The COJECO BluePrint Fellowship
2010-2011
Ancestor Blueprint
The Ancestor Blueprint photography project examines the relationship between ancestry, family history and identity. The project consists of a portrait series that juxtaposes contemporary images of modern-day Jewish subjects with Old World pictures of their grandparents, illuminating striking familial resemblances across generations and vivid contrasts shaped by historical, social and cultural discontinuities. The project is […]
Anya Roz is an artist, photographer and designer residing in New York on the Spanish side of Harlem, was born and raised in Moscow in an eclectic family of artists, musicians and photographers, learning to live in the middle of a self generated art scene – visual material being the source of both self exploration and collaboration.
Anya says, “Although I have worked in mediums ranging from oil to video, and had made a living as a graphic designer for the past ten years in New York, my work has focused on photography and painting, and finding a unique visual link between the two mediums. I have also explored lots of antique archival photographs, using their digital replicas in my collage and mixed media work.”
Arlekino Theatre
Arlekino Theater Troupe cultivates interest for cultural arts in Russian-speaking Jewish children, while instilling an appreciation for their Jewish heritage. This project has been flourishing as part of the Generation R programming at the JCC Manhattan since 2011, nurturing children’s self-expression, inquiry, and exploration, and promotes Russian language development. The program includes dramatic play, music, dance, […]
Jane Tuv is the Director of Russian-speaking Children & Families Programs. Under her leadership, program offerings catering to Russian-speaking Jewish families and children at the JCC tripled, with participants coming from all boroughs of New York for classes, holiday events, Shabbat dinners, and performances. Through Jane's meaningful programs for the Russian-speaking Jewish community and her dedication to high-quality, progressive early childhood education, a vast number of underserved Russian-speaking families who felt disconnected from the greater American-Jewish community, have shown a significant spike in involvement in Jewish life, and have brought the traditions experienced at Generation R programs into their home.
In addition to her role at Generation R, Jane is the founding director of Arlekino Theater Troupe, a performing and fine arts program, which strives to instill an appreciation for Jewish heritage in the arts in young children whose parents emigrated from the Former Soviet Union. She has partnered with more than 20 Jewish organizations in the Tri-State Area to bring expressive arts education to the Russian-speaking Jewish diaspora. An informal Jewish educator, Jane designs programs with a focus on the Reggio Emilia approach, nurturing children's curiosities, imagination, and self-expression.
This year, Jane became one of five recipients of the Jewish Education Project's Young Pioneers Award for her work at Arlekino and Generation R and was also selected as one of Jewish Week's "36 Under 36." This past February Jane also launched a progressive Russian language program for infants and toddlers in her neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, which has garnered high acclaim. Jane's teaching career spans Pushkin Academy of Russian Heritage, the Farber-Bruch Early Childhood Center at the Marks JCH of Bensonhurst, the Saul and Carole Zabar Nursery School at the JCC Manhattan, and the Parenting Program at Temple Shaaray Tefila.
Cultural Tips for New Americans
For Cultural Tips For New Americans project, Alina Bliumis gathered advice to help recent arrivals assimilate and understand their new home. She took advice from published guides, public forums, streets questionnaires, social websites, and friends to create tips like: “Never refuse gum if an American offers it to use. Offering gum is a polite way to tell someone that they have bad breath.”
Alina Bliumis is a New York based artist, working in collaboration with Jeff Bliumis since 2000. Alina and Jeff Bliumis's body of work explores cultural standards, foreignness and national identity through sculptural installations-often placed in public sphere and incorporative of public dialogue. They were both born abroad, but have been living in the United States for over twenty years. Alina received a BFA from the School of Visual Art, New York and Jeff received a BA from the Columbia University, New York.Their early projects were predominantly based on their own experiences of immigration. Over last ten years, their interest has gradually shifted into processing communal experience-defining social structures, considering cultural standards/norms and exploring foreignness as a condition that gives a new perspective to the familiar.To see her works please visit www.bliumis.com
Distanced from the Source
“Distanced From the Source” was a group show of 5 artists Irina Khokhlova, Anya Roz, Polina Barskaya, Viktoriya Sorochinski, and Daniel Veksler. Their work explores the themes of otherness-as-identity through the mediums of photography, painting, video installation, and recorded oral history. “Distanced From the Source” opened on December 17, 2011 at the SET Gallery, in […]
Irina Khokhlova is a filmmaker, video artist, television, and web video producer living and working in New York City. Originally from Moscow, Russia, she moved to NY in 1992 .She received her Master of Arts degree in Filmmaking from The New School University in 2006. She began her career as a TV and film editor, later moving on to producing and directing for television and the web. Her independent work includes documentaries, short narrative films, fashion films and video art. In 2009 the Television program Irina produced received an NY Emmy nomination in the Arts: Program/Special category.
