loveitallabove

Photographer I , originally uploaded by levenj .

High Schoolers in Our Struggle , originally uploaded by levenj . Here at the CJM ...this is one of those "I frickin' love my job" moments...glad my cell phone got a perfect, blurry pic so I could get the feel for the kids in the galleries without any real faces without permission.

WSB , originally uploaded by levenj .

To follow up on an earlier post -- excited about being a part of Rocco Landesman's visit to SF , The New York Times ran a great article about Landesman's work. One of the pix is of Landesman and crew looking at the CJM...squint, you can seem it gleam in their eyes :) (Image: Jim Wilson/The New York Times "In San Francisco with his wife, Debby (behind him) and James Canales of the James Irvine Foundation." Was jazzed when he was first appointed...

Photo_072308_001 , originally uploaded by levenj . "The Kunstmuseum Basel, the world’s first public museum, began with the city’s purchase of a private collection in 1661...." http://www.apollo-magazine.com/features/5861208/part_3/the-evolution-of-the-kunstmuseum-basel.thtml

Jews on Vinyl , originally uploaded by levenj . Known as Israel’s Simon and Garfunkel, the duo split up like their American role models when one of them become Ultra-orthodox

Goodbye, John. John Killacky has been an important mentor for me during my time out here in the Bay Area. He has been an important mentor for SO MANY people and had a really profound impact on the arts in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Burlington, VT is a very lucky place!

Heard Robert Janes speak at JFKU and will be guest blogging for the Center for the Future of Museums. Here's Dr. Janes from December 2009.

Gay Men's Chorus , originally uploaded by cambodia4kidsorg . this are the guys from my earlier post , as pictured by Beth Kanter in her photostream on the event..what a great day! #artslabsf

At Natural History (Passover 2010) , originally uploaded by levenj . life is beautiful.

Spectra Gram Session , originally uploaded by levenj . This was part of the Spectra Gram portion where Beth Kanter asked the participants to place themselves along a line from Social Media "Flyer" to "Crawler" then the group engaged and presented across the spectrum. It was a great activity. What an amazing day...To see Beth Kanter's slides click here . To view the twitterstream click here -> #artslabsf

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Hewlett Foundation Artslab Slides View more presentations from Beth Kanter . #artslabsf

I just had this totally amazing experience. Working with Beth Kanter and a host of others (esp. -- SF Foundation! Hewlett! Grants for the Arts! Wallace! Theatre Bay Area! Koret! ), we've got this great program Leveraging Social Media ( READ MORE HERE ) going @jewseum . I am sharing a table with two men from the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus , the oldest Gay Men's Chorus in the country. And as we went around with introductions, one of the men representing the SFGMC said something like - we are still not sure if there's value in using Twitter. I did a quick search for "gay mens chorus" on Twitter - part of the "listening" Beth Kanter encourages as Stage 1. The results early on included the "tweets" below for Gay Men's Choruses around the country. WOW! Read: "Beth's Work Has Impact." Thank you, Beth. ...and it's not so much about the money, right? it's actually about 'influencers' and meaningful...

Rocco Landesman @ ybca , originally uploaded by levenj . Leah Garchik writes about it here "A tour of the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Contemporary Jewish Museum was, Landesman affirmed, an object lesson in that kind of urban revitalization. Read more: here .

Noelle, Merritt and Deborah in the Galleries , originally uploaded by levenj . I may have just had one of the best weekends of my life at the meeting of the Western Museums Association's Program Committee at the Getty Center (March 19-20, 2010) thanks to co-chairs Merritt Price and Jacqueline Cabrera, preparing for WMA Portland75. It also happens we sold our house on Friday, and found a great place we put an offer down on. Karen and Lil E did Disney. Sunday, America's Healthcare Bill passed. Dad's latest operation seemed to have been a great success. All around a great, great weekend. I feel fortunate and ever grateful.

Jim Tharp sent me The Fran Lebowitz Reader and it was such a relaxing, well-crafted distraction. Both classic and nostalgic, a few quotes leapt out for sharing and as tribute to Jim: On Communism – “The common good is not my cup of tea – it is the uncommon good in which I am interested…” (35) On Popular Music – "We attired ourselves in shiny garments so as to accurately reflect the hopes and dreams of the general public. We entered elevators, cars, planes, telephones, and just about every place you couldn’t think of. We were an inescapable influence on the culture and inspired a fanatical devotion, for we made a joyful noise unto the bored." (122) On Nature – “Now, nature, as I am only too well aware, has her enthusiasts, but on the whole, I am not to be counted among them. To put it rather bluntly, I am not the type who wants to go back to the land – I am the type who wants to go back to the hotel.” (233) On Apartment Hunting in Downtown New York – “Tuesday: Let de...

Purim 2010: Rabbi Bloom Doing a Really Good Kurt Cobain , originally uploaded by levenj . ...in fact, it's right after the Purim Spiele at Lil E's school. The Rabbi had just done his part as Queen Esther -- always a crowd pleaser. Heading over to pick up his guitar and keep the kids singing, he looked just too much like Kurt Cobain. To round it out, he actually did a Purim song to the tune of Green Day's "21 Guns."

Click here to download a copy of Dovid Katz , Grammar of the Yiddish Language , 290 pp. Gerald Duckworth and Co: London 1987.

Coffee before Inside the Activists Studio , originally uploaded by levenj .

Michael Krasny and Panel at Inside the Activists Studio , originally uploaded by levenj . Great Frickin' Day! Right before I start for-real and full-time at the CJM I went to Inside the Activists' Studio with panelists including: - Caitlin Sislin, Advocacy Director for Women's Earth Alliance - Erin Potts who created the Tibetan Freedom Concerts with the Beastie Boys and is now www.atctower.net - Daniel Kaufman, Founder and Director of the One Percent Foundation - Jon Gilgoff, L.C.S.W., Founder and Executive Director of Brothers on the Rise It ends up Erin Potts (who gave a serious shout out to Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat [please see #7 here ], well Fugazi actually) is married to Jon Voss of Look Back Maps , so we finally met, because he was there, too. There's so much more to say in terms of how this is EXACTLY what museums are to be encouraged to do right now . And all kinds of other things about motivations; what Erin Potts had to say about "culture...