good morning. welcome to mosaic. i am rabbi eric weiss. i am honored to be your host. our world inundates us with information. it is hard to know what to do with the information. museums help us frame our experience of the world. we would like to invite you to a wonderful conversation with the folks at the contemporary jewish museum. we would like you to meet lori star, the executive director of the contemporary jewish museum, cjm, and its chief curator. welcome. >> thank you. >> let's jump in and start from

the beginning. what is the contemporary jewish museum? >> the contemporary jewish museum as we know it today is a magnificent structure on jesse square south of market street right off third in san francisco. it is an adaptive reuse of a former power station that was reenvisioned by an architect to be a contemporary jewish museum. it opened to the public in 2008. this year, we are celebrating its ten year anniversary on jesse square. the museum has a much longer and storied wonderful history. it was founded by the community in 1984 and was in a space at the stewart street jewish federation building. >> interesting. so the words contemporary jewish museum are in some ways rather provocative about really

what's said in terms of philosophy and vision of what a museum is, when you think about how you paris out the three words and put them into a concept. i am wondering if you can talk about that and maybe some examples of how that articulates itself by the exhibits you have going on now. >> that's a wonderful question. the founders of what then was called the jewish community museum had this vision to create a museum that would be about now and the future and not the past. ultimately as the board developed the plan for the leap skin building on jesse square, the decision came to change the name from the jewish community museum to the contemporary jewish museum. the mission of the museum was very finely tuned to be about exploring diversity of jewish

life and making it relevant for a contemporary audience, for the audience of the 21st century. we do that, we achieve our mission through exhibitions that educate and inspire as well as a vast array of programs with schools, with other jewish organizations, with the public schools, with universities, so that we are really here to lift not only the jewish community but the community as a whole and engage people with ideas around jewish history, culture, art, and ideas in a way that's really inspiring and sometimes very provocative. >> fascinating. what are some of the exhibits currently at the museum that people can look at? >> we have our ten year anniversary shows which remy can describe because we are very proud of them. >> we have two main

exhibitions. one is called contraption. when i started it at the museum lori mentioned off the cuff that one of the wonderful things that might happen in the near future would be a survey of california jewish contributions to the arts. it's never quite been done before. our first attempt is actually too big a topic to do in one shot. but we have our first project that's been getting fantastic reviews. we are very proud and excited about it. it's called contraption. it's 16 16 artists starting with goldburg born in 1893 until today with artists living in california who have a widespread in terms of age and work. what we noticed when we put this together is these 16 artists among others were

interested in machinery both literally and poetically as a metaphor. so starting with goldburg of course who was famous for his made up silly satirical machines until a fellow such as bernie label who is an relevantist who literally -- artist who literally makes complicated machines out of wood that people can crank, pedal, do a lot of work to very little end which was the point of goldburg's work. >> interesting. we are going to take a quick break. before we do, we will show a visual. >> this is a painting by judith bellser, a berkley artist. she's fascinated by where the civilization of the east bay reaches the bay and all the

opening waterfront. it's quite gorgeous. >> wonderful. we'll be back on mosaic in just a moment as we take this break.

good morning. welcome back to mosaic. i am honored to be your host this morning. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation with the executive director of the

contemporary jewish museum and also the chief curator. welcome back. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> we ended our previous segment about a conversation about a particular exhibit called contraption. i wanted to know if we can learn more about that, renny. >> artists throughout the 20th century were obsessed with machinery. at first the italian futurists were adamant that it was the future with speed, power, automobiles, trains. they thought that was going to save mankind. then world war i happened and artists became more skeptical. these 16 california jewish artists were not in any way separate from the min stream of artistic interest and machinery but what we tried to ask, we never of course got answers, but we asked interesting questions like why were these

16 jewish artists particularly interested? was there anything particular to jewish traditions and ideas? i consulted with a professor of jewish studies at san francisco state and she said really fascinating things like sure, if you look, it looks like a machine on the page with all the comments and meta comments, annotations, looks like a machine. if anybody has studied this, they may think in a machine way. she had other ideas as well. that's really exciting. >> it's interesting because a machine at a certain point is the interconnection of different parts. >> absolutely. >> here it is that we have jewish artists in california in some ways piecing together different parts into a greater whole. >> absolutely. >> reflecting i suppose that age.

