary art for the student community and promotes youth creativity. The gallery also functions as a community center, hosting cultural events, workshops and artist talks open to the general public from the South of Israel and the surrounding area. Admission to the gallery and the events taking place there is free of charge.

The gallery is an integral part of the city’s historical and cultural landscape. It is housed in an old Ottoman building listed for conservation, which is a focal point for the study of the history of the city and the history of settlement in the South. The gallery works hand-in-hand with the Old City Community Administration and taking part in events taking place in the Old City.

Goal

Trumpeldor Gallery’s goal is based on the desire to promote art and to disseminate a cultural agenda outside the walls of the university for the benefit of the inhabitants of the South and the surrounding area. The gallery aims to become a place for unmediated communal encounters with modern and contemporary art, promote art and make accessible to the general public and integrate the history of the region with contemporary messages from the world of scholarship and museums, both Israeli and international. For the above reasons the entry to the gallery is free of charge.

Building

The building, from the Ottoman period and listed for conservation, is on the corner of Trumpeldor Street and Ha’avot Street in the heart of the Old City of Beersheba. It has three rooms. During the 1920s and ’30s the building was the home of Hiram Danin and his family. Danin was the representative of the Palestine Land Development Company, which appointed Yehoshua Hankin to purchase land in Beersheba and the Negev. The building was used subsequently for a number of different purposes, and at the time that the gallery was being planned it was derelict.

Courtyard

The gallery’s courtyard was renovated during 2011–2012. The renovation preserved the spirit of the Ottoman building. An office building and technical building were added for the gallery administration. In the center of the courtyard stands the upper portion of a conserved well, which the gallery was originally named after. A rosé pepper tree in the eastern corner of the courtyard provides shade. The courtyard is used for cultural events and musical performances held at the gallery alongside exhibitions. The courtyard is also used for painting and sculpture workshops. During the year the gallery hosts short pop-up exhibitions in the courtyard. The management of the gallery permits the courtyard to be used free of charge for a range of cultural events and group meetings.

Foundation, 2010–2012

Professor Rivka Carmi, Professor Osvaldo Romberg, Professor Haim Maor and Beersheba mayor Ruvik Danilovich on Grand opening of Trumpeldor Gallery

In 2010, at the initiative of the President of the University at the time, Rivka Carmi, a decision was taken to submit a proposal to the Municipality of Beersheba to purpose a derelict Ottoman building in the Old City as an artistic center which would mount art exhibitions, to be run by the Department of the Arts. Together with Professor Haim Maor, who was the Director of the on-campus galleries and the University’s consultant on artistic issues, it was decided to enlist the services of Professor Osvaldo Romberg from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the founder of a similar initiative there, the “Slought Foundation”. On a visit to the USA, Professor Carmi met Professor Romberg, who agreed to spend three years in Israel setting up and directing the center in the Old City. During 2011 and early 2012 the Ottoman building at 19 Trumpeldor Street in the Old City of Beersheba was renovated. Professor Romberg oversaw the conservation and renovation of the building undertaken by the Municipality of Beersheba’s engineering and conservation staff, and the building was adapted to the requirements of an exhibition space for contemporary art and visual media.

Activities 2012–2019

Wall text installation. Part of students exhibition “Play Ground”.

On 6 March 2012 the gallery opened. under the name “Habe’er (The Well) Gallery: Art and Visual Media Center”, administered by the Ben Gurion University of the Negev’s Department of the Arts. The establishment of the gallery was initiated and financed by the Beersheba municipality, Ben-Gurion University, and the Rashi Foundation. The gallery was established as an NPO (non-profit organization)

The initial exhibition at the gallery in 2012 was dedicated to a “Homage to Dennis Oppenheim 1938–2011: Photos of Installations and Video Works”. The curator was Professor Osvaldo Romberg.

Other exhibitions mounted in 2012 were “Bravo — Video and Political Art from South America”, curator: Professor Osvaldo Romberg, and “Polish Video and Animation from Poznań”, curators: Professor Osvaldo Romberg and Professor Haim Maor.

In 2013 the following exhibitions were mounted: “The Body — Video Works from the Teutloff Collection”, curator: Professor Osvaldo Romberg; “Nevertheless: Graduation Project by the Students of the Painting Workshop Supervised by Ariel Assau”; curators: Orly Amit and Nufar Rashkes; “Spring Up, O Well: Graduation Project of the MA Curatorship Course Supervised by Tali Tamir”; curators: Tali Tamir and the curatorship course students.

The beginning of 2014 saw the exhibition “Bash to Bash (Beersheba at 70): Photographers from Beersheba and the surrounding area look at the renewal of the city”; curator: Professor Osvaldo Romberg.

