Join us as we explore Ashkenaz works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection, how they were acquired, what they tell us about Jewish artistic heritage, and what is missing from the collection. Throughout her career, Boehm has seen evidence of Jewish heritage erased from the map, although not always this literally. Working on the 2005 Met exhibit, “Prague, The Crown of Bohemia, 1347–1437,” Barbara “was determined that in the exhibit there would be a section talking about Jewish life in Prague during the medieval period.” “What can we do at this late date, with so much destruction — how do you put this important material on everybody’s radar? To me as an art historian this is Jewish heritage, but it is also part of the world’s great artistic heritage, for everyone to see.”
Barbara Drake Boehm is the Paul and Jill Ruddock Senior Curator for The Met Cloisters, where, in 2019, she organized its first exhibition to focus on Jewish artistic heritage, The Colmar Treasure: A Medieval Jewish Legacy. In 2016, Dr. Boehm served as co-curator of the exhibition Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven, which garnered the Alfred H. Barr Junior award for the best exhibition catalogue of the year and an Honorable Mention among Art Exhibitions from PROSE (American Publishers Awards for Professional & Scholarly Excellence). Prague: The Crown of Bohemia (2005), which won the George Wittenborn Award for its catalogue, was Barbara Boehm’s first exhibition to incorporate Jewish culture into the narrative of a medieval cultural capital. She was co-organizer of Medieval Jewish Art in Context (2011–12), featuring The Washington Haggadah, Lisbon’s Hebrew Bible and the Rylands Haggadah. Barbara Boehm publishes and lectures widely and regularly leads a program on Art and the Holy Land for St. George’s College, Jerusalem. A graduate of Wellesley College, Dr. Boehm earned her M.A. and Ph.D. at The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She holds a Certificate in Jewish Art from the Jewish Theological Seminary.
CSP Partners: Beth Israel (San Diego, CA), Congregation Beth Shalom (Seattle, WA), Congregation B’nai Tzedek (Fountain Valley, CA), Congregation B’nai Israel (Tustin, CA), Temple Bat Yahm (Newport Beach, CA), Temple Beth El of South Orange County (Aliso Viejo, CA), Temple Beth Emet (Anaheim, CA), Temple Beth Ohr (La Mirada, CA), Temple Beth Tikvah (Fullerton, CA), Temple Beth Shalom (Needham, MA), Temple Beth Sholom (Santa Ana, CA), Town & Village Synagogue (NYC, NY) & Valley Beth Shalom (Encino, CA)
To learn about upcoming events this month, visit www.occsp.net. To view past CSP events, check out our YouTube channel and enjoy many sessions at your leisure.