it makes me wonder through part of what lori was talking about which is in this case, a museum is intended to look forward and at the present. it has lots of implications about how the museum functions and even now that we're in an information age that in some ways industrial revolution is something of the past. but we have this notion of contraptions, it's a fascinating idea when you think about art in the world. >> we are quite proud of it and of course the context is silicone valley and how our region is changing the world and how people think of the world. there have been many philosophers who have written about how we are not thinking enough about the impact of these machines on our lives. >> let's look at a couple pictures. >> this is a still of a moving piece, a kinetic piece by ned con. he is a mcarthur award winning

genius. he mostly does public art. he is possibly the most successful american public artist living today. we have a very close relationship with him at the cjm. this is a piece that was made of thousands of pencils that spin in a circle. this piece that we are looking at now is by bella felledman, an east bay artist who is in her 80s and still incredibly dynamic and productive. all of her life she's been interested in machines. she said she doesn't particularly like machines, but her art is all about them. >> the use the term public art. what is public art as opposed to something else? >> there is this phenomenon post world war ii in many cities across the united states, and san francisco has been one of the leaders, whenever the city builds an

airport, a fire station, a school, library, the city is committed to 2% of the budget for that construction. it has to be permanent art for the building. it has to be integrated. it can't be just stuck on. so it's created a field, an opportunity, for contemporary living artists to have permanent outdoor pieces and the amount of money that goes to the art is quite substantial. >> i wanted to jump in. i think to renny's great vision of the show, many artists came from somewhere else. you can look at the machine as a way of making sense of life, a way of being an immigrant in a new place. i wanted to say that bella feldman, her early memories

were holocaust sounds through the radio of yelling of the nazi party. it terrified her. one of the works in the show literally is a bell that drowns out the horrible sounds. back to unpacking big ideas. that's what the show does. >> i think especially the way in which we think of immigration in the world today and especially in california, wherever you land politically, certainly immigration in and of itself is how do you as an individual fit into the greater machinery of a community and what's your part in the greater whole? there are lots of ways i think it stimulates people to talk about different ideas. >> and open up conversation with one another. >> absolutely. we will return to mosaic in just a moment.

good morning. welcome back to mosaic. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation with the executive director of the contemporary jewish museum and its chief curator. welcome back lori and renny. >> thank you. >> i am wondering about -- >> one of the things we have been experimenting with is having exhibitions that speak to each other. we have an exhibition on the life of rude goldburg. he is a real person. he was born in 1883, went to lowell high school, john sweat, graduated from berkley as an engineer. his dad was very much a leader

of the community. this is a photograph of him on the right lighting his dad's cigar. you see they were kind of studly cool guys, beautiful dressed suits. rube was in his 20s and his dad in the picture was in the 60s. his dad was on the fire commission and police commission of san francisco. they're very assimilated successful jewish family. when he graduated from berkley, he tried to obey his father and got a job working for sewer system of san francisco. but he was miserable. after six months he said dad, i have to be an artist. so he got a job at the chronical doing sports cartoons. then he did that for a while and what he really wanted was satirical humor us cartoons.

he moved to new york in 1907 and said he wanted to be in the front row. that was his quote. he was very successful very quickly. he was one of the most highly paid artists in america for many years. we have been working with his granddaughter jennifer george who has been fantastic in helping us assemble this material. >> we have a couple pictures, i think, of the exhibit that you have on goldberg. >> right. he traveled in some nice fancy circles. charlie chap lane was an acquaintance of his. in this photograph, a postage stamp was put out commemorating cartoonists. this was rube goldberg's. he did a moving in which he is

tied to an eating machine. it's quite hilarious. we have a clip of it in the exhibition. that's one of the highlights. >> talk about this. >> rube had a great sense of humor, a great sense of language. he was brilliant with rendering skills. he also had a real handle on american english. these buttons are rube's wise guy sayings that were popular in the '30s and '40s. they say things like i am the guy that put muse in museum or con in contraption. they're very clever and funny. >> i was thinking we live in a world where increasingly wherever you are on an issue we realize how important it is to talk to one another. when we talk, often humor is an important device to use on

