Public Humanities

Dana Golan’s career has encompassed academic study to a career in multidisciplinary art and work in informal education. Following a master's degree in art history at Tel Aviv University, Dana served for more than a decade as the manager and curator of a distinguished private art collection. She has also led art education activities and art-tours and delivered lectures at various cultural institutions and schools.

Dana was awarded the Fulbright fellowship to pursue her master's degree in museum education studies, which relates to public engagement and visitor experience. She hopes to promote access to art content, to diverse audiences, and fostering space design and educational collaborations between museums and other cultural institutions.

Deborah Fischer’s interdisciplinary art practice integrates research-based installations within marginalized communities and periphery sites. She holds a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design  where she graduated Cum laude.  Via her work with communities and sites, she aims to serve as a medium for their local, intertwined narratives while reflecting her own understanding of it. During her MFA at RISD, she aspires to continue developing an art form dependent on place, giving voice to marginalized communities and generating a skewed version of reality based on the local perspective. She hopes to be part of a proactive force that fosters this art form, where the blend between the political and the fantastical is captured in a new provisional space.

Lev is a graduate of the three-year program at the Nissan Nativ Acting Studio, Tel Aviv, a B.Ed. in theater directing and teaching from the Kibbutzim College, and an MFA graduate from Tel Aviv University. He is a graduate of the Mandel Foundation Regional Leadership Program.

Lev focuses on creating works dealing with geographic and social periphery with the aspiration for accurate representation. His work focuses on underrepresented communities, narratives and characters. He aims to strengthen the periphery as a base for diverse and local creative work. His films have been screened and awarded at festivals worldwide.

Lev was awarded the Fulbright fellowship to pursue his MFA degree with a focus on dramatic writing for the stage and screen at NYU.

Maya Gayer is a content creator and editor with vast experience in the media field, specializing in making academic knowledge accessible to the general public.

Before receiving the Fulbright grant, she worked as a senior director of programming and editor at  Galei Zahal radio, serving for the past seven years as editor-in-chief of “Ha-Universita Ha-Meshuderet”, and co-editor of the program's book series. In the past few years, she also held the position of director of the Persitz Program in arts management at the Tel Aviv–Jaffa Municipality and head content editor of the science documentary series “The Future is Already Here” aired on KAN (the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation). Additionally, Maya was an adjunct professor and lecturer for a podcasting workshop at Sapir Academic College and the University of Haifa.

Maya received an MA (magna cum laude) and a BFA (summa cum laude) in film and television studies from Tel Aviv University.

Maya was awarded the Fulbright fellowship in Public Humanities to pursue an MA in oral history at Columbia University.

Oren graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration and theater studies with a specialization in the management of cultural institutions. He has worked as a director of institutions and projects in the fields of art and culture, actor, musician, choreographer, and owner of a digital startup for managing processes in manufacturing companies.

Oren was awarded the Fulbright Fellowship to pursue a master’s in arts management at Carnegie Mellon University.

Oren believes that professional and ground-breaking management of cultural institutions allows different voices in society to be heard and the different arts to become relevant. Studying in the USA will allow him to acquire  new management methods that encourage inclusion and connection between the center and the periphery.

When he returns Oren hopes to allow creators from all spectrums to find a home in cultural institutions, express their unique voice, while connecting to their ancient heritage, toward progress and peace.

Samah Wattad, a journalist, completed her BA in journalism & sociology at Oranim College of Education in 2016. She was among the 70 students who were selected for her significant contribution to society in 2022.

Samah has worked for various local and international media outlets, serving as a news editor and reporter at Nas radio station and a TV reporter for the Musawah Channel, as well as working as an investigative journalist at KAN Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation in the past. Her coverage on political and economic news, particularly women’s roles in both fields, has been notable.

Samah's passion for volunteering led her to participate in the youth newsroom covering the World Press Freedom Day conference in Ghana in 2018, as part of the UNESCO Middle East NET-MED Youth project. She is also an active board member of the Tishreen Association for activism and empowerment.

Samah was awarded the Fulbright fellowship to pursue her MA in communication management at George Washington University.

Shadi Omar holds a BA in archeology and ancient Near Eastern cultures from Tel Aviv University and a teaching certificate in Land of Israel studies from Beit Berl College.

Shadi aspires to contribute to the development in the field of heritage of residents of the area and especially in Arab society, the tangible and intangible heritage, connecting it to the global context, - the cultural heritage of humanity, to help local communities tell their own story, which is everyone's story.

Shadi’s ambition is to establish creative museums and exhibitions in cooperation with local society, to preserve the history of the past for the betterment of present and future generations.

Shadi was awarded the Fulbright fellowship to pursue an MA in museum anthropology at Columbia University.

Tom Koren graduated from Tel Aviv University with a bachelor’s degree in art history and English literature, Summa Cum Laude. While studying she served as an artistic director, curator, content writer and music journalist at various cultural institutions. Since her graduation she has been working as a digital marketing manager and content creator for Teder.FM.

