About ArtsFest – Resident Artists
Professional artists from across North America will come together to lead the five-day festival in Minneapolis. Together they will create an arts plan that is both rigorous and fun, one in which Jewish teen artists can learn, grow, and celebrate their Jewish identity through their artistic passion.

 

costume design SONYA BERLOVITZ
award-winning costume design
www.sonyaberlovitz.com

Sonya Berlovitz has been designing costumes for Theatre de la Jeune Lune since 1980, working on over fifty productions. She has also designed several productions at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Childrens Theatre Company, the Guthrie Theatre, and American Repertory Theatre. She is a graduate of both La Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has worked as a textile designer for Yohji Yamamoto and has received many grants and awards including the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Best Costume Design award, McKnight Theatre Artists Fellowship, and she participated in World Stage Design in Toronto in 2005. This year she displayed designs from The Miser in the Design USA exhibit at the Prague Quadrennial.

 

 

creative writing BART SCHNEIDER
poet, playwright, novelist
www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=27217

Bart Schneider grew up in San Francisco, where he began writing poems in high school. He received an M.A. in creative writing, with a focus on poetry, from San Francisco State University. In his twenties he began writing short stories, and then plays. His plays have been produced in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis. In 1986, he founded the national book and culture magazine, Hungry Mind Review, which he edited for 15 years. In 2001, Bart began a five-year tenure as literary director of the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, where he founded the literary/culture magazine, Speakeasy. His teaching experience includes four years as an instructor of creative writing and theater at St. Mary’s College of California, and four years teaching English at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Bart’s fourth published novel The Man in the Blizzard, is coming out in the summer of 2008.

 

culinary arts STEWART WOODMAN
acclaimed chef
assisted by Zehorit Heilicher

Why was Stewart Woodman one of Food & Wine Magazine’s Best New Chefs in 2006? “Because after training at top restaurants from Vancouver to Manhattan, he’s serving flawless modern American food in Minneapolis.” His resume lists a lot of fine dining restaurants, but this quote says it all about our amazing culinary artist-in-residence. In 2007, Stewart opened Heidi's Minneapolis - named for his wife and inspiration. Heidi's was listed by Conde Nast Traveler on the HOT list for restaurants worldwide 2008.

Zehorit Heilicher is a local culinary educator specializing in Mediterranean food. She shares her passion for the culinary arts through her engaging classes throughout the Twin Cities. Zehorit was born and raised in Israel to Yemenite immigrants and has been living in Minneapolis for the past 20 years with her husband and four children.

 

dance/choreography SHIRA GREENBERG
artistic director of Keshet Dance Company
www.keshetdance.org

Shira Greenberg is the founder and artistic director of Keshet Dance Company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which aims to unite professional dancers with the community. In addition to its modern company and school, Keshet operates a program for dancers with physical disabilities and has developed a unique curriculum incorporating academics, conflict resolution and dance for incarcerated and homeless youth.  Through Keshet, Shira’s choreography and programming have been recognized nationally and locally by the Peter F. Drucker Foundation, the National Bravo Network, the Albuquerque Arts Alliance, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Multicultural Council, which honored her for “creating an environment where the medium of dance is used to build cross-cultural and social bridges to every aspect of society.” 

 

filmmaking MELODY GILBERT
award-winning documentary filmmaker
www.frozenfeetfilms.com

Melody Gilbert is an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker and educator from St. Paul, Minnesota who has worked in film and television for more than twenty years. She has made four feature documentaries in the last five years: Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness (2007), A Life Without Pain (2005)  Whole (2003)  and Married at the Mall (2002). She has won numerous grants, including a Jerome Foundation award, two Minnesota State Arts Boards grants and a McKnight Foundation Artist Filmmaker Fellowship. When she's not making documentaries, she teaches students how to make them. She has taught documentary production  courses at the University of Minnesota, CVA (College of Visual Arts), IFP Minnesota Center for Media Art, the Walker Art Center, in Romania and Kyrgzstan, and currently she is teaching at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in the Cinema and Media Studies department. She formed her production company, Frozen Feet Films, in 2001 (www.frozenfeetfilms.com).

 

improv/acting LISA CLAIRE
accomplished actor and writer

Lisa Clair acts, writes, teaches, and collaboratively creates new work. She has lived in the Twin Cities for the past four years, performing with Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Park Square Theatre, and many other companies. A graduate of Bard College, she has taught acting to children and adults of all ages. In 2005 she received the Norman Ackerberg Travel Study Grant through the Rimon Society, which enabled her to study in Switzerland with physical comedy master Pierre Byland.