Foreign Bodies
Group Exhibition by Alina and Jeff Bliumis, Irina Danilova, Yevgeniya Baras, Vydavy Sindikat Curator: Yevgeniya Baras Each artist in this exhibition is evoking a body or a stand in for the body, and the bodies on view are ethnic, distorted, chaotic, ambiguously gendered. But each artist examines the body through his or her own lens. […]
Yevgeniya Baras is a painter residing in Brooklyn, NY. Her paintings are visceral geometric abstractions. She has exhibited for the past 10 years in the US and abroad. In May 2010 she co-founded the Regina Rex gallery with fellow artists. She enjoys the intellectual and communal effort involved in this curatorial project. Yevgeniya emigrated from Russia to Philadelphia in 1993 and has been primarily living in the US since. She has a BA and MS from University of Pennsylvania( 2003) and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2007). Her work can be viewed at www.yevgeniyabaras.com.
Gentleman from Cracow Ballet
The “Gentleman from Cracow” ballet is a collaboration between animator Yuliya Lanina and composer Yevgeniy Sharlat. It was inspired by Isaac Bachevis Singer’s story of the same name, which tells a tale of a poor Polish town turned upside down by the arrival of a rich doctor who turns out to be the Chief of Devils. In […]
Yuliya Lanina is a Russian- born American multimedia artist living and working in New York City. She has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. Her work has been displayed at the Seoul Art Museum, SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 (Tokyo, Japan), Beijing Biennial 2009, Yeosu/Seoul Biennial 2008, KunstFilmBienalle (Cologne, Germany) and other venues. Yuliya’s work has been reviewed by many publications, including the NYTimes, NYArts Magazine, Bloomberg News, Brooklyn Rail and others. She has been a recipient of numerous awards and scholarships. To see her works please visit www.yuliyalanina.com
If You Were Jewish (Migrants Nation)
An exhibit of children’s artwork
Moscow to Manhattan
Young Russian Jews Take Over 92YTribeca! An evening of stories, humor, music, video, and a giant interactive hand. July 17, 2012 at 92Y Tribeca Dive headfirst into the raucous, unhinged, exuberant world that is your Russian-Jewish identity, or someone else’s. Chanteuse Mira Stroika and storyteller Ilya Khodosh take over 92YTribeca for one night only to […]
Mira Stroika is a multimedia performance artist and accordion playing singer-songwriter, with extensive training and experience in the performing arts. She studied classical piano since the age of 4 with a Russian-Jewish instructor, continued with performance and composition classes at Yale University and studied voice with Bel Canto master Nicola Verussi. She has had additional acting and playwriting training with Deb Margolin, an OBIE award winning Jewish playwright and has studied video art with Pia Lindman and Jennie Livingston (Paris is Burning).
As a professional performer, Mira Stroika has made headway in the Russian and Jewish music scene in New York having performed and collaborated with Frank London (Grammy award-winning bandleader of the Klezmatics), Metropolitan Klezmer, Slavic Soul Party, Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad and Romashka. Her playing and singing were also featured in an exhibit on Chagall and the Yiddish theater at the Jewish Museum. She has performed at the Oshman Family JCC in California including the grand opening and a sold-out show with an audience of nearly 400. As an indie cabaret artist, she has performed at numerous events and venues in non-Jewish/non-Russian settings and received media recognition including from the Huffington Post:
“Take two cups of Edith Piaf, one half cup Eartha Kitt, a sprinkle of Betty Boop plus a serious portion of that je ne sais quoi that enthralls audiences, and you have what I see as one of New York’s most exciting new cabaret singers: Mira Stroika.“Find more about Mira Stroika at www.mirastroika.com
Ilya Khodosh is a writer and performer in New York. He was a company member of the storytelling/spoken-word show Birthright Israel Monologues, which toured nationwide. He was published in the anthology, “What We Brought Back: Jewish Life After Birthright.” He recently served as the Associate Artistic Director of the United Solo Theater Festival, the largest solo performance festival in the world, where he also premiered his second one-person show. A graduate of the Columbia Publishing Course, he is a regular contributor to the Berkshire Review for the Arts. He is also a freelance Russian translator and has written for Radio Free Europe. At Williams College, he was awarded the Hutchinson Fellowship for outstanding work in theater. Read Ilya’s blog.
Portrait of an Artist
An Evening Full of Art, Film + Music Screening of Alex Kaluzhsky’s award-winning short film ARKADYA, as well as the premiere of his latest film, THE VISITORS, an experimental short form documentary about the life of a young Russian American Jewish artist with a recognizable past. After the films, music from Lev ‘LJOVA’ Zhurbin and […]
Alex Kaluzhsky is a filmmaker who was born in Odessa, Ukraine and immigrated with his family to Brooklyn, NY in the late 80’s. Under the banner of his production company Apropos Films Alex has produced the features “The Missing Person” starring Mike Shannon and Amy Ryan, Academy Award nominees, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was released in theaters across the nation in 2009 and named one of IFC top ten films of the year. And “Weakness” written and directed by Michael Melamedoff starring Bobby Canavale, Danielle Panabaker, Josh Charles and Lily Rabe, which premiered at the 2010 Austin Film Festival. As writer/ director he has made numerous short films including “Bad Moon Rising” which screened at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, and “Apropos” which screened at the New Filmmaker’s and SoHo Screening Series in New York. As actor he has worked on films such as Columbia Picture’s “The Taking of Pelham 123” starring John Travolta, Denzel Washington, and James Gandolfini, directed by Tony Scott; “Solitary Man” produced by Steven Soderbergh and starring Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Mary Louis Parker, and Danny DeVito. “You and I” directed by Roland Joffe. As well as television, stage and short film productions. He studied acting at the Actor’s Center with teachers from Juilliard, Yale, NYU and Harvard, and filmmaking at New York University and The School of Visual Arts.
