BEN URI GALLERY
The London Jewish Museum of Art
The Art Museum for Everyone, Bridging Communities Since 1915
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Ben Uri Gallery:
The London Jewish Museum of Art

108A Boundary Road
Off Abbey Road
St Johns Wood
London NW8 0RH

Tel: 020 7604 3991
Fax: 020 7604 3992
Email: info@benuri.org.uk

Opening hours
Mon-Fri: 10am-5.30pm
Sun: 12-4pm - closed Sat

CLICK HERE FOR MORE VISITOR INFORMATION

Click here for a map to the Museum

LATEST NEWS AND EVENTS

15 August 2011

BEN URI, THE ART MUSEUM for EVERYONE IS EXPANDING

In the commercial world it is often excellent practice to expand and grow market share in a recession when some competitors cut back.

We are following this strategy.

Ben Uri as you know engages our growing audiences locally, Nationally and Internationally and is now expanding and preparing the ground for a sustainable Museum and Gallery in the heart of Central London.

To sustain these advances and others across our Social Health, Scholarship, Collection and Social Media strategies we have at last secured through the generosity of supporters a new HQ in Old Street, EC1.

These new offices will house a growing volunteer team across Business Development, Fund Raising, Curatorial, Collection Research and Acquisitions, Marketing including Social Media and our new Web Site (to be launched hopefully before the end of the year) and our extensive Art Research Library which we hope to open to the public early next year. The exhibition gallery along with Administration, Operations and Education remain in Boundary Road, St John's Wood for the time being.

We have two full time Executive Management opportunities for the right dynamic individuals to stamp their 'footprint' on the Museum's exciting future. Head of Business and Income Generation:
- Administration, Finance and Gallery Manager
- Head of Business and Income Generation

As ever it has been a very busy year to date.

We have moved the 1200 strong collection from secure museum storage in the centre of London to the tranquillity and security of rural England. For over a month we had a ten man team working in Wiltshire where we executed a complete condition report on every work, identified some 170 works that required restoration and or reframing and have had each work professionally photographed so the whole collection has now been digitised for future academic reference on our soon to be launched new web site.

Thanks to the generosity of our friends in the commercial gallery world who donated over 150 frames we are mid way through the process of reframing these works within a full restoration project. We plan to have the collection completely framed, presented and restored to museum standards by the end of this financial year. This will be an extraordinary achievement. Whilst we have re-invested all the first year and a half's savings in storage costs in this important process generating increased costs this financial year we will accrue significant savings year 2 onwards which will be reinvested in programming.

This autumn is very exciting.

 

Exhibitions:
Sunday 12th from 2:30-4pm - Josef Herman RA - The tumultuous early years 1938-1944 revealed. Illustrated talk by curator Sarah MacDougall.
RSVP info@benuri.org.uk

Opening 20 September from 6:30-8:30 'Josef Herman: Warsaw, Brussels, Glasgow, London, 1938-1944' until January 15th.

New York ~ October 27th sees 'The Land of Light and Promise, 50 Years Painting Jerusalem and Beyond, Ludwig Blum 1891-1974' opens at MoBia.

Education:
5 years of hard work and significant investment have been richly rewarded as our distinctive and growing set of learning programmes for teachers and students have been selected to be part of the 'London Grid for Learning' and the 'National Education Network'. This means our learning modules based on the now renowned Ben Uri Collection are now readily available 'off the virtual computer shelf' to 25,000 schools ~ over 8 million pupils ~ from Inverness to Plymouth.

This academic year we expect to enjoy meaningful learning engagements (rather than one few hour museum visit) with well in excess of 100,000 students which we intend to significantly grow incrementally year on year. We target 250,000 student teaching engagements per annum across the United Kingdom before 2015.

Much more to tell across so many different areas but for another occasion.

