The COJECO BluePrint Fellowship
2015-2016
“The Secret Society” A Russian Language Picture Book
Yevgenia Nayberg is writing and illustrating a Russian language children’s book about the contemporary immigration experience through the eyes of a child. The book, titled “The Secret Society,” approaches the subject of being different metaphorically, through the story of a left-handed little girl and her “secret leftie society.” The story resonates not only with children, but […]
Yevgenia is an award-winning illustrator, painter and stage designer. A native of Kiev, Ukraine, she graduated from The National School of Arts. Yevgenia’s paintings have been featured in solo exhibitions in New York City, Miami, Los Angeles and Moscow as well as in numerous international group art shows. She designed sets and costumes for over 40 theatrical productions and received a number of prestigious awards for her stage designs. Her illustrations appeared in magazines and children’s books as well as on album covers, book covers and theatre posters.
Blender Bodies
Our bodies are live blenders of heritage, history, family, rituals and beliefs. Blender Bodies is a multimedia art installation that offers a different view that reflects the multicultural nature of Jewish communities around the world and exposes the common ground we all share collectively as human beings. The project is driven by an exploration of […]
Ronit Levin Delgado (born Tel-Aviv, Israel) a multi media artist and a Fulbright scholar, lives and works in NYC. Levin Delgado holds a MFA in the Studio Art at MSU, NJ (2013) and a BFA from Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem (2008). Levin Delgado has won many honors and awards bestowed on her, including the Ministry of Culture scholarship, 2011-2013 Fulbright scholarship and in 2014 she was chosen to be the recipient of the First Annual Prize for Bezalel Alumni Ambassador. Levin Delgado has had solo exhibitions and participated in numerous international group exhibitions in Israel, Europe and the US.
Chavruta Chatting Room
The Chatting room is an interactive installation that explores the metamorphosis of meaning of cultural texts through online communication between people and algorithms. Rapidly developing information technologies transform the shape and the content of cultural exchange. Artist Vita Eruhimovitz examines this transformation using artificial intelligence chatting algorithms embodied in interactive robotic sculptures. This work explores […]
Vita was born in Ukraine, grew up in Israel. She studied computer science and bioinformatics at Hebrew University. Vita has worked in research and teaching and traveled extensively. While living in Sydney she started sculpting and quickly realized that she found her purpose. She completed a BFA in Multidisciplinary Art at Shenkar and moved to the USA for a Visual Arts MFA at Washington University in Saint Louis. Currently, Vita lives and works in New Jersey, teaching art and pursuing her studio practice. She works in multiple media, often incorporating programming and electronics to create interactive art. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally.
Handmade Charity NYC
Handmade Charity is a nonprofit project aimed at developing creativity and help social integration for kids with special needs by conducting cooking and creative master classes in local cafes and restaurants. The project has been successfully launched in Moscow two years ago with the active support of local Jewish community. Currently “Handmade Charity” hosts events […]
Ekaterina Schaltuper was born in Moscow in 1986. She received a bachelor's degree in Economics and Marketing in Russian State University named after G.V. Plekhanov. She started her career at the age of eighteen as an account executive at a British PR company MMD. After graduation Ekaterina started working for a restaurant group "Novikov Group", doing brand management for eight leading restaurants in Moscow. She immigrated to New York in 2008 where she got involved in the fine jewelry industry for several international brands. Currently Ekaterina works for a consulting company Mega Projects as a Sales Director for nine emerging jewelry brands. Outside of professional interests, Katya is learning to play piano and vocal, she travels widely and enjoys living with her husband Mark.
Ekaterina was born in Moscow, Russia in 1987. After graduating from university, she continued her career in the finance sector. Ekaterina started working in a Big 4 company and got experience in Russian oil and gas sector. She continue her career abroad and moved to Switzerland, where she worked in a multinational company. During these years Ekaterina has travelled all over the world with her new job, from the US to South Africa and China, and has also worked a lot in many European countries. At the beginning of 2014 she moved back to Moscow, working for an IT company. Ekaterina and her husband now live in New York.
