In 20114, Inspiration Arts launched The Israeli Center for Art, Community and Environment at Bikaat Kinrot in the Jordan Valley. The center guides and leads activities and enterprises of communal, environmental and activist art, aiming to empower communities in the northern region of Israel. The center has four main branches: a public regional art center; a networking center for community and environmental art in Israel; a development center for training programs in these fields; a practical, theoretical and ideological foundation for the future Arts and Leadership Academy. All of the above avenues create a local social entrepreneurship hub that spearheads social change in the region.
Artistic enterprises in disadvantaged communities are the main emphasis of the center, thus applying the core Humanitarian value of Inspiration and promoting the power of art and creativity to make a difference for every child and adult in the short and long term. Local talents integrate in developing projects in the fields of art and education, welfare and community.
The Goals of the Center
- Building a regional center for arts, community and environment, which places artists at the head of social change and trains them to be inspiring leaders.
- Developing and implementing models of community, activist and environmental art. These models promote universal values that advocate the power and contribution of art to creating a humanitarian and peace seeking society. These models will also be used as a practical base for the Arts and Leadership Academy.
- Constructing a knowledge and information center, that will serve as a network of artists and communities who utilize art for social development. This is in order to support and encourage social and economic industries to work with “disadvantaged communities” within Israel and around the world.
- Creating an “Inspiration Discourse” in the region of northern Israel, by working with the public, individuals, institutions, corporations, and other communities.
- Initiating and developing a practical, theoretical, and ideological foundation for an international academy for arts and leadership.
Partners of the Center
The Bika’at Kinrot Association; Kibbutz Beit Zera; Kibbutz Sha’ar HaGolan; ANAT – social artists movement; The Scouts Youth Movement; and NIAAD – Nagenda International Academy of Art and Design, Uganda are the partners of the center.
Inspiration is accompanied by a volunteering public board, which includes key people in the fields of education, art, business, community and environment.
Examples of some of the programs
Artists in the Community Program
A main branch of activity of the Arts, Community and Environment Center includes practicing artists who come to the Jordan Valley to advance the center’s vision, while also working on their own personal projects. The artists lead different projects in cooperation with local communities, and partake in an artistic process that includes the whole community and thusly promotes social change. Two of these artists are Alon Rotem, a screenplay writer; and Maya Arbel – a performance and plastic artist.
Interactive Sculpting
Maya Arbel led creative workshops in cooperation with Life Skills College, an
education center for young people with special needs, with the intention of helping them develop special and personal skills through sculpting and movement. Thanks to this project Inspiration and Life Skills now have a shared understanding of how important the need for integration in society is for those with special needs.
Creative Writing Workshops
Alon Rotem directed a weekly writing workshop with the residents of the local Kibbutzes in the Jordan Valley. The aim was to explore and strengthen personal and communal identities. This was accomplished by the participants exploration of the question “what is the Kibbutz’s role in the individual’s life today and the past.” A number of the stories where published and distributed to the local communities.
Community Mural Painting in Cooperation with ArtsUp
The Israeli Center regularly joins forces with organizations and artists who work with art in the community. International artist Max Levin, from Artolution – Community Based Public Art, directed a workshop for volunteers from the ANAT movement, and The Young Leadership Group. The purpose of this workshop was to materialize his and Inspiration’s shared vision of using art as a leadership tool. The workshop discussed the subject of leadership, art and social change and culminated in the creation of a free-style mural.