The Jewish Arts in an Expanded Field

media release: The Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies presents the 8th biennial Conney Conference on Jewish Arts at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, from March 27-30, 2022. All events are free and open to the public.

The Conney Conference on Jewish Arts will address themes of interdisciplinarity, diversity and intersectionality in the changing landscape of the Jewish Arts. In a moment in which we are experiencing a generational shift among Jewish-identifying artists to a more inclusive and polyvocal, fluid understanding of Jewish identity, the politics of Jewishness are foregrounded in astounding new ways. From graphic novels to digital art and highly charged dance and performance, to theater, music and literature, we see both a return to ritual and a search for new narratives of the contemporary Jewish experience. The 8th iteration of the Conney Conference on Jewish Arts will focus on the remarkable evolution of the field as it has expanded into the future while acknowledging its own histories.

Curator, writer and artist Aimee Rubensteen is the featured keynote speaker. Professor Ori Soltes will deliver a special lecture titled “Transcendent and Interdisciplinary: Butterflies in Holocaust and Post-Holocaust Imagery” on Tuesday, March 29 at 11:00 a.m. at the Pyle Center (702 Langdon Street) in honor of Marv and Babe Conney, for whom the conference is named.

For more information, visit conneyproject.wisc.edu/2022-conney-conference/.

The Conney Conference on Jewish Arts is directed by Professor Douglas Rosenberg and is generously made possible through the Mildred and Marv Conney Fund and the UW–Madison Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies. Promotional support provided by the UW–Madison Division of the Arts.

The Conney Conference on Jewish Arts supports the multiple ways in which historical narratives concerning Jewish identity in the arts are both fluid and contested and how, throughout history, those practices are culturally inscribed. We are interested in new interpretations, new theorizing and new ways of thinking about and visualizing Jewish culture through the arts and throughout history to the present and into the future. The Conney Project on Jewish Arts looks at all aspects of Jewish identity across multiple disciplines and through its biennial conference. We are interested in broadening this discourse to include any and all historical periods as well as geo­graphical locations and expanded notions of inclusive Jewishness. We seek to open up new discussions that inspire critical debate around both traditional and contemporary approaches to creating and circulating work of Jewish content in literature, theater, the visual and performing arts as well as in art-related scholarly writing and research. We are interested in expanding the field of discourse surrounding Jewish identity in the histories and visual cultures of artmaking, scholarship, literature, music and other art related practices in which Jewishness exerts a significant presence. We welcome all models of presentation from artists and scholars ranging from the traditional to the performative and all people who wish to participate in this dialog are welcome.

Aimee Rubensteen is a curator, writer and art historian. With an interdisciplinary approach, Aimee curates physical and virtual spaces for viewing, but also, for touching, smelling, listening, eating and questioning. She is the founding art editor of PROTOCOLS, a cultural and political journal cultivating art and writing from across the global Jewish diaspora. Previously, she worked as an acquisitions curator for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and she co-founded Rojas + Rubensteen Projects. Aimee earned her master’s degree at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. She is based in Miami, FL. aimeerubensteen.com

Ori Soltes is Goldman Professorial Lecturer in Theology and Fine Arts at Georgetown University. He is the former director and curator of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.