 

jazz/world music ensemble MATTAN KLEIN
worldwide touring musician
www.mattanklein.com

Mattan Klein is returning for his third year at JCC Maccabi ArtsFest.  He  performs extensively on stages across North America, most recently at Carnegie Hall, and is often touring the world as a leader and as a sideman. Mattan’s awards include the 2000 John Lennon Songwriting Contest under the Jazz Composition category and the 2003 USA Songwriting Contest. Mattan's Composition Itcha ('with you') was included in the September 2005 CD edition of Global Rhythm Magazine in New York, the leading world music publication in the USA. Starting September 2007 Mattan will be a faculty member at the New York School of Sacred Music at the Hebrew Union College.

 

musical theater PETER AVERY
director, educator

Peter Avery is the first education and outreach director for Disney Theatrical Productions in New York.Previously, Peter served as the director of education for TADA! Youth Theater for six years. He designed and managed the theater education programs, reaching over 25,000 New York City students and teachers annually in the schools, the community and at the theater. He also served as a contributing writer on the landmark Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts, providing the first ever theater curriculum guide for the New York City Department of Education (DOE).

As an adjunct theater faculty member, Avery has taught acting, theater and film studies at New York University, American University, and the University of Maryland. He received his MFA in theater management with a concentration in education from the University of Maryland. Peter serves on the Executive Committee for the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable and has co-chaired the FACE-to-FACE Arts in Education Conference for 500 NYC artist educators during the past four years.

 

photography LLOYD WOLF
award winning photographer
www.lloydwolf.com

Lloyd Wolf is an award-winning photographer whose widely exhibited work is in international museum collections and has appeared in the Washington Post Magazine, Ms., National Geographic Explorer, Elle, Vogue and many other publications. He received a National Endowment for the Arts Photographic Documentary Grant in 1980, has been a two-time winner of the Simon Rockower Award for excellence in Jewish photojournalism, among numerous other awards. He collaborated with Paula Wolfson on the books Jewish Mothers: Strength Wisdom Compassion, and Jewish Fathers: A Legacy of Love. His first book, Facing the Wall: Americans at the Vietnam Memorial was published in 1986. Currently working on projects on life in Jerusalem, and on Holocaust survivor couples, he has taught photography to college students as well as to homeless youth and to immigrant teenagers.

 

rock/pop bands JOSH NELSON
multi-instrumentalist and performer
www.joshnelsonproject.com

A recording artist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Josh Nelson is considered one of the preeminent performers and producers in modern Jewish music and is a favorite at JCC Maccabi ArtsFest since 2006. A wide variety of influences appear in his music, ranging from the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Motown to Ben Folds and Miles Davis. Josh's music has been integrated into the musical consciousness of congregations, camps, and communities across the U.S. Based in New York City, Josh tours the country with an original band called The Josh Nelson Project. “I want kids to have the time of their lives… to play great music that’s not limited by style or genre; to play music that speaks to them as individuals,” says Josh, “and to play music that helps them learn about who they are and who they might become, both as musicians and as people.”

 

visual arts DENISE TENNEN
sculptor and public artist

Denise S. Tennen is an architect, sculptor, public artist and independent teacher. Her specialty is creating site-specific installations expressive of their community. Her major solo works include permanent architectural installations at Chrysalis, St. Louis Park Community Library, and Monterey Cohousing Community. Major community collaboration works are located at Friends School of Minnesota and the Perpich Center for Arts in Education. Her two largest community works to date (now under construction) are at Goodwill Industries headquarters in St. Paul and at Talmud Torah of St. Paul.

 

vocal music TODD HERZOG
singer and songwriter
www.toddherzog.com

Todd Herzog is an artist who takes the raw material of his life experiences and creates inspirational, emotional pop music that deeply affects his listeners. His songs invite us to slow down and take a closer look at how the choices we make each day effect the direction of our journeys. His latest album, Proverbs, takes quotes from the Bible and other philosophical texts and puts them into a modern context.

Todd has worked with some of the top songwriters in the world, including Burt Bacharach, Tonio K., Dave Merenda, Craig Taubman and Harriet Schock. His music and his voice have been featured in television and film in shows like Who Wants to Marry My Dad, The Osbournes, Melrose Place, All My Children, One Life to Live and The Young & The Restless. Todd was an Artist-in-Residence at this year’s CAJE conference in St. Louis. His debut album was named Best Pop Album of 2002 in the Just Plain Folks Music Awards. He tours nationally as a soloist and with a group throughout the year.