Fine Arts Students in Haifa Think Outside the Box

By Ellie Armon Azoulay June 7, 2011

From Danielle Itzhaki’s “Haya.” Photo by Danielle Itzhaki.

Crossposted from Haaretz

So flexible is the graduate program in creative arts at the University of Haifa that its students do not share a background in the same discipline. Sharon Poliakine, who heads the Fine Arts Department, says that nine of the 10 graduates this year previously studied at other schools and in different faculties, including graphic design, film studies, computers, philosophy, etc.

This openness, says Poliakine, first and foremost, is thanks to Uri Katzenstein, the multidisciplinary artist who chairs the master’s degree studies committee. Katzenstein insisted on expanding the standard discipline and creating “a place where to be an artist … can come from other places.”

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