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May 13, 2011
Palestinian art gets a home
Umm el-Fahem gallery houses the first public collection in Israel.
ARIEH O’SULLIVAN THE MEDIA LINE
High up on a hillside just southeast of Haifa, occupying the three top floors of a nondescript building, is the Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery. Run by artist Said Abu Shakra, the gallery opened 15 years ago to bring culture to the town of mostly farmers and construction workers.
“It’s been a revolution here,” Abu Shakra said, adding that it’s the only art museum in any Arab town in Israel. “We have turned Umm el-Fahem into the cultural centre for all Israeli Arabs, and Palestinian artists, too.”
The gallery operates as part of the El-Sabar Association, a cultural organization that receives funds from the Israeli Ministry of Education, among other donors. It has drawn international acclaim and had more than 40,000 visitors last year, about half of them Israeli Jews. But Abu Shakra’s main goal is to boost art among Israel’s Arab minority, a difficult challenge when most are mainly concerned with feeding and clothing their families.
A former police officer, Abu Shakra comes from a family of artists. He knew that an art gallery in this working-class town would have to transform the mentality of his fellow residents, who shunned art.
“When we started this, people asked me, ‘Why do we need an art gallery here?’ They would have preferred an industrial zone with jobs than an art gallery. But I said we had to thrive not just physically, but also spiritually.”
About 20 percent of Israeli citizens are Arabs. Umm el-Fahem is the economic, social and religious centre of the area known as the “triangle” of Arab towns around the Wadi Ara valley. Its past includes violent clashes with Israeli security forces.
Israelis and the international community have embraced the gallery and the concept of Palestinian art. His gallery has hosted a Yoko Ono show and annual symposiums, and has helped put Palestinian artists on the map. But that really isn’t the idea driving the museum.
“One of our biggest enemies is the boorishness – you don’t know about something so you become against it,” explained Abu Shakra, who recalled the time a neighbor came to the opening with Ono, but was too embarrassed at the way he was dressed to enter.
“If they can’t look us in the eye, then we have to stoop even lower to be at their level,” he continued. “We’ll get down on our knees, if we must, because we need to reach these people. Because without them, we don’t have any right to exist.”
The gallery has offered courses and art classes, even ballet lessons, which have succeeded in bringing in locals. “It’s hard work,” Abu Shakra noted. “You tell someone ‘Here, it’s honey, eat it.’ They d[o]n’t believe it’s honey.”
Ahmad Canaan is one of a growing number of Israeli Arabs who has been able to make a living as an artist and appreciates the impact that Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery has had. “Things are changing. Twenty years ago we didn’t have any galleries. We show our art sometimes in community centres but, in the last 15 years, we have a lot of changes, like the gallery in Umm el-Fahem,” he said.
Palestinian art has been making inroads thanks also to the Jaffa Salon for Palestinian Art in Tel Aviv, where Arab artists from the Galilee, West Bank and Gaza can sell their work.
Palestinian art tends to be melancholic and often rooted in symbolism, like the olive tree. Some are explosive while others have political subtext, not always overtly expressed.
“If you see this woman in the field, an Arab woman with an embroidered dress, it could also be political, yes. But if you see the paintings of Karim Abu Shakra, you see these purple rockets. It looks nice, but he has something to say about the war on Gaza,” Canaan explained. “We know our situation here inside Israel and it’s not easy, but we have a lot to say in our way. So we use art to tell our stories and our history and our also difficulties.”
Yair Rothman, co-owner of Jaffa Salon, opened the gallery as a temporary endeavor last year but kept it open due to demand. He says it is helping change the way Israelis see Palestinians. “Most of the people are kind of shocked, because in their imagination, Palestinian people, or Arab people, are throwing stones, throwing bottles and making trouble. They didn’t realize how sensitive these people can be and how their artwork can represent their families, olive trees and things they love,” Rothman said.
Rothman noted that the rising interest in Palestinian art is also due to its relatively low price, which made it a good investment, but he dismissed the idea that it is a passing fad. “It is kind of a fashion now to have any Arab artist in your house or maybe in your collection but, after all this fades away, you still have the art and the art is good. I don’t see it as a fad.”
Back in Umm el-Fahem, Abu Shakra shares his dream to build a huge museum to house Palestinian contemporary art, anchored in the photo collection and the town archives. “We knew the cultural situation in Umm el-Fahem and most of the Arab sector was close to zero. There’s been no investment, not by the state of Israel or by us [till now]. But I’m not blaming anyone. I’m here to build.”
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