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Friday July 25, 2008

Shorts: Art

S.Y. Agnon fans gather in Ukraine

Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko paid tribute recently to S.Y. Agnon at a gathering to mark the Nobel laureate’s 120th birthday.

Agnon, who won the prize for literature in 1966, was born in Buczacz, Galicia, now western Ukraine, and immigrated in 1908 to pre-state Israel. He died in 1970 in Jerusalem.

“The childhood which Agnon spent in Buczacz, Ukraine, laid a solid foundation for his talent and further creative work,” Yushchenko told the gathering’s participants July 16 in Buczacz. “Agnon received his Nobel Prize as a citizen of Israel, but simultaneously the best of his works are about the fate of Galicia Jews, those who lived in Ukraine and those who immigrated to other countries.”

Yuschenko said the celebration is “evidence of Ukrainian-Jewish solidarity and intensifies the traditional Ukrainian-Israeli friendship.” — jta

Foundation to sponsor Israeli artists in U.S.

The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation is bringing Israeli artists to the United States for residencies.

The Tulsa, Okla.-based foundation will sponsor six artists at museums, schools and cultural centers this year. Next year the foundation wants to sponsor a dozen artists.

One aim is to expose the artists to America. Another aim, foundation chair Lynn Schusterman said, is “to enable Americans to experience, in depth, the vibrant and creative face of Israel that is embodied in its artists, many of whom are doing some of the most exciting and innovative work anywhere in the world today.”

Three artists have been selected for this fall: performance artist Anat Pick, film historian Yael Munk and curator Gideon Ofrat. Pick will be in residence at the International Dada Archives at the University of Iowa. Munk will be at the Jewish Community Centers of Chicago. — jta

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