As a university/seminary museum, the Heller Museum’s mission is to:

• Showcase the creativity of contemporary artists of all faiths. Exploring Jewish identity, history, culture, and current issues;
• Feature exhibitions and programs that interpret core Jewish values, texts, and beliefs; foster a deeper public education regarding Jewish heritage; and advance multiethnic and interfaith understanding.
• Enrich the academic and professional training of students and serve as a resource for faculty;
• Offer traveling exhibitions and professional museum guidance to synagogues, museums, and other Jewish cultural venues throughout North America.

Since its founding in 1984 as the Joseph Gallery under the leadership of Reva Godlove Kirschberg, z”l, the museum expanded to become the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum and was dedicated as the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum on September 6, 2018 with a naming gift from the Dr. Bernard Heller Foundation. The Museum has mounted over 150 exhibitions at our New York campus including seminal shows for emerging artists; surveys of leading mid-career and elder artists; cutting-edge exhibitions illuminating Jewish issues, including contemporary artistic responses to the Holocaust, the history of African-American and Jewish relations, the impact of family violence reflected in the works of contemporary Israeli and American women artists, the sexuality spectrum, home and homelessness, and the current environmental crisis; landmark exhibitions establishing new directions for contemporary Jewish ceremonial art; group exhibitions reflecting new interpretations of Biblical text; and exhibitions of significant private collections, reflecting Jewish identity and consciousness, which have advanced the definition of Jewish art in the 20th century.

It has published scores of exhibition catalogs that are accessible online and preserved in major art museums and university libraries worldwide. The Museum has organized more than thirty traveling exhibitions that are presented in Jewish museums, university art galleries, synagogues, and community centers that reach communities throughout North America and beyond each year. The Museum has developed an art collection of over 2,500 works spanning the 20th and 21st centuries. Docents lead adult and school groups throughout the year, and an internship program mentors highly qualified high school, college, and graduate students. During the course of the past 38 years, the Museum has offered powerful learning experiences for over a million visitors to our museum and to our traveling exhibitions.

The Museum’s exhibitions and publications are supported by George Weissman, z”l, and Mildred Weissman, z”l,  and presented by the Irma L. and Abram S. Croll Center for Jewish Learning and Culture.

The Museum seeks to attract diverse visitors, including school and adult groups, Jewish lay and professional leaders, interseminary students, the arts community, and the general public, all of whom are welcome to participate in our tours.

This archive features exhibitions presented in recent years, many of which are currently traveling to other museum venues, which explore the creativity of contemporary artists of all faiths exploring Jewish identity, history, culture, and experience; interpret core Jewish values, texts, and beliefs and that foster a deeper appreciation for Jewish heritage; provide a forum for the exploration of the role of the arts as an expression of Jewish spirituality; highlight the creativity of contemporary Israeli artists and strengthen cultural ties between North America and Israel; showcase treasures of the College-Institute’s library, archives, and museum collections; and celebrate the important role played by collectors in the development of Jewish art and museums.

The Heller Museum offers over 20 traveling exhibitions, originally presented at our Museum or curated on specific themes from our permanent collection, which feature contemporary and 20th-century artists and include 30 to 50 works of various sizes, wall texts, and labels.

Loans for these traveling exhibitions are contracted with a $600 registrar’s fee and require that the borrowing venue cover the costs of round-trip shipping and insurance, and acknowledge in all digital, print, and publicity materials that the exhibition comes from the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.

Please contact Nancy Mantell, Curator for Traveling Exhibitions, at 212-824-2218 or nmantell@huc.edu

Guiding the Heller Museum are:

• Director Jean Bloch Rosensaft
• Curator Emerita Laura Kruger
• Curator Nancy H. Mantell, Ph.D.
• Curator Phyllis Freedman
• Assistant Curator Susan H. Picker, Ph.D.
• Archivist Susan Rosenstein
• Research Director Rose Starr, MSW
• Museum Communications Coordinator Eleanor Berman
• Ellen Rosenbush, Curatorial Assistant

The Museum has developed an art collection of over 2,500 works spanning the 20th and 21st centuries, much of which is exhibited throughout the public spaces of HUC-JIR’s New York campus and integrated into temporary thematic exhibitions.

Dr. Bernard Heller Museum internships offer extensive hands-on experience working closely with curators, educators, and communications staff. Museum Interns will have the opportunity to develop skills and acquire significant museum experience, including:

• Interaction with contemporary artists
• Fine arts research
• Exhibition catalog production
• Object registration
• Marketing and public relations
• Educational programming

Details:

• Semester and summer internships
• Flexible hours
• May qualify for academic credit

To apply: Please send a resume and cover letter to hellermuseum@huc.edu