Israel Museum
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Founded in 1965, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (hebr.: מוזיאון ישראל) located near the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel, has in a relatively short time achieved world class status with collections ranging from prehistoric archaeology through contemporary art and with a dynamic roster of temporary exhibitions, publications, and educational activities. It is the leading cultural institution in Israel and is one of the largest encyclopedic museums in the world.
Its terraced complex, comprising nearly 50,000 square meters and a six-acre (24,000 m²) sculpture garden within its twenty-acre (80,000 m²) campus attracts over 950,000 visitors each year, about a third of them international tourists and including nearly 100,000 children in the educational programs at its Youth Wing. The Museum is committed to the preservation, study and display of its collections, fosters education for its public from within Israel and abroad, utilizing its extensive holdings of the world's pre-eminent collection of the archaeology of the Holy Land, the world's most comprehensive collections of Judaica and the ethnology of the Jewish people around the world and its fine art holdings from Old Masters in European Art through international contemporary art.
The museum comprises four curatorial wings:
- The Art Wing
European Art, Prints and Drawings, Israeli Art, Modern Art, Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture, Photography, East Asian Art, and The Arts of Africa Oceania and the Americas
The Art Garden offers a walkway through the history of twentieth-century sculpture. Works by Rodin, Bourdelle and Maillol represent the beginnings of modern sculpture. A sculpture by David Smith, and a monumental masterpiece and other works by Henry Moore reflect the next important stages in the history of sculpture. A large Richard Serra, a brick structure by the conceptualist Sol LeWitt, and an impressive installation by the American sculptor James Turrell which allows one to gaze at the sky through an opening in the ceiling — these and others represent important contemporary offerings in the medium. The Garden continues to grow and develop, regularly absorbing new sculptures. It lives and changes like the Museum's interiors. To a large extent it proffers the art outwards, pouring it towards the city and towards nature.
- The Judaica and Jewish Ethnography Wing
A comprehensive collection of Judaica and Jewish Ethnography including four reconstructed synagogues, Jewish manuscripts and collections from Jewish communities around the world.
- The Archeological Wing
The archaeology of the Land of Israel has its own peculiar array of motifs, ideas and practitioners. Two major themes stretch throughout the history of Holy Land. The first concerns Israel's position as a bridge between the great civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia while the second, is the fragmentary, segmented character of society in a landscape that encouraged regionality and discouraged large-scale organization.
The history and the archaeology of the Land of Israel are wonderfully enhanced, and at times, complicated, by the fact that three of the world's great religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — regard it as holy. Archaeologists and curators in this part of the museum, must often deal with historical reality on one hand, and faith on the other. But more than anything else, it is precisely the connection between faith and history that brings two million people a year to visit Israel, many of whom visit the Israel Museum.
The Shrine of the Book which houses rare biblical manuscripts, including the Dead Sea Scrolls.
- The Youth Wing
The educational wing of the Israel Museum comprises galleries, classrooms and workshops, with an extensive educational programs.
