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The Seventh Year: Shmita

Modern Interpretations of an Ancient Tradition

Exhibit Catalog

September 11 - October 30, 2022

 

The Stanton Street Shul Gallery

180 Stanton Street

Opening Reception: 

Sunday, September 11, 2022 

6 - 8pm

This curated arrangement of works, titled The Seventh Year: Shmita, Modern Interpretations of an Ancient Tradition reflects on the artistic interpretation of the Biblical sabbatical tradition of the Shmita year, the final year in a seven-year cycle where farmers and landowners in Israel are asked to refrain from working the land, allow the land to rest, and submit to Divine trust that their needs will be provided. The agricultural rest and renewal process mirrors the refocus and release of the farmer to a greater power. The Shmita tradition is celebrated this Jewish year
of 5782.

Inspired by the submissions of artists from around the world to the Shmita Prizes Arts Competition - a project of Hazon, the Jewish Lab for Sustainability - Abigail H. Meyer, curator of the exhibition and judge for the competition, selected twenty works of fine art and ritual objects that best spoke to the considerations, commitment and themes associated with Shmita: one’s relationship with the natural environment, transformation and elevation from the mundane, selflessness in a greater world, the embrace of rest for renewal, sustainability, and the spiritual relationship between human, Heaven and land. Works on view are composed of various media, diverse messaging and visionary interpretations of these themes. The exhibition seeks to honor the Shmita tradition and the values it instills including the importance of charity, aiding those in need and a belief in a power greater than the individual self.

The historic Stanton Street Shul generously hosts the exhibition The Seventh Year: Shmita during the culmination of this seven-year cycle. All are invited to view the exhibition, consider the thought-provoking works and their unique messages and experience contemporary, artistic interpretations of an ancient tradition.

Details forthcoming for a virtual conversation with the artists and curator.

The Stanton Street Shul is a tenement shul on the Lower East Side of New York City. When built in 1913, it was one of 700 such institutions in our neighborhood. Today it is one of only a handful of intact congregations from that time. 

For more information and to make an appointment to visit the exhibit contact Jill Slater

Installation & Opening Reception Photos

      

  

 

 

 

 

Thu, March 28 2024 18 Adar II 5784