Foreword:

In the summer of 2000 we have set in motion the opening of Bezalel’s advanced studies program in Tel Aviv; the first of its kind in Israel. The program, which started its activity on 60 Salame Street in early 2001 with a group of 13 students, quickly gained eminence in Tel Aviv and in the Israeli art scene. Today it is attended by some 45 students every year. In the decade of its operation many artists, curators, writers and theoreticians, from both Israel and abroad, have taught in the program and met with its students; different frameworks of collaboration were established: students exchange, studio visits, guest lectures and academic relations with leading international MFA programs The class graduating this year will be my last one as head of the program. Many of its graduates have also attended Bezlael’s BFA, which makes the moment of parting, after several years of working together, a moving and solemn moment. The strength of the program lies in its excellent team – its involvement, pluralism and the variety of voices it offers our students. A variety that allows room for experimentation and for fascinating dynamics rising and filtering from one studio to its neighbor, summoning exciting surprises time and time again. Processes, experimentations, conflicts, ideas and thoughts take shape and come to life, sometime in dramatics leaps, in the creation of fascinating contemporary art. There is great satisfaction in this adventure, in the feeling that all of us, teachers and students alike, share a part of this road. I hope the sense of discovery – discovery of surprising places, new experiences and unexpected insights – will accompany our graduates in their future paths.

-Nahum Tevet