During her MA studies Tom aims on expanding her experience in the music scene and crossing over to the visual art field, focusing on the intersection between the two. She will explore the possibilities of curating multi-disciplinary events and live, participatory art as a way of keeping art fresh, cutting-edge and forward-thinking, while also creating unique platforms for human encounters, as a means of bringing different communities closer together.

During her Fulbright fellowship, she will pursue an MA in curatorial studies at the School of Visual Arts, New York.

Located at the heart of the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan, our learning space is a unique environment consisting of a lounge, an art books library, a seminar room and a modular gallery constructed of movable walls. Over the course of the two-year program, we curate three exhibitions: a solo show in the first semester of the first year, a group show in the second semester and a solo thesis show at the culmination of our studies. For each of these exhibitions we receive a budget, a gallery space and a range of high-end equipment, while we are required to conceptualize the theme, scout for artists, write publication materials, design the space and install the works.

The curatorial practice MA program at SVA is an intensive, hands-on learning experience that truly emphasizes professional training. In addition to advanced scholarly explorations of art history, philosophy and theory, our classes include case-study seminars and workshops in critical writing and professional practice. The program provides us with an encompassing introduction to the curatorial field through a wide range of resources, including roundtable sessions with leading curators, visits to artist residency programs, open studios, galleries and art institutions, as well as mixers with the MFA departments in the school.  

During the summer between the first and second year, the department goes on a week-long field trip to a major art exhibition such as the Venice Biennale or the Documenta in Kassel. From there each student embarks on a 2–3-month curatorial internship at an art institution of their choice outside of New York, selected over a long process facilitated by the department chair. Our mentors at these internships will later join the committee for our thesis shows. This process provides us with professional experience as independent curators and gives us insights into the inner workings of large-scale institutions. Lastly, in addition to the endless amounts of inspiration we can absorb from the city, studying at the epicenter of the Western art world grants us valuable exposure to gallery openings and ambitious museum exhibitions, encouraging us to immerse ourselves in the New York art scene in our spare time. 

The projects I am working on these days are related to democracy and its undermining, and traumatic memory in the personal/collective context, following the events of October 7.

Ultimately, my final project, which I will work on in the upcoming year, will be to build an oral history archive that will be accessible to the general public and relevant researchers in particular.

Oral history is a practice of recording interviews with people about their experiences in the past (and sometimes in real time), and oral historians are people who record, analyze and preserve these interviews. The practice is similar in many ways to journalistic work, but differs from it in a variety of significant ways, which challenges and expands my way of looking at documentary work. In the program we study the foundations of the practice (recording techniques, approaches to interviews, archival work and copyright), theory and ethics. The field is very interdisciplinary and as such is extremely diverse and offers a platform for work in the fields of academia, media, arts, and in the activist or community spheres.

In general, the most enjoyable thing for me, at the moment, is the opportunity to learn in a full and focused way - to devote time to reading, conversation and deep thought. And New York is also not bad at all!

In the current spring semester, as part of my master’s program I am participating in a comprehensive internship, complemented by seminars, at the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Art Museum at the Department of Education and Visitor Experience here in Washington DC.
I arrived in the United States to pursue a master’s degree in museum studies, following vast experience as an art curator, in collection management, and informal art education. I feel fortunate to be studying in the lively environment of GW University in Washington DC, a center for museums and research in this field. My focus lies on museum education, access and engagement, and visitor experience.

My department has a valuable affiliation with the Smithsonian Institute, enabling me to gain insights from a diverse range of museums. The primary objective of the program is practical learning from the field, extending beyond academic study. We undertake numerous museum visits, attend guest lectures from various museums, and participate in two extensive internships, referred to as "field placements," accompanied by relevant seminars. The curriculum emphasizes co-creating with communities and museum planning through research.

During the first semester, a crucial component of my program involved working at the public school, the Alice Deal Middle School in DC, where I developed a museum program. I organized and facilitated a museum visit to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, focusing on contemporary art to explore global issues like gender equality, immigration, and social justice. I also introduced students to Israeli culture in a broad context, avoiding specific references to the current situation.

In another course, we learned about co-creating with the community, and I chose to examine the Israeli community in Rockville, of which I am part, writing a program partnership with Planet Word museum. Another aspect of our studies involved engaging with museum audiences through digital and technological tools. Our final project resulted in a digital magazine published in the Getty digital archive.

As the program progresses, we will delve into evaluating museum visitor programs through hands-on experience in selected museums. Throughout the program, collaboration among students is emphasized, including peer reviews and group dynamics. My study experience goes beyond the academic realm; I am not only learning from the field but also gaining insights into American culture, the education system, and museum operations. Additionally, living in the U.S. as a family is itself an enriching experience. I aspire to continue my studies and specialization, aiming to foster collaboration between the culture and education departments within museums and beyond and promote the museum's role in the culture.