Apr 15, 2009 -- A handful of Yeshiva University’s most talented student exhibited their artwork at the YU Museum on March 22 when the University held a celebration of student and faculty creativity at the venue in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. It was the first time student work was on display there. Elliot Kaminetzky, a psychology major at Yeshiva College, was very excited to see his three paintings—portraits of his father and sister, and a landscape in the style of Cezanne—in a public setting. “I was trying to show the contrast of modernity and tradition in the portrait of my father studying,” Kaminetzky said. Rivka Siegel, a studio art major who plans to be an illustrator, exhibited an oil painting of a soldier wearing tefillin and a print on a similar subject—pieces about “prayer and war,” she said. Curated by faculty members Susan Gardner and Traci Tullius, the exhibit also included the work of Stern students Rebecca Cinnamon, Gila Romanoff, Malke Freifeld, Sara Levit, Ruthie Matanky, Kaley Wajcman, Raquel Laban, Rachel Fried, Revital Avisar and Rebecca Palgon, and Yeshiva College students Elliot Kaminetzky and Chezi Gerin. The exhibit highlighted the close ties that the museum is forging with the students’ classroom experience under the leadership of Jacob Wisse, associate professor of art history at Stern College for Women who was appointed director of the museum in January. “We are here to celebrate the presence of the University community at the museum, and the commitment of the museum to demonstrating and presenting the mission of YU,” Wisse said. The recently tenured associate professor of art history has a background in museum education and curatorial work. Through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wisse earned a Curatorial Studies Certificate and was twice awarded its Theodore Rousseau Curatorial Fellowship. He introduced courses at Stern that use exhibitions and museum collections to complement the classroom experience, including a summer program in Florence on the art and culture of the Renaissance. “We may serve as a showpiece for musical, literary and artistic talent but even more essentially as a place where some of these talents can be experimented through innovating exhibitions, educational programs and by brining together the YU community in the best spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration,” Wisse told the audience gathered at the museum event. Morton Lowengrub, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, concurred. “This is the cultural arm of the University and an important face to the outside world,” he said. The event—which was the inspiration of Norman Adler, University professor of psychology—featured a reading by Joanne Jacobson, professor of English at Yeshiva College, from her recently published memoir, Hunger Artist: A Suburban Childhood. Peninnah Scram, professor of speech and drama at Stern College and an accomplished storyteller, read a short story by John Updike titled Women and Museums. The audience was also treated to performances by the Stern Music Ensemble, featuring David Glaser, professor of music, on viola da gumba; Marcia Young, director of performance studies, on Baroque triple harp; students Sarit Bendavid and Reena Ribalt on flute; and Hadassa Klerman on recorder.