7 DERECH BEIT LECHEM
JERUSALEM 9355304
Israel
- Arts
- International/Cultural relations
The Jerusalem Season of Culture is an independent, non-profit arts organization created to share the city’s extraordinary but often overlooked cultural life with the world. Each summer, we create a schedule of original, city-specific productions that traverse artistic disciplines, unfold in breathtaking locations, draw inspiration from the city’s landscapes, stories and people, and create moments that could happen only in Jerusalem. Our mission is to use art and culture as a neutral and inviting platform and facilitator for dialogue, inter-religious and cross-cultural dialogue and shared society. Through this JSOC aims to breakdown stereotypes and prejudice, transcend pervasive paradigms that limit the city's development and create an environment in which audiences and artists can meet, share experiences and familiarize themselves with alternative cultures.
Our activities include:
Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival - for one week, the festival turns Jerusalem into a place where, through music, utopia is offered the chance to burst through into the city’s daily reality and inviting nations and faiths from all over the world to come to Jerusalem and celebrate themselves.Contact Point - a frenzied night of art and people at the Israel Museum which has developed into a cultural highlight and is eagerly awaited by thousands of people every year. The event, which begins as night falls just after the museum closes, invites artists from a wide spectrum of artistic genres to present new, original works that interact with museum spaces, the concept behind the museum and the works exhibited within it.Frontline - a festival that defies all definition proudly showcases Jerusalem’s independent music scene. Frontline ramps up Jerusalem’s alternative sound which plays under the radar, here and now and despite and maybe because of the city’s inherent craziness. In-House Festival – stretching the boundaries of private homes to a more general and expansive concept of what constitutes a “home.”, questioning what home means to the general populace, the city and in some cases, to peoples that are fighting over the same house.Under the Mountain – a public art festival focusing on the biggest and most important public stage in history—the Temple Mount. In a series of commissioned works we neutralize and re-charge a site that has already seen a thing or two (from the Binding of Isaac the ascension of the Prophet Muhammad from the earth to heaven to the murder of Jordan's King Abdullah), converting this political and national volatility into an artistic explosion which ranges from a meeting with Israel border police, inter galactic sculpture to a Canaanite rave.
For more information go to: www.jerusalemseason.com\en
JSOC has proven to be an effective connector and coordinator of the city's many different organizations, voices and forces. JSOC was conceived as an organization that worked primarily in the field of arts and culture and quickly became an important voice in the city and a close collaborator with the cities many and growing number of civil society organizations. As such, we have become the go-to organization for many of the city's political, social and cultural leaders who feel we can represent the city in an innovative way and convey its depth and complexity. We believe that we as an organization are in a unique position to maximize the network's impact and outreach both on the national as well as international/Mediteranean level. As Jerusalem represents a microcosm of Israel's social fabric and national challenges JSOC can serve as a well-placed conduit for the Network's activity.
While JSOC started out as a local initiative, our central goal has always been to serve a wider national as well as international audience. We believe that the ALF Network can be crucial in creating and nurturing international partnerships and cultural programming. We have already partnered with artists and organizations from Morocco, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Serbia , Croatia and many more. We believe that being part of the ALF Network we would be able to reach out to many more cultural entities (especially from the Mediteranean basin region), who might be hesistant to work with us, but will be more willing if we have this connection.