Polina Barskaya was born in Cherkassy, Ukraine in 1984 when it was still part of the Soviet Union. When she was four years old, her entire family immigrated to the United States as political refugees. They left two years before the Soviet collapse in ’91.The trip took about 9 months as they moved through Slovakia, Austria, Italy, and then on to America. During this time, she was surrounded by languages she did not understand so she felt a closeness to imagery. She would draw narrative images because they could be understood no matter where she was. Learning to speak English was a stressful experience, throughout which she continued drawing. “When you are at a disadvantage in one area, as I always was with language barriers you become better at something else. I was attracted to images and storytelling so I created different stories and adventures for myself to escape into. I would tell myself entire stories without having to write any words.” To see Polina’s works, visit polinabarskaya.carbonmade.com
Project OKNA
Project OKNA is a multimedia installation inspired by diverse individual views and personal stories on the subject of Jewish identity coming from people within the Russian-speaking community. Through an artistic interpretation, Project OKNA explores the unique juxtaposition of Soviet/Russian past with Jewish identity. We are looking through the ‘windows’ into memories, unforgettable moments, conflict, rejection, […]
Luba Proger has a background and education in fine arts, graphic design, and photography. Upon moving to the United States, Luba continued her studies and earned a degree in photography and graphic design from the Pratt Institute, NYC. Luba has been making photographs for over a decade. In recent years she got involved in curatorial work, where she conceived, and developed a number of arts, photography and theater projects. She currently resides and works in New York City.
Luba Proger and Leonid Khanin have been collaborating since 2004 under the name L2coLab. Their combined multidisciplinary education and experience in fine art, architecture and photography has allowed them to create multidisciplinary art and theater projects, addressing ideas of inner beauty, multiculturalism, and belonging. They are experimenting with immersive environments by use of space, innovative video and audio sampling techniques that stimulate viewers’ perception between themselves and their environment.
Leonid Khanin is an architect and an artist. He has been involved in a variety of art projects utilizing conceptual design and realization. His art projects combine set design, video and photography. Through the Blueprint Fellowship, in partnership with Luba Proger, Leonid created a unique theater experience through a staging of The Purim Spiel Shadow Theater which gave new life to the Jewish tradition of the Purim Spiel. The show was performed on an inflatable sphere and accompanied by new musical arrangements of well-known songs from Russian cartoons.
Luba Proger and Leonid Khanin have been collaborating since 2004 under the name L2coLab.
Their combined multidisciplinary education and experience in fine art, architecture and photography has allowed them to create multidisciplinary art and theater projects, addressing ideas of inner beauty, multiculturalism, and belonging. They are experimenting with immersive environments by use of space, innovative video and audio sampling techniques that stimulate viewers’ perception between themselves and their environment.
The Art Story: Jewish Themes in Modern Art
Michael founded The Art Story Foundation in 2009. A year later, he was the recipient of the COJECO BluePrint grant with which he launched a series of lectures related to Modern Art. The audience consisted mainly of Russian Speaking Jews and lectures focused on the achievements of Jewish artists to 20th century art. After a […]
Michael Zurakhinsky is a graduate of Manhattan College with an MBA from New York University. His background includes extensive experience in web technology, business and finance and a passion for art and literature. He has been involved as a lay leader and volunteer in many aspects of the NYC Russian Jewish community. He also founded the modern art appreciation organization TheArtStory.org.
The Red Tent
Masha Pekurovsky project “The Red Tent” is a dance and video tribute to the feminine – An exploration of the Jewish female identity through the eyes of the artist. Building upon her passion for design, video art and tribal belly dance, Masha seeks to bring a multi-disciplinary performance experience to the audience.
Masha Pekurovsky was born in Kiev Ukraine. She was 9 years old when her family repatriated to Israel in the wave of 1990. Masha holds a Cum Laude Bachelors degree of Arch. from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. She immigrated to California in 2003 and has been calling New York “home” since 2007.
Her project “Passageways” is a dance and video tribute to the feminine – An exploration of the Jewish female identity through the eyes of the artist. Building upon her passion for design, video art and tribal belly dance, Masha seeks to bring a multi-disciplinary performance experience to the audience. Masha is a designer at HOK. She is also a member of the East Coast Tribal dance community and has been performing live video art under the stage name VJ nasha_masha.
