New Member Welcome Packet

Enclosed in this welcome packet:

• Introduction to JAI

• Past Programs

• Current Programming and Upcoming Programs

• Outline of Membership Benefits

• Introduction to our Website

• How to Begin your Artist Profile

Introduction to JAI
The JAI is an artist organization committed to fostering visual art by Jewish
artists and promoting dialogue about Jewish identity and related issues among
members of the arts community. JAI was conceived in 2004 by a group of artists
acting as social entrepreneurs with a generous grant from the Jewish
Community Foundation of Los Angeles in partnership with the University of
Southern California Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in
American Life and the USC Gayle Garner Roski School of Fine Arts.

The goal of the Jewish Artist Initiative has been to establish a forum for artists
whose work is informed by their identity and to create avenues of support for
their work in relation to the Jewish cultural sphere. The JAI is a community-
based organization involving Jewish artists at all stages of their careers with a
mission to serve both the artists’ needs and the larger community.

Membership Benefits

• Ongoing juried group and solo exhibitions featuring JAI artists

• Mentoring opportunities pairing young artists with established artists

• Panels, events, and workshops with celebrated artists, art historians, and high
profile members of the LA arts community

• JAI Member Lectures: ongoing screenings of members' artwork

• Ongoing international cultural exchange opportunities focusing on Israel

• JAI invites all artist members to create a personal profile on the JAI website.
(The website is a resource often consulted by public and private arts
organizations including curators. Many of our members have received
opportunities as a result of their inclusion on our website.)
Past Programming

In the first four years of this initiative, JAI has generated exhibitions, programs
and lectures that reached thousands of Los Angeles community members. The
panels and lectures organized by JAI have featured prestigious national figures
including Max Kozloff, Matthew Baigell, James E. Young, Nancy Berman, and
Connie Wolf. The JAI was invited to mount ambitious theme-based exhibitions in
six venues from Los Angeles to New York City all of which included additional
programmatic elements such as panels and roundtables.

Top left and right

invitations from two past
JAI exhibitions

To the left is a picture from

a 2009 JAI event Doikayt: a
Community Wide Arts and
Yiddish Seder

Current Programming:
The JAI program was recently awarded A Cutting Edge Grant from the Jewish Community
Foundation. These funds were in support of an ambitious JAI project entitled, The Quest for
Transformational Jewish Art. The goal of this project is to increase artistic connections to
Israel by nurturing exchanges between regional and international artists, encouraging
 connections between Los Angeles artists and scholars and their counterparts in Israel for
research and study of mutually beneficial topics that will encourage the creation of new
work by artists from both communities.

We are currently creating an Artists’ Beit Midrash. This would be a group whose primary
goal is to meet and study the connection between observance and the arts. Three
exhibitions are scheduled for our membership during fall 2009 at Hebrew Union College-JIR,
USC Hillel, and the American Jewish University (AJU) all in Los Angeles.

Upcoming Events Spring

2010

SAVE THE DATE | JAI Artist Beit Midrash Meeting | Westside JCC |
Sunday, March 21, 2010 | 9:30 – 11:00 am
• Guest Speaker Rabbi Denise Eger, Senior Rabbi Kol Ami

SAVE THE DATE | JAI All Member Meeting| Thursday, March 25 |

Home of JAI member Gilah Hirsch| 7:00-9:00 pm

The Jewish Artists Initiative Southern California in partnership with the Jewish
Community Foundation of Los Angeles, the Israeli Consulate, the Jewish
 Federation’s TA/LA Partnership, and the George Billis Gallery-LA present:

Orit Hofshi: Between the lines

George Billis Gallery-LA | March 22 - April 10, 2010

A Series of Conversations and Interactions

with Noted Israeli Printmaker

Exhibition details regarding Orit Hofshi:

Between the lines

Where: George Billis Gallery LA | 2716 S. La Ciengea Blvd

| LA, CA 90034
Dates: March 22- April 10, 2010
Hours: Tuesday- Saturday 10 am – 6pm

Details regarding Orit Hofshi: Interactions and Conversations

Wednesday, March 24, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Opening Reception | Orit Hofshi: Between the lines
• Where: George Billis
• Gallery-LA
• 7:30 Artist Talk

Thursday, April 1, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

• Artist Salon | A Night of Persian Culture
Thursday April 1, 2010 |7 PM

• Come celebrate the Persian-Jewish Legacy with USC

Hillel and JAI at Shula Nazarian's historic mid-century
A.Quincy Jones home. The Salon will feature David Abir,
Shahram Farshadfar, Krista Nassi, Mitra Forouzan,
Soraya Nazarian and Jessica Shokrian. JAI Artist in
residence Orit Hofshi will also be part of this evening.
• Directions sent via email after RSVP is received
 Friday, April 2, 4:00- 6:00 pm
• Los Angeles Printmaking Society Reception Honoring
Orit Hofshi
• Where: George Billis Gallery-LA
• 4:30 Gallery Walk-Through and Artist Talk

RSVP for all events to: amhromadka@msn.com

 Introduction to our Website

June 19, 2009

Dear JAI Members,

I'm pleased to announce the launch of the redesigned JAI website -- same
address as before: http://www.jaisocal.org/

The site looks much the same, but is powered by new programming.
Making Calendar entries now, for example, should be a breeze. Registered
Artists, when logged-in, will notice new step-by-step instructions added to
input pages -- such as "JAI Members: Submit a Calendar Listing" and
others. If you have questions, there's always the "contact our webmaster"
link at the top of these pages. Registered Artists can now, also, display up
to nine photos of artworks and four videos on their personal page.

We've tried to be careful and make everything perfect, but little things
can get overlooked. As you check out the new site, please make note of
anything not functioning as you'd expect and let me know. Call me at
(760) 238-8618 or email: webmaster@jaisocal.org From this point
forward, we have three weeks free technical support from our
programmers.

If you've forgotten your user name or password, I can retrieve them -- just
let me know.

New members are invited to upload your info and portfolio samples. For instructions on
how
to create your artist profile click on the link: http://www.jaisocal.org/registration/artist

Thanks, and enjoy the new site,

Chris Garland
Webmaster, JAI
chris@xenodesign.com
 Beginning your JAI Artist Profile
1. Go to the link: http://www.jaisocal.org/registration/artist

2. You will see the following screens:

3. Be sure to mark on number 3 all appropriate mediums in

which you work. Website users are able to search our website by
specific media as well as artist names.
4. You can upload up to nine images to your profile. You can
change these images at any time. Be sure the each image is in .jpg
format and that the largest dimension is not more than 600px
(pixels)

How to Find the Pixel Ratio of an Image

In order to determine the pixel size of the photograph you want to

upload you can open the image in Photoshop. Then click on word
 ‘Image’ on the top menu. Then click ‘Image Size’ on the drop down
menu.

You will then see a window that gives the image size or pixel dimension of
your image.
 This image is too large to
upload since both the
width and the height
exceed 600 pixels.

You want to make sure that both the width and the height do not exceed
600 pixels.

This image is perfect to

upload. The height is 600
pixels and the width is
under 600 pixels.
5. Once you have checked the sizes of your images the next
step is to upload your images to your artist profile page.

6. Next you can also upload videos. Follow the steps in number
8.

7. Submit your profile and Mazel Tov on creating your JAI

Artist Profile Page!