Partner organisations: Jerusalem Foundation / Ibda’a School for the Arts / Paley Center
September 2024
Theater program at the Paley Center, East Jerusalem
Due to the urgent need for organized art activities in East Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Foundation established the Paley Arts Center in 1977, in partnership with the Jerusalem Municipality. Prior to the construction of the Paley Center, regular classes were offered at the nearby Rockefeller Museum and the Beit David Youth & Community Center. However, the Paley Center marked the first time that a facility specifically designed for activities in the sphere of creative culture was opened. The Paley Center was also the first institution in Jerusalem to offer shared art classes for members of the Hebrew and Arabic-speaking populations together. It remains till today the only municipal art center in east Jerusalem.
New theater course
With the generous support of the Hoffnung 13 Foundation, in September 2022 the Paley Arts Center expanded its community programming using the newly renovated and equipped auditorium, named the “Al-Beit Theater” (in English: home) by introducing a new Theater Course, conducting weekly, 2½-hour course theater sessions for three age groups (children, youth and adults). Over 70 participants enjoyed the Theater Course throughout 2023/24, of which 38 were children ages 6-11 in 2 groups.
To ensure success, the course was carried out in partnership with the School of Visual Theater in Jerusalem, a leading school of higher education in the arts. The school recruited and trained the instructors, themselves excelling students at the school, and appointed a prominent performance artist to provide the instructors close guidance and professional accompaniment. The course was developed according to a clear, defined vision, aimed at instilling basic and advanced theater themes amongst participants, developing tools for self-production of successful, inspiring performances and encouraging young people from east Jerusalem to engage themselves in the theater world – by creating or consuming content. It additionally seeks to expand the availability of quality theater content in Arabic.
The weekly sessions taught participants to work with their bodies, text, sound, art materials and space; developed their creative thinking and use of imagination, listening skills, critical thinking and self-confidence; and encouraged them to work as a group, fostering trust, friendship and a sense of community. Participants were given space for self-expression and were encouraged to tell their stories using the tools of theater and stage performance. These sessions provided an intimate safe space where the participants can engage in various experiences, change stories and characters, fail and succeed.
Through the course, the participants were exposed to various media in the sphere of theater, including viewing and discussing a wide variety of classical, contemporary and ‘performance art’ performances, enjoyed various workshops and created original theater pieces and costumes, learned movement and dance and were given a basic introduction to lighting, stage sets and décor and scriptwriting. They additionally attended 2 professional plays at the School of Visual Theater.
The course culminated in 2 end of year performances, at the Paley Arts Center, divided according to age groups. Those displaying the children’s groups productions were held on August 22, 2024 with 4 performances: ‘In-Between’ ‘Language Games’, ‘The Last Supper’ and ‘Role Play’. A total of 500 people attended both events.
2024
Hope in East Jerusalem – thanks to Stiftung Hoffnung13
Having fun with chairs
(Photo: Paley Center)
Hope and great joy for the Paley Center in East Jerusalem was recently brought once again by the Marburg-based Hoffnung13 Foundation. Thanks to its support, it was possible to start another one-year theatre program in October 2023. The aim is to introduce children and young people to the world of theatre, connect them with Arabic-speaking artists, promote them on a broad basis and introduce all participants to the Jerusalem art scene and beyond the city limits. The aim is also to promote the production of own works and presentations for the performing arts.
Theatrical education at Paley Center (Photp: Paley Center)
The director of the Paley Center and his team are amazed by the enthusiasm and commitment of all the children and young people involved. Especially in times like these, the young people find a place at Paley that gives them a lot of confidence, joy of life and positive energy through creative theatre, dance and music.
Creative design (Photo: Paley Center)
The weekly program of the four groups includes topics such as performance, movement, body language as well as working with objects and materials. The grand finale for the young artists will be a final event with public performances in August 2024.
2023
Building bridges on the theatre stage
The Marburg-based Hoffnung13 Foundation is once again subsidising a theatre programme for Arabic-speaking children and young people at the Paley Center in East Jerusalem for a period of one year until June 2023.
Theatre project at the Paley Center (Photo: Yazan Haddad)
2022
Theatre programme at the East Jerusalem Paley Center
Ibda’a School for the Arts Open Day (poster)
Great joy in the Jerusalem cultural scene. The Marburg-based Hoffnung13 Foundation is subsidising a theatre programme for Arabic-speaking children and young people at the Paley Center in East Jerusalem. The aim: to introduce children and young people to the world of theatre, to connect them with Arabic-speaking artists, to promote them on a broad basis and to familiarise all those involved with the arts scene in Jerusalem and beyond the city limits. This will also encourage the production of their own performing arts works and performances.
Founded in 1977 by the Jerusalem Foundation, the Paley Center was the first institution to offer joint art classes for the Hebrew and Arabic-speaking population citywide. Time and again, the Jerusalem Foundation sponsors art and creativity programmes there.
Since its renovation in 2020, the Paley Center offers an exhibition hall and classrooms as well as an auditorium that can also be used as a technically modern theatre stage. It is the only stage in East Jerusalem that is aimed at all people and the first independent theatre in the eastern part of the city.
Children playing at the Paley Center (Photo: Yazan Haddad)
The theatre project, generously funded by the Hoffnung13 Foundation, includes theatre performances, music and dance, lectures, 24 workshops, among others, with children from two schools in the eastern part of the city, with which the Paley Centre already has close links, as well as with other young people over the age of 18, as part of the education pr
Source: Paley Center
2019 – 2020
Musical training at the Ibda’a School of Arts
In September 2017, the Ibda’a School for the Arts opened in a neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. It is the first school of its kind in Jerusalem, as well as the only one in all of Israel to focus its programmes specifically on the Arab sector. Here, 142 students can currently discover and develop their talents, as well as benefit from the therapeutic effects of music. The Ibda’a School therefore places a special emphasis on musical education.
Orchestra rehearsal (Photo: Yazan Haddad)
The school’s concept is that by means of creative self-expression through music, art and film, students find a way to recognise their strengths, deal with any trauma and create opportunities for positive development for themselves and society.
For the school year 2019/20, there will be baccalaureate courses in (classical and modern) music, plastic arts and theatre/film. In collaboration with the Jerusalem Foundation, our foundation funds individual and orchestral musical education, workshops and performances inside and outside East Jerusalem.