How do we define “Jewish Art” today? Is it simply art that depicts Jewish subject or that it’s made by a Jewish artist? Ben Schachter, a professor of art, suggests that it’s neither, rather the process informed by the experience of Shabbat that defines Jewish art today.
View here “Shabbat is a Model of Creation: the Jewish Artistic Process”
Ben Schachter is Professor of Visual Art at Saint Vincent College. He is an Advisor to the Jewish Art salon.
He earned MFA and MS degrees from Pratt Institute. In 2017, he will be one of two keynote speakers at the Conney Conference on Jewish Art. In the past, he received the Hadassah Brandeis research award. His artwork has been exhibited at Yale University, YU Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, the Mattress Factory, and other venues. His writing on art and criticism has appeared in various art journals and books, including Drawing in the 21st Century edited by Elizabeth Pergam and It’s A Thin Line, edited by Rabbi Adam Mintz. His first book, Image, Action, and Idea in Contemporary Jewish Art, will be published by Pennsylvania State University Press. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife and four children.
