good morning and welcome to mosaic, i am rabbi eric wise man. across our country faith based and faith inspired institutions provide a wonderful form for civic life here in the san francisco bay area we are blessed at the contemporary jewish museum and this morning i'm happy to introduce you to lorrie star, executive director and gravity goldberg, associate director of public programs. welcome lorrie and gravity. what is new at the contemporary jewish museum? >> the museum has new things happening all the time and we

happen to have a lot of exciting exhibitions and public programs going all through the seasons. you know the museum. >> yes. >> in the beautiful jesse square. it is a building designed, originally it was a power station that gave light to all of san francisco. it was to become a contemporary jewish museum and the roof line actually says in hebrew, hi, meaning life. we think of it as culture, history, life and ideas. our museum is for everybody, not just for jewish people. it is for everybody from every walk of life. we have a number of great shows and exhibitions coming up. i wanted to share with everyone the beautiful lamp of the covenant which is by dave lane. he's a sacramento based artist. he made this chandelier for our museum that hangs from our

ceiling that is a reflection on relationship between human beings and greater powers out there, the great unknown. in some respects rumination on ethical mono theism, what is written on our door. it is a very inspired sculpture. when you look at it, you see globes and lights and even animals stuck on there. we invite all of our visitors to join us in wonderment and enjoyment. >> the contemporary jewish museum most folks know on this square and other cultural institutions in the area and the contribution i think of the cjm is the ways in which it provides an innovative peek and exploration into arts in general. i wonder if you can talk about some of the things that are on the cutting edge both in the jewish community as well as the

broader community. >> sure. and gravity and i can talk about it as well, in which we are convening in conversation and dialogue, around our culture and where it meets up with jewish. the museum has changing exhibitions. we don't have a collection and that allows us for us to be nimble. this summer we have the great stanley kubrick exhibition. most people don't realize he was a jewish person born in 1928 and raised in the west bronx, new york, and went on to become one of the greatest directors of film and influencers across many different media of all time. and all summer long and into the fall we have fantastic public programs. several have looked at stanley's jewish influences. i think gravity can speak to that. >> sure, on july 14, in the past, we had a program on jewish

perspective on kubrick. it brought together three scholars, to study his films through a jewish lens. it was a wonderful conversation and actually we filmed it and we podcasted it so you can listen to it later. you can check our website. cjm.org or go to our sound club page. >> most well known for clockwork orange. but what were some of his other films? >> sure. 2001 is often said to be by people who knew stanley kubrick very well to be his most jewish film. although scholars will say that all of his films are jewish films. the 2001 film in particular one of the scholars who is here for july 14, stayed for friday and gave one of our friday afternoon gallery chats which are short

talks in the galleries we have every other friday afternoon. he gave it on 2001, like an interpretation of 2001 asking such interesting questions of wur 100-person gathered in the audience, like where in 2001 do you find the ten commandments. >> fascinating. we'll come back to a fascinating conversation. join us back here on mosaic.

good morning and welcome back to mosaic. we're in the middle of a wonderful conversation with lorrie star, executive director

of the contemporary jewish museum and gravity goldberg, associate director for public programming. thank you for being here. there is a wonderful way in which the museum in its nimbleness collaborates with other institutions both jewish and secular and i know there is an amazing program happening in october with our own san francisco symphony. >> that's right, eric. we call it cube brick around -- kubrick around town. we are so excited about october 13th, 14th and 15th, the san francisco symphony is a full orchestra performing live to a screening live "2001: a space odyssey." >> october, 13th, 14th and 15th. >> it is an amazing score

performed live by our san francisco symphony. >> incredible. >> i also know you are really renowned for attracting world renowned artists. and so ned kahn, which is a name that some people recognize and some not, what is he doing for you? >> we have a wonderful exhibition on view and it is on view through the winter holidays. so family time, lots of fun. we asked ned, one of the great public artists in the world right now, he does projects all around the world, his work is based in nature how nature does its thing in the environment. he proposed a piece to us which we were so excited about and now it is in our gallery. it is a giant spinning wheel of sands from a desert and that perform the most amazing movements and colors and flows, that if you just stand there and

