The Community Creative Fellowship, powered by CJP and JArts, is an opportunity for us as a community to be part of the creative process with two top Jewish artists.
CJP and JArts are proud to launch the 4th cohort of the Community Creative Fellowship, now expanded to four Boston-area creatives. We invite creatives in all artistic media – visual artists, performers, writers, chefs, coders, and others – to apply.
More and more people are exploring Jewish culture for new perspectives and approaches to their Jewish identity. The arts enable us to create a meaningful personal identity and also attract, excite, and educate people about the richness of Jewish culture.
This fellowship is designed to support four local creatives who are looking to explore Jewish identity through arts and/or culture, and have a meaningful community engagement residency experience within the local Jewish community. The selected creatives will focus both on their own work and development and spend 3-4 months in residence within a Greater-Boston area organization.
Applications for our 2023-24 Fellowship Cohort are now closed.
For inquiries, please reach out to Jamie Darsa at jamied@jartsboston.org.
Our Goals
- Enable creation of new work that reflects the artists’ own Jewish exploration
- Develop creatives’ capacity for community engagement and Jewish literacy
- Support the facilitation of deep and meaningful engagement between the artists and community organizations
Stipend, Timeline & Expectations
Fellowship stipend
$12,000 (6 months, inclusive of time and materials)
Timeline
- Applications due September 22 by 5:00 PM EST
- Interviews with final candidates mid October 2023
- Selections made by early November 2023
- Fellowship runs November 2023 – April 2024
Expectations
Through the fellowship, Creatives will…
- Develop their own work that illuminates an aspect of the Jewish experience,
- Work deeply in collaboration with their community organization host to engage community members through their art,
- provide regular documentation of fellowship experience and prioritize digital presence,
- be able to commit 10-15 hours weekly to the fellowship.
Fellowship Support
- Primary Mentorship: Creatives will have regular meetings with a mentor to help develop community engagement skills
- Jewish Mentorship: as a cohort, artists will have monthly Jewish learning sessions that inspire and develop Jewish content within their work
Who Should Apply?
Creatives who…
- Have a personal interest in exploring Jewish identity and its role in the creative process
- Seek meaningful professional and personal development opportunities
- Interest in engaging with audiences of diverse backgrounds
- Reside within the CJP catchment area
- We encourage applicants of all ages to apply (must be 18 years of age or older)
Become a 2023-24 Implementing Partner!
CJP and JArts are proud to launch the 4th cohort of the Community Creative Fellowship, now expanded to four Boston-area creatives. In addition to growing the fellowship cohort, we are implementing a residency model to offer a deeper experience to select communities. We invite all organizations in the CJP catchment area to apply to be an implementing organization. Implementing organizations will be matched with an artist that meets their programmatic and community engagement goals.
This fellowship is designed to support four local creatives and four implementing organizations who are looking to explore Jewish identity through arts and/or culture.
Our Goals
- Enable creation of new work that reflects the artists’ own Jewish exploration.
- Develop creatives’ capacity for community engagement and Jewish literacy.
- Support the facilitation of deep and meaningful engagement between the artists and community organizations.
Each implementing organization will work with a Community Creative Fellow over 6 months.
Timeline & Expectations
Timeline
- September 8, 2023: Implementing Organization application deadline
- Mid September: Artist application deadline and organization finalist notification
- Mid October: Artists are matched with organizations
- Mid November- Mid-December: Artists and Organizations plan the residency
- January-April: Residency programming occurs
- May: Evaluation and Learnings
Expectations
Implementing Organizations will:
- Provide a program professional to be the CCF point of contact.
- cover program costs aside from the Creative (the cost of the CCF is covered by this grant). This may include refreshments and supplies for all programs.
- Provide feedback report at end of program residency.
Who should apply?
Implementing Organizations will…
- have a desire and ability to connect their community to Jewish thematic programming through art/music/dance/culinary/etc
- Interest in engaging with diverse Jewish content
- Have access to a community that is defined by articulated shared interests/needs
About CJP & JArts
CJP and JArts have worked closely over the years to support and expand the place of vibrant Jewish arts and culture in Greater Boston. As part of their ongoing partnership, CJP and JArts developed and launched the fellowship in the fall of 2020 to support Boston-area creatives as they explore Jewish identity and connect with various communities through workshops. Creatives in all artistic media — visual artists, musicians, performers, writers, chefs, coders, and others — are invited to apply each year.
