Painting global connections with visiting artists

Ceramic, graphite, and metal; plasticine, sound, and print: these materials are simply the canvas for creative expression and collaboration. 

Malak Manzour and Ben Alon are two of five Israeli, Jewish, Palestinian and Druze graduate students at Givat Haviva, The Center for a Shared Society in Israel who participated in a six-week residency at Duke. They visited Durham School of the Arts in September, working with Mr. Watson's and Ms. Santibanez’s 2D art classes, and shared the importance of creating artistic works from unique and shared perspectives.

“We invited students to work collaboratively on a large panel, each contributing elements drawn from their own identities and values,” Malak Manzour, a multidisciplinary artist, described.

One of the main purposes of Givat Haviva, a civil society organization for social change in Israel, is to bridge divides of background and culture. The artists brought these ideas to DSA when they visited. 

“Through this process, students learned not only the language of art-making, but also the art of dialogue, compromise, and collective creation,” Manzour explained.

Sharing art is one of the deepest forms of human interaction. It can also be a well of inspiration to keep pursuing a passion.

“I know from experience that when I met driven people who were doing what I aspired to do—art—it gave me the strength to keep going and to believe in myself,” Ben Alon, a photographer, shared.

Working with these artists, if only for a few days, brought inspiration to visual art students at DSA. Students felt encouraged and welcomed to share.

“I showed Malak one of my works, and she really liked it. She was talking about how I should explore more with the shapes and forms, which is just really nice, because they were very personal with us,” Ruby Free, a senior at DSA in Advanced 2D, commented.

2D and 3D art students at DSA were able to see the artists’ work exhibited in a gallery in the Rubenstein Arts Center at Duke. These works made an impression on students for their uniqueness and context.

[Malak]'s got a lot of beautiful graphite pieces that are really dark and kind of unsettling when you look at them, and I think that really sticks with you as a viewer,” Free noted.

What makes art special is how it makes people feel. In addition, the more diverse the audience, the more ways the meaning can be interpreted.

“I am always fascinated by this divergence: some viewers may be repulsed, others angered, and still others deeply moved. What matters most is that the work provokes a response, that it stirs something alive in another person,” Manzour reflected.

The diversity of backgrounds enables these artists to create such powerful art. Each of them draws from their identities- Israeli, Jewish, Palestinian, and Druze- to create, and by sharing their experiences, they form a stronger community in the face of current events.

“Coming from Israel, which is in a very tense political state right now, and they don't have as many opportunities as we do here… It's really encouraging to see them being artists and living out their dream,” Free stated.

Opening up to others and sharing life experiences is a basic human desire, one that may serve to strengthen our communities in the face of challenges. DSA art students expressed their gratitude to be able to learn from and work with these impactful artists. 

“It was such an honor to work with them. They wanted to know about us as much as we knew about them. It just made the experience so much more incredible, because they bonded with us as people,” Free concluded.