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 have created an Artists’ Beit Midrash. This group’s primary goal is to meet and study the
connection between observance and the arts. We have numerous exhibitions scheduled for
our membership during the upcoming year. We have exhibited our member’s work at Hebrew
Union College-JIR, USC and UCLA Hillel, and the American Jewish University (AJU) in Los Angeles.
 JAI Current Programming

• Please visit the JAI website and look at our home page
hyperlink {http://www.jaisocal.org/} for a list of current
programs. Our website is updated frequently and all event
information is current.

• If you have a Facebook account please join our FB group.

We use this site to post links for artist opportunities, archive
our membership newsletters, and share relevant
information. Hyperlink:
{http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=168885110259
&ref=ts}

• We look forward to seeing you at an event very soon!

 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!