Unpacking artwork for positing. Gali Lutski, After the Receiving (after El Greco, St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, 1571)

In 2014 the gallery’s name was changed from “Habe’er (The Well) Gallery: Art and Visual Media Center” to “Trumpeldor Gallery: Art Center”. University President Rivka Carmi appointed Professor Haim Maor as director and curator.

In July 2014 the gallery reopened with a group exhibition titled “Fortifications: Bunkers, Walls, and Trenches in Works by Contemporary Israeli Artists”; curator: Itschak de Lange. Subsequently a group exhibition was mounted titled “Portraits: Zvi Lachman, Yuri Katz, Assaf Romano”; curator: Haim Maor.

2015 saw the following exhibitions: “Overtime: Works by Teaching Staff in Honor of Ben Gurion University of the Negev’s 45^th Anniversary”; curators: Professor Haim Maor and students of the curatorship course. “Something In It: A Selection of Works by Bedouin Artists”, curators: Orna Goren and Dalia Barki; “Seeing the Lights: Light in Contemporary Art in Israel”, curator: Haim Maor; “Pulp and Fiction”, curators: Dalia Manor, Laura Bacher, Haim Maor; “Bilha Aharoni: The Tethys Sea”, curator: Haim Maor.

Installation on gallery’s yard, part of exhibition Martha Rieger: "Oasis".

In 2016, the following exhibitions were presented: “Naomi Leshem: Frozen Sands” (photography), curator: Haim Maor; “Works from the Katz Art Gallery Collection –  The First Gallery in Tel Aviv”, curator: Ron Bartosh; "Sheldon Shoneberg in Israel, 1948–1956”, curator: Ron Bartosh; “Taxonomies”, curators: Haim Maor and students of the curatorship course (Part 2 of the exhibition was shown in the Senate Gallery); “Exhibition by the MA Curatorship Course Supervised by Ellen Ginton”, curators: the students of the course and Ellen Ginton.

The exhibitions in 2017 were: “Hava Mehutan: Angels and Monsters” (sculpture), curator: Haim Maor; “Eliahu Gat: Paintings”, curator: Ron Bartosh; “They Say This Was Once a Happy Place: 1980s Celebrities Photographed by Moshe Shai”, curator: Haim Maor.

2018, saw the following exhibitions: “Martha Rieger: Oasis” [gallery-specific ceramic installation], curator: Professor Haim Maor;  "Digi Dekel: Quiet Noise” (photography), curator: Professor Haim Maor.

2019–present

Professor Haim Maor in installation at his solo exhibition "Eclipse".

The 2019 exhibitions were: “Daniela Meler: A Packed Life” (paintings), curator: Professor Haim Maor; “Haim Maor: Eclipse”, curator: Dr. Maayan Amir. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdowns, the gallery was closed for several months.

Exhibitions shown were: “Elective Affinities”, curated by students of the curatorship course, supervised by Ms. Ellen Ginton; “Beyond the Sea, Beyond the Desert”, an exhibition by undergraduate students in the curatorship course supervised by Ms. Ellen Ginton; solo exhibition by the photographer Pavel Wahlberg, “There is a Crack in Everything. That's How the Light Gets In”, curator: Professor Maayan Amir; “Play Ground”, exhibition by undergraduate students in the curatorship course supervised by Professor Maayan Amir. Another exhibition curated by the undergraduate students supervised by Professor Maayan Amir, titled “Wired Realities”, was shown in the summer of 2023.

In the fall of 2022 there was an exhibition by artists working in the southern region, “The Paradox of Love, number 1, curator Ms. Ariela Shimshon. During the spring of 2024, in cooperation with the Unit for the Advancement of Professionalism in Education, there was a pilot exhibition of works created using virtual reality technology, titled “I Love My X’s” by the multimedia artist Eli Revzin, curator: Marganit(Niti) Cassapu.

Invitation for Artists of the South exhibition “Paradox of Love, N 1”

After the events of October 2023, the gallery offered hosting space for the exhibitions planned by Sapir College, which was unable to display them on its own premises due to the ongoing war. Trumpeldor Gallery put on an exhibition by the Israeli artist Meirav Heiman, an artist in photography and video art, organized and directed by the Sapir College curatorship course. The gallery hosted a pop-up exhibition by artists from the South who had suffered from the events of October 7th, in collaboration with UM CULTURE, the Bracha Foundation and the Plumas Art Foundation.

The gallery continues to be active on an ongoing basis in the heart of the Old City, holding exhibitions of modern and contemporary Israeli art and international exhibitions.