Zooming In: Gourmet Ghettos: Modern Food Rituals (Fall 2014)

Date: 
April 16, 2021
TIME: 
12:00 PM - 12:30 PM
Location: 
Virtual event
The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life
City: 
Berkeley, CA
Cost: 
Free

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Curatorial Conversations from The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life

Curators Francesco Spagnolo and Shir Kochavi present insights and connections emerging from the holdings of UC Berkeley's Magnes Collection, one of the largest Jewish museum collections in the world. During the Spring Semester, they will be reflecting on exhibitions presented by The Magnes over the last decade, highlighting how they will be revisited in the context of Time Capsules, a new exhibition opening to the public in the Fall.

Curated in collaboration with India Mandelkern, then a graduate student in History, Gourmet Ghettos explored the broader linkages between food, ritual, identity, and activism that inform Jewish life by highlighting over 150 objects from around the world, including cookware, tableware, kitchen textiles, books, manuscripts, paintings, and drawings. The exhibition examined Jewish food rituals as meaningful frameworks with which to contextualize today’s food movement, investigating a phenomenon that is deeply embedded in Berkeley’s history, a city with its own “gourmet ghetto” and powerful tradition of social justice.

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Learn more about Zooming In: Gourmet Ghettos: Modern Food Rituals (Fall 2014)

Learn more about the Zooming In Spring Series

Interests: Arts & Culture, Virtual
Organized By: 
The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life
Co-organizers: 
UC Berkeley L&S Art & Humanities
Event Contact Person: 
Rana Burroughs
510.643.2526
Speakers: 
Francesco Spagnolo
Francesco Spagnolo is a multidisciplinary scholar focusing on Jewish studies, music, and digital media. At the University of California, Berkeley, he is the Curator of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Music. Among his publications are Italian Jewish Musical Traditions (Rome-Jerusalem, 2001) and The Jewish World: 100 Treasures of Art and Culture (New York, 2014).
Shir Gal Kochavi
Shir Gal Kochavi, Assistant Curator at The Magnes, is an art historian with extensive expertise in provenance research and the history of collecting. In 2017, she received her PhD from the University of Leeds, UK, after completing an MA in The History of Business of Art and Collecting from the Institut d’Études Superieures des Arts, Paris (2008). Her professional experience includes assistant positions in art and antiques galleries, and leading the provenance research department at the Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims' Assets in Israel.