look at it you are really mesmerized by the qualities of nature. and ned is really talking about the desert. you know, the desert is where our great jewish sages have gone to contemplate. the desert is always changing and yet always seems the same. and the desert is also a place of incredible environmental activity. sands blowing from across the world. all of the sands mixed together. and we're so excited about the piece. he also made a smaller wheel just for kids to spin and we have some fantastic public programs coming up and gravity can tell you about that. >> our family programs are vigorous and robust for the exhibition. our education department created a gallery guide, sort of a little manual that you use in

the gallery to interact in different ways with sort of the ideas of the exhibition. also they're doing a bunch of mindfulness workshops. they ask you to come into the gallery and drawing on ned's ideas of buddhism and nature and to like learn about mindfulness. >> that is wonderful. you remind me that every cultural institution as part of its core looks at how art interacts in society and has a dynamic dialogue. so education, whether symphony or ballet or museum, the contemporary jewish museum thinks seriously about the education components of usually is focussed on a particular current exhibit. i wonder if you can give a peek into how do you think about the educational aspect of an art piece that is really focussed on any particular exhibit. in this case, ned's piece on

negative wheel. and you talked about stanley kubrick and how that is educational for folks. how do you think about education and art? >> sure. that is an incredible question. and it is demanding and there are many ways into that and i think depending on which museum you're programming for you answer that differently. for the contemporary jewish museum i think about two parts of our audience. i think about our bay area community, which has i think very specific interests and concerns and talents and things that excites them and, of course, our jewish audience. going back to stanley kubrick, we had a panel on him, but we had another panel on futuristic stanley kubrick, looking towards the future of technology and the human condition. and this is what people in the bay area really want to hear about, and this is what excites

them. that is really how to go about programming. think about how are we connecting. what does our audience care about? of course the answer to that is different for every exhibition. >> because we are so diverse here in the bay area. thank you so much. we'll take a quick break and come back here to mosaic in just a moment.

,, good morning and welcome back to mosaic. i'm rabbi eric wise man. joining in conversation with lorrie star, of the contemporary jewish museum and gravity goldberg, executive director. i know the museum pays attention in a very exquisite ways to identity development and the ways in which identity forms by cultural memory that goes beyond any individual person's life. and so i wonder if you can talk

about an exhibit i know is coming up that has that theme attached to it. >> yes, we are very excited about an original cjm exhibition. it has been in the making for a couple of years now. it is going to have a scholarly catalog, and it represents 24 different artists from all over the u.s. and actually 15 countries overall either born in different countries or american but from this country's heritage. and the name of the show is from generation to generation, inherited memory and contemporary art. and now we know that the term from generation to generation, particularly in the reformed judaism movement, is something that we sing and we say, for instance, as we pass the torah

from parent to child at a bar or bat mitzvah. this is the calling for jews to recall who they are and to keep their faith alive. we took this concept of generation to generation and we actually applied it to the concept of inherited memory in contemporary art. so memory can be inherited and passed down from generation to generation. and most of us think of memory in terms of our own family narratives. the core of our exhibition starts with second and third generation jewish artists whose work talks about their own inherited memory of the shoa. >> that is a hue brew word for

the holocaust -- hebrew word for the holocaust. >> it comes out of the trauma of the holocaust, whose families experienced the holocaust, what they carry with them and make art from. >> we have a few photographs. show some of the photographs as we continue to talk about it. >> you know, this gives you a taste of some of the work in the show. there are so many artists from so many different backgrounds, not only jewish. there is works of african american artists, artists from south america. artists from the american south talking about the civil rights movement. so, in other words, it is an inclusive exhibition that looks at inherited memory across many different identities. but, of course, it starts with the jewish and then like a shofar opens out much wider.

>> it is so incredible. lorrie was talking earlier about one of the unique features of the jewish museum it doesn't have a permanent collection, which means it gathers collections from everywhere else in the world but also initiates its own original collection at the museum itself. i'm wondering can you give us a little peek into the thinking process about what -- how do you come up with an original, originating exhibit, that really doesn't exist anyplace else? >> well, that is what our curators do. they have interests and they sort of look around the world and things capture their attention. i mean, for generation to generation i believe it was just some scholarly adventures our curators embarked on and they connected and sort of found the seed of idea of inherited memory. i thought it was so interesting

and i wanted to push at it and how it would develop into an exhibition which it then did. >> they were inspired by the work of a particular scientist named dr. miriam hursh and it is about post-memory, the concept of one can have memory that is not even your own. so it is a deep dive by our curators into this very subject. >> we'll take a quick break, but how interesting internally you function on inspiration which in turn you hope to stimulate by the exhibits themselves when the public comes. a huge circle. just a moment when we come back to mosaic.