Meet Our Past Fellows
Rachel Linsky
Rachel Linsky is a Boston-based contemporary dance artist. She holds a B.F.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography and a B.A. in Arts Administration from Elon University where she graduated summa cum laude. Rachel directs and choreographs ZACHOR, an ongoing project series that seeks to preserve the words of WWII Holocaust survivors through dance. Rachel’s choreography has been presented in national and international dance festivals such as Earl Mosely’s Diversity of Dance “Dance is Activism Film Festival,” Boston Contemporary Dance Festival, Prague International Film Festival, and many more. Her work has been awarded funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts, The City of Boston, The Russell J. Efros Foundation, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and The Beker Foundation. Rachel has been an artist in residence at the Boston Center for the Arts through their new Dance Maker’s Laboratory Program, and at Chelsea Theatre Works. Rachel was recently commissioned by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the JArts to choreograph a new work for their 2021 Hanukkah celebration. Rachel is currently a dancer with KAIROS Dance Theater and The Click Boston. She is on the teaching faculty at Koltun Ballet Boston, Broadway Bound Dance Center, and Urbanity Dance.
Learn More About Rachel
Private: Ira Klein
Ira Klein is an award-winning guitarist, composer, and producer from Jerusalem, Israel, currently based in Boston, MA. He aspires to create deeply rooted, fresh, and idiosyncratic contemporary music. Inspired by his fascination with several folk music traditions (predominantly Ladino and American roots music), as well as his background in jazz and rock, Ira takes a melting-pot musical approach to create his sound. He believes that when ancient songs meet a modern interpretive approach, the creative possibilities are boundless. Ira has taught at Berklee College of Music, the Cambridge Music Consortium, the Club Passim School of Music and the Concord Conservatory of Music. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Music in 2020 from Berklee, and is currently a Masters program student at the Longy Conservatory of Bard College in Cambridge. He has performed widely, including local performances at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Harvard University’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Smith Center, and Holden Chapel, Boston University Hillel, the Longfellow House Museum, and Mount Auburn Cemetery.
Learn More About Ira
Paloma Valenzuela
Paloma is a Dominican-American writer, director, and actor originally from Jamaica Plain, MA. She is the creative director of the production operation La Palomita Productions based in Boston and the Dominican Republic. She has collaborated with organizations such as the Urbano Project and Hyde Square Task Force and is the writer/producer/creator of the comedic web series, “The Pineapple Diaries”. The show was featured in the Latina Magazine’s “5 Web Series Every Latinx Needs to Watch Right Now”.
Learn More
Rotem Goldenberg
Originally from Israel, Rotem moved to Cambridge, MA this past year. Her art is for audiences of all ages and exists between the spaces of visual theater, performance, storytelling, and clowning. She believes in using theater as a tool in both social activism and therapy. Rotem has taught and lectured in universities, schools, and community events across the globe. She is an actor and partner in the Holot Theater, a social theater group for Israelis and asylum seekers. As a medical clown, she has worked in children’s departments, rehabilitative geriatric hospitals, and mental health hospitals. Most recently, Rotem served as a social clown with the “Emunah” organization for at-risk youth.
Learn More
Yoni Battat
Yoni Avi Battat is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and composer specializing in contemporary and traditional Jewish music inspired by his Iraqi and Polish ancestry. He performs and records around the world alongside artists who are at the forefront of Jewish music, including his Yiddish Jazz Band, Two Shekel Swing, and his own Ensemble of Middle-Eastern Jewish music.
Learn More
Adriana Katzew
Adriana Katzew is an artist-educator-scholar. Her photography-based art practice reveals her interest in social documentary, history, and marginalized voices. Adriana’s work strives to unearth stories and memories of people, moments and places, addressing societal conditions. Through her work, Adriana uncovers the individual narratives and humanity of each subject.
Learn MoreTo inquire about future opportunities, please contact Jamie Darsa at jamied@jartsboston.org.