Please keep the evening of September 20th free from 630-830 to join us for the opening of a remarkable survey of Herman's barely known formative and traumatic years whilst he fled the Nazi's from Warsaw through Brussels, Glasgow and London before he found solace and some tranquillity in South Wales where he eventually enjoyed deserved recognition.

Please pass any of the attached CV's to who ever you might think is ready for the challenge, demands and incredible satisfaction in playing a leading role in mapping out our quite extraordinary journey to the heart of Centre of London.

Warmest regards and thanks

David and all the Board

20 June 2011
OBITUARY

Professor Mordechai (Moti) Omer in memoriam
Born Haifa 1941- Died Tel Aviv 2011
Director and Chief Curator, Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

The Board and staff of Ben Uri are deeply saddened to announce the untimely passing of International Advisory Board member and our loyal supportive friend Moti Omer.

Moti died on Friday morning 10 June after a six month courageous fight against cancer.

He was a unique character and force for good throughout his life of service to the museum and cultural life in Israel. He was a scholar of great distinction, a considered and imaginative curator, a highly efficient Chief Executive and a successful ambassador not just for his museum but for the reputation of Israeli Art and Artists.

His scholarship was renowned in academic circles but ever modest his range of expertise outside Israeli art was seldom brought to the fore. His books on British master 'Turner' and curatorship of the seminal exhibition 'J.M.W. Turner and the Romantic Vision of the Holy Land and the Bible' in Boston in 1996 ~ his articles in the Burlington Magazine, Studio International, Cambridge Criticisms are examples of his breadth of interest and knowledge.

His curatorial career was extraordinary including Museum of Modern Art in NY(1968-1971), Victoria and Albert Museum in London (1976), The Bavarian State Painting Collections, Munich (1979), The Ashmolean in Oxford (1981), The Haim Attar Museum of Art, Ein Hod, The Haifa Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Israeli Art, The Israel Museum all through the 1980's. He was appointed Israel's Commissioner at the Biennial of Young Artists in 1983 in Paris and again at Sao Paulo in 1987 and 1989.

In 1974 he founded the Tel Aviv University Art Gallery and in 1995 he was in addition appointed Director of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art which he led with great distinction.

Under his leadership the Tel Aviv Museum of Art has established an international reputation for excellence and diversity of programming. The Museum is a cultural hub in Tel Aviv and a no fail destination stop for visitors to the city from home and abroad. His vision and decade of planning for a new wing for Israeli Art to be showcased is only months away and the Herta and Paul Amir Wing will open this October.

In 2003 Moti generously and willingly agreed to join Ben Uri's fledgling International Advisory Board and has been a source of constant advice and engagement since. No matter how busy Moti always returned calls and found time to meet and or visit when in the UK for BFAMI or other occasions. It was a privilege to work so closely with him and curator Dr Batsheva Goldman Ida on their 2009 exhibition 'Fragmented Mirror' Reconstructing the Exhibition of Jewish Artists, Berlin 1907'.

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art; its extraordinary collection of Israeli and International art, its seamless blending with remarkable exhibitions of local, national and international artists of fame and promise, its dedication to scholarship, its engagement with young artists, curators and students alike and its new physical future are his lasting legacy.

We pay tribute to his immeasurable contribution to Museum and cultural life in Israel and thank him for his friendship, guidance and contribution to Ben Uri.

We wish his family Long Life and send our condolences to all our friends and his extended family at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

7 February 2011
Heart & Art meet on 14th February: Join us for a special supper, art exhibition and auction in aid of ILAN's Handicapped Artists and Day Centres in Israel and Ben Uri's Art as Therapy Programme at the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in the presence of H.E. Mr Ron Proser, Israel's Ambassador to the UK. RSVP to Anna Canby-Monky: anna@benuri.org.uk. Minimum donation £25. Monday 14 February, 7-9.30pm.
24 January 2011
Dr Dalia Manor will give a lecture, 'European Landscape Tradition and Israeli Art: The case of Ludwig Blum' on Wednesday 12th January at 5:30pm in Room B104, Brunel Gallery building, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Russell Square, WC1H OXG. For tickets please email: anna@benuri.org.uk
10 January 2011
Join us for the opening of the Land of Light and Promise: Ludwig Blum (1891-1974) a 20th Century Orientalist on Tuesday, 11th January between 6.30-8.30pm at the Gallery. Our special guest will be His Excellency Michael Zantovsky, the Czech Ambassador. RSVP@benuri.org.uk
20 December 2010

