All About Jewish Theatre - University of Haifa Set to Dedicate Modern Arts Center

It is already being called "Israel's Pompidou Center" because of its function and daring architecture. The edifice is the new University of Haifa $12 million arts center building, to be dedicated as the Dr. Hecht Arts Center on January 26. The Pompidou reference is to the ultra-modern cultural center in Paris.

Dr. Ati Citron, chairman of the University's Dept. of Theater, one of three departments occupying the building, described the structure almost in awe. "It is unique in its design," he said, "in its transparency to the landscape, in the way light penetrates it, and in the interplay of public spaces and spaces for specific purpose.

"It is such a pleasure to wander about in it, to create theater in it, as well as music and art. It is friendly and inspiring," the theater director extolled the newest building on the University's Mt. Carmel campus overlooking the city of Haifa. He noted that architects and department chairpersons, "the building's clients," he called them, had been in continuous dialog during its planning. The Arts Center was designed by Haim Kehat of the noted Israeli architectural firm of Mansfeld-Kehat.

Asked about the need for such a building, Prof. Philip Ranzer, chairman of the Art Department, pointed to the growing demand for studies of the various arts, the increasing professionalism of these departments, and the changed needs in teaching the arts. The University also hoped to expand the various fields taught in the new center, he continued, naming cinema and design as examples. "The building," he said, "will constitute an academic center for studying the arts. We hope in the future it will become a School of the Arts."

A well-known artist who has displayed at various biennials, Ranzer cited the University of Haifa's new graduate program in art, the only one of its kind in Israel. This year the program will be graduating its second class. The Theater Department's Citron said the new curriculum "will put stress on the work of the actor who creates in the physical theater, on a developed awareness of music, form, color, as well as on the conception of space."

The 4-story, 7,800 square meter Arts Center rises on a ridge at the northwestern edge of the campus, just above the IBM-Haifa Research building, also located on campus. Work spaces in "Israel's Pompidou Center" were planned especially to offer optimal conditions for students and for carrying out the distinctive curriculum of each department. The building's labs, workshop rooms, studio rooms, and classrooms are among the most sophisticated and best-equipped in the country.

The interdisciplinary cooperation that Citron implied may already be seen. Students from different departments meet in the cafeteria and other public areas, talk, and spontaneously decide to work together. Fine Arts students, for example, organized a portrait photography project. They photographed everyone entering the building, which is basically reached by a bridge over the Scenic Road encircling the campus. The color photos, produced in a single format, were hung on the white walls of the entrance floor. On every story, the visitor will find paintings, sculpture, and various student displays scattered throughout the public spaces.

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