different levels. so i am wondering based on what we saw here was rube goldberg a visual comedian? when we say it started as a satarist, did he use his capacity in a humorous way? >> absolutely. he was very funny, very tongue in cheek. he would look at the way men and women have defined roles. he would put his tongue in his cheek and draw cartoons about it. he was particularly concerned about these machines. trained as an engineer, he really felt that machines were in many ways not worth the trouble that they were built to solve and that they were a time dream. so that was a big part of it also. later in life, he became a political cartoonist and won a

pulitzer in 1948. he also had concerns about in the 1930s he made antinazi political cartoons which caused some tension for him in his life, some hard times. but he was a committed, smart guy. one of the most amazing things in the exhibition is he did a cover for forbes magazine in 1967 that he was asked to depict the home entertainment of the future. he showed flat screens with the families all gathered around 40 years before we had flat screens. >> fascinating. in some ways, an artistic prophet. we will come back in just a moment on mosaic. please join us after the break. [ cell phone rings ]

>> yeah, i'm watching it too. i see them every day. >> the curtains, they're always drawn in this place. >> i know. >> that guy, it seems like he's in charge of them. i don't know, i don't feel very good about this. >> we have to report this. >> yes, absolutely.

good morning. welcome back to mosaic. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation with the contemporary jewish museum. there is so much going on that we have covered. i am wondering what is coming up? >> we are so excited about our ten year anniversary on jesse square. we have a gala the night of

june 9. it's called illuminate. then we have a community day on june 10th. that's for the whole community. come down with your kids. there is going to be music and activities, fun. we are celebrating ten years in our beautiful building. we have the two shows that you heard about. then in the summer we are opening a show called veiled meanings fashioning jewish wardrobe. these are the greatest costumes and textiles from israel museum in jerusalem they're allowing to travel. some of the outfits are over 150 to 200 years old. they're the most beautifully made embroidered, all kinds of dyeing techniques with silk and gold fabrics. basically the show is about what jewish people wear all around the world, whether it is in southern italy or in

uzbekistan, morocco. it's really a chance to look at the global nature of jewish life. >> so interesting. we are going to talk more about the future but it occurs to me to ask how do you actually decide in the world of art what exhibit to focus on and what kind of themes to call from? >> it's a very collaborative and imaginative process of our our board who give us advice and suggestions. the rube goldberg show i don't think would have happened were it not for our nearest and dearest supporters and board members. we look at two kinds of shows. we look at exhibitions that are organized by other institutions and can travel to san francisco. we try to be that institution that brings that show to san francisco. some of your viewers may

remember the wonderful wine house show, the bill graham show. now we are looking to bring an exhibition called leonard colin, a crack in everything. an exhibition originated in montreal. it is a celebration of his genius in poetry and music, in art, inspiring artists from all over the world to make new work that's the kind of show that is bringing to san francisco. then we work together to think about concepts that we feel we can explore under this large tent around culture, history, art, and ideas. we develop exhibitions that we think are timely, that we think are of interest to our audiences. an example are the pair of exhibitions we are working on now for next year that really look for the first time from a jewish perspective at two women

that are related to the bible, ester and sally may. couldn't be more different. each show, the one that comes out of the study of ester and of sally may allows us to look at topics around how women are depicted and very current issues around for instance the me too movement. it's very important to us that our original exhibitions be very relevant to what's going on in the world right now. >> so fascinating. it takes on average how long to actually bring an exhibit to the museum? >> you plan three years in advance, sometimes four years in advance. >> it's interesting that you are contemporary even though it takes time to bring something forward and that you then actually speak to the under current of what is happening. >> we always ask what can we teach out of the show?

beside being fun and visually stunning, what else can we do with an exhibition? >> believe it or not, we have come to the end of our time together. we kind of put a comma in the conversation and ask people to please go down to the contemporary jewish museum especially for the 10th anniversary celebration. thank you so much for being with us here on mosaic. the kenya tea development agency is an organization that is owned by tea farmers. every week we sell this tea, we get paid in multiple accounts. we were looking for a bank to provide a safe and efficient technology platform to pay our farmers. citi was the only one

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