The 2011 Ben Uri Art Diary is now available priced £15. Drop into the gallery, email info@benuri.org.uk or call 020 7604 3991 to get yours.

You can download our highlights of the year here (pdf document).

5 December 2010

Join us on Wednesday 8th December at 6.30pm for the formal accession of "Interrogation" by George Grosz.

Also, view the remarkable exhibition of art by Maria Fidelis Girls Convent School in Camden, Wanstead High School and Acland Burghley Secondary School in Tufnell Park. Pupils were visited by holocaust survivor, Eva Kugler and artist Heather Libson. During the project pupils created self portraits which explored their responses to Ben Uri’s National ‘Art in the Open’ Holocaust learning programme.

rsvp@benuri.org.uk

4 October 2010
Ben Uri appeals for missing Ludwig Blum paintings ahead of its major retrospective exhibition opening January 2011. Find out more.
1 October 2010

New art events for everyone announced!
Cross Purposes tour, Gaugin at Tate Modern and more... Click here.

27 September 2010
Forced Journeys exhibition inspires Commemorative Stamps
Three artworks from Forced Journeys will grace a set of commemorative stamps for the Isle of Man. Read more.
16 Sept 2010
Cross Purposes extended until 28 November 2010. Find out about the exhibition.
26 August 2010
20 August 2010

International honour for Suzanne Lewis
The Chairmen and Board of Ben Uri are very proud to announce Suzanne Lewis, our Director of Operations, has accepted an invitation to join the HBI Academic Advisory Committee in Boston, USA.

HBI is a research institute based at Brandeis University in Massachusetts with the mission of developing fresh ways of thinking about Jews and gender worldwide.

10 August 2010
Renowned Holocaust art and Chagall scholar, Ziva Amishai-Maisels, Professor Emeritus of Art History at Hebrew University Jerusalem, has joined Ben Uri's International Advisory Board.
30 July 2010
Free daytime lecture by BU curator, Rachel Dickson, on 100 years of Jewish artists announced - Wednesday 15th September, 1pm at Museum of London.
4 July 2010

The Rt Rev Lord Harries of Pentregath talks about Cross Purposes and the controversy on Thought for the Day, BBC Radio 4 on Friday 2 July.

Read the full transcript

1 July 2010

Cross Purposes receives wave of support and Ben Uri wins the poll of the week: 63% of respondents in favour of a Jewish Museum of Art staging an exhibition of images of the crucifixion. Thank you!

Cue a follow up article in the Jewish Chronicle

Click here to read all letters of support for the exhibition.

Come and visit and see what all the fuss is about!

30 June 2010

Should a Jewish Museum of Art stage an exhibition of images of the crucifixion? Vote now on the homepage of the JC website and let us know what you think.

http://www.thejc.com/

Story reaches the Evening Standard.

Letters to the Editor of Jewish Chronicle:

"Sir,
A report in your columns on 24 June has moved me to write in defence of the Ben Uri Gallery which makes a unique contribution to the cultural life of this country.  As a non-Jew, I am amazed at the excitement generated among some Jews by the exhibition 'Cross Purposes' at the Ben UriI Gallery.  The 20th century works in the exhibition were not conceived as devotional objects, nor have they been viewed as such over the past 100 years.  The Crucifixion as a theme for painting has long been absorbed into the wider canon of artistic iconography; to see it in any other terms is the worst kind of obscurantism
 
Yours faithfully

David Wyatt CBE"
(Reproduced with permission)

"The Ben Uri Gallery should be commended rather than castigated for its courageous and challenging crucifix exhibition. Its purpose is to make visitors reflect and ask difficult questions. As a teacher of Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Muslim relations I also emphasise to my students the value of asking each other difficult questions. Judaism is a religion of questions and Ben Uri is fulfilling a task that Jews have undertaken from biblical times to the present day. It should not be prevented from doing so.

