Exhibit Dates: October 18 – December 2, 2026
Opening Reception: Sunday, October 18, 1 – 4 p.m.
Submissions Now Open!
Click Here to Submit Your Artwork!
ArtFULL: Art at the Heart of Jewish Life celebrates the powerful and enduring relationship between art, Jewish identity, tradition, and community. Across two floors, the exhibition explores how artists transform Jewish experience into creative expression, and how art becomes part of the fabric of Jewish life.
The upper gallery, juried by Rabbi Aaron Bergman and Barbara Kratchman, features artist-made Judaica, bringing together treasured heirlooms on loan from community members alongside contemporary works by practicing artists. These objects reveal the many ways Jewish traditions have been honored, interpreted, and reimagined through art. From cherished objects passed down through generations to new works created for Jewish life today, the gallery invites visitors to consider how Judaica can hold memory, embody ritual, and connect generations.
The lower gallery, juried by Barbara Heller (Director and Conservator, Special Projects at DIA) features the work of local Jewish artists, highlighting the diverse ways artists draw from their Jewish experiences and identities. Through paintings, sculpture, photography, textiles, and other forms of creative expression, each artist offers a unique perspective on what it means to create as a Jewish artist today.
Alongside their artwork, the artists share personal stories of their experiences as Jewish artists—the traditions that inspire them, the questions that shape their work, and the ways their Jewish identity informs their creative lives. Together, these stories create a portrait of a vibrant and evolving Jewish artistic community, where personal experience and collective heritage intersect.
ArtFULL invites visitors to journey from the objects that enrich Jewish ritual and tradition to the artists who are shaping Jewish creative expression today. Across both floors, the exhibition reveals art as more than decoration or artifact: it is a vessel for memory, a reflection of identity, a source of connection, and a living expression of Jewish life.
ABOUT THE JURORS
Barbara Heller is the director and conservator of special projects at the Detroit Institute of Arts, where she has worked since 1976. Barbara was formerly paintings conservator at the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, where she completed her training. She was an intern for the Committee to Rescue Italian Art, working on flood-damaged books at Certosa di Galuzzo, and for Wayne State University, at an Etruscan Foundation dig near Siena, in 1968. She holds a certificate from Getty Leadership Institute and credentials from Olivet College, University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and Harvard University.
Rabbi Aaron Bergman has spent his entire career helping Jewish people of all ages and backgrounds find their own path in Judaism that brings them comfort, meaning, spiritual strength, and connection to community. He believes that Jewish teachings give all of us the tools to create lives that are connected to the best within ourselves and our people and help us find ways to make the world better for all people. He has developed and taught programs in Jewish approaches to meditation, art, music, language, mysticism, gender, tradition, and history. He believes that there are many different ways of being Jewish, and that each person should be encouraged to find and express their own voices, with the fullness of their humanity, and find a home in the community no matter who they are.
Barbara Kratchman (also known as “Bunny”) is a prominent Detroit-area arts advocate, consultant, and community leader. She is the former president and CEO of ArtServe Michigan and serves on the board of trustees for Detroit PBS (WTVS). Barbara’s extensive experience in the arts includes Co-founding the “Artists in the Schools” program, she helped establish the arts education program “Creative Expressions” with Gesher Human Services, she served in leadership and board roles for local cultural institutions, including the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) and Interlochen Center for the Arts. Barbara also curated interactive public art installations for major regional events like ArtPrize.
