Eight new exhibits mark Israel Museum’s 60th anniversary

Originally published on JNS.org

As the Israel Museum marks its 60th anniversary, prominent New York art collector Bill S. Ehrlich, chairman of the Executive Committee of the American Friends of the Israel Museum, recalled that he first visited the museum on a barren hill in western Jerusalem three months after it opened its doors in 1965.

“The roads around it weren’t even paved then. It was like a jewel in a sea of construction,” he told JNS as he left the museum on the eve of the opening of the 60th anniversary celebration. “Today, the museum is a moment of peace and beauty in the middle of angst.”

Suzanne Landau, Anne and Jerome Fisher director of the Israel Museum, told reporters on a preview tour that the 60th anniversary events would focus on eight new exhibitions opening in mid-May at Israel’s national museum. The exhibits showcase the diversity of the museum’s collection, which stands at almost half a million objects.

“The new exhibits reflect the vision of the museum: Connecting our ancient history and traditions with local contemporary art,” she noted. “It’s a celebration of the dialogue between cultures and periods.”

Landau told reporters that some of the exhibits would feature items that have been part of exhibits over the past six decades, while others would present pieces that have never been publicly displayed and some that were created especially for the 60th anniversary.

Read more here.