“Zooming In” Weekly Curatorial Conversations from The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life (Aug 21—Dec 18)

BCSR affiliate faculty member Francesco Spagnolo, together with Shir Kochavi, will be hosting an online Weekly Curatorial Conversations series from the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, “Zooming In,” where they will be discussing insights and connections emerging from the holdings of UC Berkeley’s Magnes Collection, one of the largest Jewish museum collections in the world. Throughout the series, guests will join them to explore Jewish art and Life, one object at a time.

Registration and event information can be found on the Magnes Collection event webpage, and on the Division of Arts and Humanities Arts & Ideas website.

Fridays at Noon, August 21-December 18, 2020 (except Sept. 18 & Nov. 27) | A Zoom account is required to attend these free programs.

Zooming In: Hebrew Amulets: Practical Magic (and Health Insurance) in Early-Modern Times
Friday, August 21, 2020 | Noon

Zooming In: Arthur Szyk and The Right to America
Friday, August 28, 2020 | Noon

Zooming In: Graduating In Style: Ethnic Diversity at the University of Padua (Italy, 17th century)
Friday, September 4, 2020 | Noon

Zooming In: Nature in the Song of Songs: An Early-20th Century Carpet from Jerusalem
Friday, September 11, 2020 | Noon

Zooming In: The Social Medium that Once Was: Postcards in the Global Jewish Diaspora
Friday, September 25, 2020 | Noon

Zooming In: From San Francisco to Paris (and Back): Theresa Herman and the Stein Family
Friday, Oct 2, 2020 | Noon

Zooming In: On Hitler’s Balcony: Historian Koppel Pinson in Europe (1945-1946)
Friday, October 9, 2020 | Noon

Zooming In: Pushing Buttons, Old and New: Prayers Shawls, Karaite Jews, and Subversive Rituals (with artist Nicki Green)
Friday, October 16, 2020 | Noon

Zooming In: En Route: A Porcelain Set Between Paris, Istanbul and Berkeley
Friday, October 23, 2020 | Noon

Zooming In: A Silent Presence: Female representations in synagogue textiles
Friday, October 30, 2020 | Noon

Zooming In: Beyond the Photo Archive: Reconstructing The Concerns of Roman Vishniac (1971) at The Magnes
Friday, November 6, 2020 | Noon

Zooming In: Old Craft – New Media: Gabriella Willenz’s Bezalel-inspired Leaning Towers series
Friday, November 13, 2020 | Noon

Zooming In: Jewish Resistance: The many contexts of a 1905 painting by Lazar Krestin
Friday, November 20, 2020 | Noon

Zooming In: Birth Certificates in Cloth: Ritual Textiles for the Jewish Life Cycle
Friday, December 4, 2020 | Noon

Zooming In: Displaying Identity, Protecting Oneself: (What do we learn from) The shape of Hanukkah lamps
Friday, December 11, 2020 | Noon

Zooming In: Hanukkah and Survival: A Workshop for “Displaced Persons” in Germany, 1945
Friday, December 18, 2020 | Noon

Francesco Spagnolo is a multidisciplinary scholar focusing on Jewish studies, music, and digital media. At the University of California, Berkeley, he is the Curator of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Music. Among his publications are Italian Jewish Musical Traditions (Rome-Jerusalem, 2001) and The Jewish World: 100 Treasures of Art and Culture (New York, 2014).

Shir Gal Kochavi, Assistant Curator at The Magnes, is an art historian with extensive expertise in provenance research and the history of collecting. In 2017, she received her PhD from the University of Leeds, UK after completing a MA in The History of Business of Art and Collecting from the Institut d’Études Superieures des Arts, Paris (2008). Her professional experience includes assistant positions in art and antiques galleries, and leading the provenance research department at the Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims’ Assets in Israel.

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life was established in 2010 following the transfer of the Judah L. Magnes Museum to the University of California, Berkeley. Its remarkably diverse archive, library and museum holdings include art, objects, texts, music, and historical documents about the Jews in the Global Diaspora and the American West. As one of the world’s preeminent Jewish collections in a university setting, it provides highly innovative and accessible resources both to researchers and to the general public. The holdings of The Magnes continue to grow. Recent acquisition highlights include the Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, and the gift of the Roman Vishniac Archive.