Maria was born in Samara. At the age of 8, together with her family, she made Aliya to Israel, and 23 years later, in 2013 she came to the US as a visiting scholar at NYU Stern School of Business. Maria is a Marketing expert; she has an MBA and a PhD in Marketing from the Ben Gurion University in Israel and experience in consulting and working in the banking and high tech industries. Today Maria is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Marketing and Director of MS in Marketing online program at Yeshiva University.
Pinsky
Rebecca Karpovsky is an actor, writer and producer originally from Boston and currently based in NYC. For her Blueprint Fellowship project, she aims to finish and release the full feature film “Pinsky” – a dark Russian-Jewish-American comedy featuring a Bechdel Test–acing number of women in front of and behind the camera. The goal of the […]
Rebecca Karpovsky is an actor, writer and producer originally from Boston and currently based in NYC. As an actor she has performed at the ZACH and Vortex Theatres in Austin, TX, as well as in feature films, shorts and commercials in Boston, Austin and NYC. Recently settled in NYC, her most recent film projects include Andrew Wagner's, Breakable You, A Lonely Woman, Pact and Strawberries. Karpovsky is trilingual and performs in Russian, Spanish and English on the screen and stage. A lot of the work she writes and produces is heavily influenced by her own Russian Jewish culture. This most recent project, PINSKY, which she starred in, co-wrote and produced, was shot this spring in Boston. Her actor training is based in the Sanford Meisner technique, which she studied under Kathryn Gately at the Gately/Poole Conservatory. She has also studied corporeal mime under Thomas Leabhart and Droznin-based movement training with the Moscow Art Theatre. She is a graduate of Scripps College, where she studied acting and film production. More information is available at www.rebeccakarpovsky.com.
The Yiddish Old and New
With his project, Mark aims to capture in a photographic essay the new Yiddish culture and revival in New York; to relate it to its roots in the older Yiddish speakers, and to document how this cultural gift is being passed on to the younger generations. Mark Gurevich is a New York-based photographer whose work has […]
Mark is a New York-based photographer whose work has focused on narrative portraits and documenting community experiences through photography. Born in Moscow, Russia, Mark is two generations away from the small Yiddish-speaking shtetl in Belorus where his grandfather grew up. When not shooting portraits, Mark is a corporate attorney at a New York law firm.
Yiddish-Tish
Yiddish-Tish will combine learning Yiddish songs, every-day conversation, Ashkenazi fables and dance with an informal light meal. Yiddish-Tish can become a long-term project that blends into rich tapestry of Jewish events in New York’s Russian-speaking Jewish community. The main goals are 1. Develop a program that would attract a modern Russian-speaking Jew to learning Yiddish. […]
Zhenya is from Kharkov, Ukraine. Her first encounter with the Jewish community was at 13 years of age. Since then she constantly added to her Jewish identity, since she felt a huge lack of knowledge due to her family being totally and completely assimilated. After getting a taste of it, Zhenya immersed herself into learning Tanakh, Jewish history and Hebrew. Zhenya always tries to vary her interests in the Jewish culture dabbling in various fields. Her works include a children’s book, self-learning discs, seminars using new methods of informal education and several CDs with her own Yiddish songs.
Young Jewish Creatives
Mark Gold aims to give a well-supported creative outlet to Young Jewish Creatives; to develop much-needed pro-Israel / pro-Jewish content and cultural collaborations for major media and social distribution. This will be a creative hub that directly works with and supports the Israeli Government’s pro-Israel PR initiatives. A platform where any pro-Israel/pro-Jewish creative content can be […]
Mark is the Chief Marketing Officer of Toto Global Ventures, a seasoned Marketing Consultant and an official Mentor with New York State's Business Mentor of NY program. Named "Super Connector" by Social Magazine and recently featured as a keynote speaker at Wix, Microsoft and the New York Bar Association, Mark’s aptitude for business development makes him a much-sought-after thought-leader among entrepreneurs and executives. Mark Gold's authentic and forward-thinking approach has successfully launched thousands of marketing campaigns for hundreds of organizations both locally and internationally in the last decade.
