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Twenty-five Israeli, Palestinian and American high school students have been living and working together at the Buxton School for the Artsbridge Intercultural Leadership Program.

Arts Program for Israeli, Palestinian and American Students Displays its Work

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Local residents and visitors to the area this weekend will have the rare opportunity to meet a delegation of 25 Israeli, Palestinian and American high school students who have been living and working together at the Buxton School for the Artsbridge Intercultural Leadership Program.

The three-week summer program is produced by Artsbridge Inc., a Boston-area nonprofit, and Berkshires-based Music in Common. Both organizations use the arts to bring people in conflict together. Until now, each had their own summer program that brought Palestinian and Israeli teens to the States and this is the first year the two have partnered to produce their programs together as one.

Students arrived on July 9 and have been engaging in daily dialogue and working on visual art, film, photography and music projects. They have also participated in a high ropes course for team building, met and conversed with local religious leaders and visited a local planetarium to learn about the natural world around them. Dialogue and art projects are based on this year’s theme of "IDentity." The Artsbridge model of reflective dialogue teaches students how to listen to one another and to ask questions out of curiosity and interest while the art programs teach participants how to work together, think creatively, and communicate constructively. Their art works will be publicly presented for the first time at the banquet and showcase.

The banquet takes place on Saturday, July 30, from 6-9 p.m. at the Buxton School. The evening includes dinner with the students as well as a sneak peek of their finished artwork, films and musical performances. There will also be an auction. Tickets are $75 per person and include dinner and performances. All proceeds will offset expenses to produce this year’s summer program. Purchase tickets for the banquet online.

The showcase takes place on campus the very next day, Sunday July 31, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. All student works will be displayed, screened and performed, and students will be on hand to meet guests and talk about their projects and their experiences in the program.

 


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WCMA: 'Cracking the Code on Numerology'

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) opens a new exhibition, "Cracking the Cosmic Code: Numerology in Medieval Art."
 
The exhibit opened on March 22.
 
According to a press release: 
 
The idea that numbers emanate sacred significance, and connect the past with the future, is prehistoric and global. Rooted in the Babylonian science of astrology, medieval Christian numerology taught that God created a well-ordered universe. Deciphering the universe's numerical patterns would reveal the Creator's grand plan for humanity, including individual fates. 
 
This unquestioned concept deeply pervaded European cultures through centuries. Theologians and lay people alike fervently interpreted the Bible literally and figuratively via number theory, because as King Solomon told God, "Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight" (Wisdom 11:22). 
 
"Cracking the Cosmic Code" explores medieval relationships among numbers, events, and works of art. The medieval and Renaissance art on display in this exhibition from the 5th to 17th centuries—including a 15th-century birth platter by Lippo d'Andrea from Florence; a 14th-century panel fragment with courtly scenes from Palace Curiel de los Ajos, Valladolid, Spain; and a 12th-century wall capital from the Monastery at Moutiers-Saint-Jean—reveal numerical patterns as they relate to architecture, literature, gender, and timekeeping. 
 
"There was no realm of thought that was not influenced by the all-consuming belief that all things were celestially ordered, from human life to stones, herbs, and metals," said WCMA Assistant Curator Elizabeth Sandoval, who curated the exhibition. "As Vincent Foster Hopper expounds, numbers were 'fundamental realities, alive with memories and eloquent with meaning.' These artworks tease out numerical patterns and their multiple possible meanings, in relation to gender, literature, and the celestial sphere. 
 
"The exhibition looks back while moving forward: It relies on the collection's strengths in Western medieval Christianity, but points to the future with goals of acquiring works from the global Middle Ages. It also nods to the history of the gallery as a medieval period room at this pivotal time in WCMA's history before the momentous move to a new building," Sandoval said.
 
Cracking the Cosmic Code runs through Dec. 22.
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