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A New Home for ArtSites.........posted Jan 23, 2009

By Leslie Montral

The Jewish people wandered in the desert for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land, but it has taken ArtSites, the Guild for Judaic Art, only 24 years to find a permanent home! ArtSites, The Gallery has opened in the former Tikvat Israel lobby gift shop, located at 2200 Baltimore Road in Rockville, Maryland. The grand opening, featuring participating artists will be Sunday, January 25, from 3-5 P.M.

Shirley Waxman, a fiber artist, founded ArtSites, The Guild for Judaic Art in 1984. Shirley's purpose was to encourage the sharing of ideas and opportunities among Jewish artists who were working alone. The name, ArtSites was chosen as a play-on-words because there was no permanent site in sight. ArtSites has provided venues for Jewish artists to display and sell their work through periodic shows throughout the Metropolitan area for the past 24 years.

ArtSites, The Gallery is the only retail outlet carrying exclusively handcrafted Judaic Art made by local artists. Judaic items including tallitot (prayer shawls), kippot (skull caps), chuppot (wedding canopies), ketubot (marriage contracts), ark curtains, hanukkiot (menorahs), challah (braided egg bread) and matzah covers, seder plates (used in the Passover ritual meal), candlesticks, kiddush cups (used for saying the blessing over wine), mezuzot (object containing a prayer, afixed to the door post), and tzedakah (charity) boxes. Other items include painted furniture, quilted pieces, collages, wall hangings, pillows, water color paintings, graphic art, photographs, hand molded jewelry in precious metals, strung beads, embroidered towels and T shirts, clothing, accessories and more.

Through the years, ArtSites has grown from a core group of ten to more than 30 artists. In addition to maintaining a retail location at Tikvat Israel Synagogue, ArtSites members will be conducting classes in various crafts throughout the year that will be open to the community. Please look for ArtSites listings.

For more information on ArtSites, contact Shirley Waxman at 301-299-5526. For information about the hours of ArtSites, the Gallery, contact Melanie Grishman at 301-231-9642. For general information about the gallery you can email Tamah Graber at tagraber@yahoo.com. Please check out www.artsitesjudaicguild.org.