good morning and welcome to mosaic. we're in the middle of a wonderful conversation with lorrie star, executive director of the contemporary jewish

museum and gravity goldberg, associate director of public programs. welcome back. we were talking about ways in which the museum itself initiates artistic experience and i wonder if we can talk a little bit more about what the museum is up to in that realm of offerings to the community. >> sure. our rich public programs for generation to generation, we are commissioning an original work by the soprano heather klein. we have a long relationship with heather. this piece is really connected to the core ideas of exhibition generation to generation. it tells a story about her grandmother, rosa ginsberg, she was held in angel island for a period of time before she was released to come to the united states, san francisco. heather grew up not knowing the

story of her grandmother but only after her grandmother passed away and started looking through her belongings this story emerged and heather was fascinated by it and she began to do research. she went to angel island. she tried to track down this story of her grandmother and she has now transformed it into an operatic musical. >> for those who don't know, before mainland china became communist it was a vacation spot for many folks who lived in russia and so among the russians were jews who came to shanghai for vacationing. it was a safe haven for in many cases eastern european, german jews who came to shanghai to settle. we in the jewish call that as shanghai jews. angel island , so her

grandmother came from shanghai to the united states from the pacific rim. fascinating. does she work with the museum on her pieces or does she kind of go off and do her artistic experience and then come to you and say, here it is. or is there artistic dialogue with the museum as she develops something? >> sure. heather has for the past and for this one as well, said i have this idea, contemporary jewish museum, would they be interested if this is the first place i performed this. in all cases, when we got to know her, we said yes. the idea is hers and she creates 8 off-site. but i believe -- she creates it off site. >> so really in some ways the museum in addition to all of the dozens of place to actually create art, not just to inspire it, not just to display it, but

to in fact create it. >> absolutely. >> i know you have education programs for families and kids. can you talk a little bit about what the museum does in that arena. >> lorrie, did you want to -- >> the museum is dough devoted to families and children. we have been cited with a wonderful publication from the wallace foundation for all of our work in -- with families. and, in fact, our museum tracks ahead of the national average of family participation. something many of your viewers may not realize, we've always been free for kids under the age of 18, and just about every sunday we have family programs going on where art gets made by families to take home and to enjoy. and they're all based upon all of the art that we make is based upon the exhibitions that families can see together and

enjoy. we also have a destination within the museum called the sim-zim family room which is its own wonderful space for kids. it has all kinds of hands-on activities, puppet theater, light show box, ways in which you can make art together, and ms a viewing station -- and also a viewing station. it used to be called god cast. lot of jewish content. lot of ways to create fun and get to meet other families and other kids and really feel part of the city and part of the community. the great thing coming up that we're very excited about in conjunction with negative wheel, the piece by ned kahn, is what we call evening of elements. it is december 3 and it is our family gala. our museum is the first museum that we know of that originated the concept of a family gala, of

coming early after you had your nap if you're 3 years old, you come early, everybody gets dressed up, and comes and has an early fun evening at the cjm. we call it, everybody, kids running amok in the museum. we like to think of the cjm as the museum that belongs to the community, the community writ large. it is a fun thing for the museum. it helps us to support our education programs, what we do with schools, for instance. that evening is called evening of elements and it is a focus on negative wheel. there will be one space about the desert. one that about the ocean, one that is about outer space and it is really teaching us altogether to actually heed a call that is a very jewish value which is caring for the earth. >> thank you so much. believe it or not we have come to the end of our conversation.

please, go to the contemporary jewish museum, their website and have a wonderful evening, afternoon, morning, by yourself, a date with your family, and enjoy the cjm. >> thank you. >> wow!

good morning and welcome to bay sunday. ♪ [ music ] coming to san francisco... bringing costumes, live music and centuries of tradition. >> shen yun means divine beings dancing. it is coming to san francisco bringing costumes, live music and centuries of tradition. here in the studio this morning to tell us about it is jason king, former dancer with shen yun. welcome to bay sunday. first of all, it is a beautiful show. >> yes. >> and you said it changes every year. >> yes. >> always