About us
The Tarbut Movement is a nationwide organization of artists, cultural advocates and educators promoting social resilience through culture and art in underserved areas of Israel. Our work combines intensive grassroots activities, public policy advocacy, and building .partnerships with civic and cultural bodies at the local and national levels
Why culture?
“Culture is the creative workshop with which citizens can imagine responses to our common challenges. Sometimes it is a solution, sometimes it is how we discover other solutions.”
– From Rome Charter 2020
An ensemble of artists use their creativity and tools to turn a rundown area in a city to a vibrant commerce area. Culture activists bring untold stories of heritage and traditions to the stage, igniting the connection to history and creating a common thread within and between communities. A production team invents a brand new music festival, giving a long desired stage to local undiscovered talent. An artist in a school opens up new ways for kids to study, working with teachers and incorporating arts in teaching geography, math, history and physics.
Culture has the power to lead processes of social and economic growth and renewal, bridge social divides, and to develop a society with resilience to face the challenges of the present and the future. Many areas in Israel, despite having the potential for significant participation in Israel’s monumental success story, suffer from a lack of fair budgeting, negative immigration, and a shortage of employment opportunities and economic development. To counteract these trends, Tarbut Movement has been relocating men and women in the fields of art and education to cities and neighborhoods in the Negev, Galilee and other undeserved regions who tackle these challenges as the main mission in their lives.
Our story in short
In 2005, a group of young adults who were art graduates from around the country went on a year of volunteer community service in the fields of art and education. Following their release from the army, they decided to establish the Tarbut Movement as a path of fulfillment for creative young people who work out of a sense of responsibility for the future of Israeli society. The first group settled Afula, a city in the central Galilee, and from there developed an organization working on a national scale.
Over the years, members of the Tarbut Movement have initiated and established a new children and youth organization in Israel; a Year of Volunteer Service in the community; a continuation track in the Nahal army unit; unique cultural and art projects; urban artist kibbutzim (cooperatives); public participation initiatives through culture; coalitions to connect civic cultural bodies, and innovative training and research institutions in the fields of education and the arts, cultural policy and community work.
In 2021, the Tarbut Movement numbers in the thousands – participants and students in the various educational frameworks, thousands of artists and activists in 25 local authorities, and hundreds of young men and women who have settled throughout the country.