Dr Edward Kessler
Woolf Institute, Cambridge"
(Reproduced with permission)

27 June 2010

MAJOR CONTROVERSY: Is an exhibition of images of the crucifixion appropriate for Ben Uri? Read this feature in the Jewish Chronicle and let us know what you think.

Email info@benuri.org.uk
Tweet us @benurigallery
Comment on our Facebook page.

Find out more about Cross Purposes at the exhibition page.

And read Peter Aspden's review in the Financial Times.

27 June 2010

300 people attending the opening of Cross Purposes at Boundary Road and heard Sir Norman Rosenthal talk about this:

"extraordinary exhibition.... Allowing
us to understand how this most sacred of religious images has evolved over the past hundred years to become a widely used motif for all sorts of purposes in contemporary culture.... Intelligently, sensitively and
courageously curated...."

The exhibition was reviewed in the Jewish Chronicle on 24 June.

June 2010

Forced Journeys tours to Birkenhead

Following a successful stay at Sayle Gallery, Isle of Man, Forced Journeys opened at the Williamson Art Gallery and Museum, Birkenhead on 17 June. Read more.

June 2010
15 February 2010
11 February 2010
SPECIAL EVENT BOOK NOW:
Private View of  paintings by Robert Lenkiewicz from a private collection. 
Thursday, 11th March, 5.00 - 8.00pm
Gallery 27 Cork Street, London, W1S 3NG 
Please join us for this special event and an opportunity to see major paintings from this very controversial artist. Free to Registered Friends, Guests £10. Email info@benuri.org.uk
7 January 2010
December 2009

BU ACQUIRES LOST 1945 MASTERPIECE
OF CHAGALL'S WARTIME OEUVRE

To be unveiled on 8th January at Osborne Samuel. Click to find out more....

October 2009
BU ACQUIRES FIRST WORLD WAR MASTERPIECE: Self Portrait in Steel Helmet by Isaac Rosenberg, as featured on front page of Jewish Chronicle 09/10/09 (click to download)
September 2009
September 2009

ARTISTS PEER GROUP - 6 September
Join us on the final day of the Pop Up Studios Exhibition for a tour of the work led by the 4 award winning artists. Free but please RSVP to info@benuri.org.uk. Sunday 6th Sept, 2-4pm.

August 2009

EPSTEIN DAY Weds 19 August.
Join us for a coach tour of Epstein's London sculptures and an evening reception at the Fleming Collection. Click for more info.

July 2009
We are recruiting!
Visit our recruitment page to find out about exciting opportunities to join our management team and help move BU to Central London
July 2009

16th July: Artists’ Peer Group

7-8pm: Lydia Goldblatt, fine art photographer, in conversation with The Reverend Graeme Napier, Westminster Abbey, discussing her recent series ‘And The Word Was God’

8-9pm: Artist to Artist critique: Grace O’Connor and Julie Major discuss their work.

June 2009

May 2009

Announcing the Pauline & Daniel Auerbach

ARTISTS WITHOUT STUDIOS PRIZE

A residency and exhibition opportunity for young artists at Ben Uri

May 2009

Ben Uri to present and chair international seminar dedicated to Provenance Research for Museums at MoMA, New York, 4 Feb 2009

“Chain Reaction” An exceptional auction to benefit the British Friends of the Art Museums of Israel at Phillips de Pury & Company London.

BEN URI ACQUIRES CELEBRATED WORK BY FRANK AUERBACH...

Ben Uri Gallery Acquires a Masterpiece ...

IJAYA Finalists Exhibition ...

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