Givat Haviva Shared Art Center Alumni in Duke University Residency

Five Israeli Jewish and Arab artists, alumni of the Shared Art Center residency program
at Givat Haviva, are currently at Duke University in North Carolina for an artist in
residency program.
“The collaboration between Givat Haviva and Duke University is an important, high-
quality, and significant partnership,” says Anat Lidror, Director of the Givat Haviva
Shared Art Center. “It is taking place during an extreme period, both in Israel and the
U.S., a time when universities are grappling with a one-dimensional perception of the
situation in Israel. This is an opportunity to get to know and learn about the reality in
Israel, and its complexities in a new way, through the eyes of young artists who believe
in a shared society in Israel.”
The six-week artist residency at Duke University was organized by the Provost’s
Initiative on the Middle East, an ongoing effort to make space in the Duke campus
community for rigorous and respectful debate in which differing perspectives are
welcome on current and past conflicts in the region, with support from the Office of the
Vice Provost for the Arts and the Charles H. Revson Foundation. 
“We are delighted to welcome these talented artists to Duke for this unique and
important residency,” says Duke University Provost Alec D. Gallimore. “Art has always
been a means for engaging and learning about one another and thus offers hope for
moving past the conflicts that ravage our world. Our community looks forward to
learning from this group, their works, and the diverse perspectives they represent.”
Givat Haviva, the oldest and largest institution advancing Jewish-Arab relations and
shared society in Israel, initiated its artists in residency program three years ago. The
Shared Art Center provides an environment for Jewish and Arab artists to create works
in their preferred medium and optionally sometimes produce artworks together. “We try
to give them time and space to create a new body of work, which will be shown at the
Givat Haviva gallery, and facilitate connections with curators and people in art
institutions across Israel,” Lidror says.
Acceptance in the Givat Haviva art residency program is competitive, with five Arab and
five Jewish artists selected each year. The 10 artists live together for three months on
the Givat Haviva campus in central Israel. “They live together, cook together, use our art
center to create individual and sometimes joint works,” says Lidror. It often is the first
time that each artist, all citizens of Israel, is meeting someone from the other society at
such depth.
“Our residency is very holistic and intensive,” says Lidror. “It’s about promoting young
talented voices who have a real interest in being involved in society, who want to
influence society as artists.”

The five artists participating in the Duke program are Maria Khateb, Jonathan David,
Ben Alon, Malak Manzour, and Baylassan Marjieh Karim. At Duke they will exhibit a
selection of artworks they created in various mediums at Givat Haviva, and they will
make new pieces of art during their six-week residency, from September 4 to October 2.
“The art field is the most open field for communication, for telling your story,” Lidror
says. “You can do a lot with art when you want to influence people, when you want to
say things, when you want to open the mind to new ways of perception.”
The Israeli artists will engage with Duke students and visit arts venues and arts
organizations in the area near the school. “The Duke residency program gives artists
from Givat Haviva an additional stage in their artistic development, offering them the
chance to get to know a new and fertile environment, build connections with key figures
in the local art world at Duke, and support each other as a cohesive group,” says Lidror.
“It also gives them the opportunity to gain a different perspective from a distance.”