Education
This is the place to explore Arts schools, colleges and university departments in Israel.
Film
Camera Obscura – The School of Arts
In the vibrant southern Tel Aviv, the film department in Camera Obscura educates and trains film creators and professionals in a variety film and television fields. The programme gives the students skills and expertise to create and work in the industry. The courses integrate all aspects of film creation, from directing and producing to filming, editing and theoretical knowledge. During the four-year program the students are introduced to and involved in many productions and roles in the film industry, and are mentored and guided by the professional school staff.
Camera Obscura’s Youtube channel
Visit Camera Obscura’s website
The Film and Television Department Tel Aviv University
Founded in 1972, The Department of Film and Television in Tel Aviv University is the oldest film and television higher learning institute in Israel. The department offers many opportunities for developing proficiency in film and television production and for studying cinematic history, cultural theories, and film criticism. Major areas of specialization include:Production; Aesthetic history of cinema, film criticism, and theories of textual analysis; The inter-relations between the visual media, society, politics, and cultural systems; The art of script writing; Digital Media.
Visit The TAU Film Department’s website
The School of Art – Hamidrasha
As part of The School of Art, the film department provides future filmmakers with a rich cultural world that serves as a professional and intellectual base for working in film. The department’s integration into Hamidrasha serves as a source of inspiration that enriches the world of film students. The students in the department write, direct, produce, film, and edit short feature films, documentaries, experimental films, video art, and films that cross the borders of all genres. The faculty of the department consists of senior lecturers and senior filmmakers who are at the center of filmmaking activity in Israel.
Minshar for Art
‘Minshar for Art’ is an art school and a lively cultural centre in the heart of Tel-Aviv. Its goal is to educate through studies and creation in the vast disciplines of art: Cinema, Animation, Photography, Theater, Visual Media, Visual arts and Writing, and to encourage the involvement of the artistic action in its political and social environment. The studying program enables its students to participate in interdisciplinary courses and special artistic work-shops. ‘Minshar’ provides a B.A. degree given by the ‘Open University’. The first floor of ‘Minshar for Art’ includes an active and innovative contemporary art gallery, a projection hall that performs feature, documentary and experimental films, library and cafeteria. Minshar organize symposiums, lectures, discussion, culture events and social happenings, related to the art and its performance fields – all of these are open to the public for free.
Visit Minshar for Art’s website
The Ma’aleh School of Television, Film and the Arts
The Ma’aleh School of Television, Film and the Arts, situated in downtown Jerusalem, is the only film school of its kind in the world. Founded in 1989, Ma’aleh is an institution of higher education which trains filmmakers to produce work inspired by their Jewish heritage, fostering a unique connection between the world of media and Jewish culture. The school aims to build bridges between Jewish tradition and social experience, as well as between the religious and secular worlds. Groups visiting from North America, Europe and Australia participate in Ma’aleh’s film workshops at the school every year. The school also boasts a number of important social programs which contribute to the wellbeing of the wider community. The Ma’aleh School of Television, Film and the Arts offers two main curricula: The Production and Directing Track and The Screenwriting Track.
The Neri Bloomfield Academy of Design and Education
Situated mid-way between Haifa’s harbor and the world-famous Bahai Gardens, The Neri Bloomfield Academy of Design and Education awards academic degrees in six main areas: Graphic Design – Visual and Digital Communications; Architecture; Photography; TV and Film (Including a new and unique Non-Fiction Film department); Fashion and Textile Design; and Public Administration.
Visit the Academy’s YouTube channel
The Sam Spiegel Film & Television School
The Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, was founded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Jerusalem Foundation in 1989, and has become Israel’s leading school of film and television, achieving international acclaim and standing. The Sam Spiegel School has been a main influencing factor on a number of aspects of the Israeli film industry: regenerating the genre of short films and redefining the cinematic concept of “time”; repositioning the stand of the story’s protagonist and proclaiming the narrative as a value; transforming the director’s role to work through the protagonist’s actions and insight to touch the viewer’s emotions. Moreover, the school revitalized both the relationship toward and the scope of investment in Israel’s film students, viewing the students as future cultural leaders.
Sapir College – Cinema & TV Arts
Located in the western Negev, Sapir College has caused the surrounding area to bloom not only physically, but academically and culturally as well, with plans for significant expansion and growth in the future.The Cinema and TV Arts department offers a uniquely designed syllabus, combining the practical and the academic. There is considerable emphasis on creative and cinema studies in Israel’s southern region as a philosophical approach, seeking to challenge the widely accepted dominance of creativity in the central region. The program includes history, theory and esthetics of screen arts, alongside cultural studies focusing on social and political aspects. The Department’s activities culminate in the Cinema South Festival, which showcases student projects to the general public. Also participating in the international festival are leaders in the field from Israel and around the world, who screen their own works in master classes and workshops.
Sapir College’s Youtube channel
Tel-Hai College – Film and Television department
Tel-Hai College is located in the green Upper Galilee, overlooking the Naftali Mountains, Mount Hermon and Achula valley. The film and television program in Tel Hai is designed to train filmmakers and other film and TV professionals. Combining creation and technology, this program gives each student the ability to work and study in a creative, inspiring and goal-driven environment. The course integrate theoretical studies in film, media and arts, with intensive practical experience in production, filming sound, editing, script writing and more.
Visit Tel-Hai College’s website
Art
Avni Institute of Art and Design
Avni Institute of Art and Design, Tel Aviv was established in 1936. It is the largest, the oldest and the most renowned Art Institute in Tel Aviv. Since 2000 the institute has successfully cooperated with the Open University in order to enable students to get an academic degree.
Visit Avni Institute’s website
Naggar School of Photography, Media and New Music (Musrara)
The Naggar school was established in 1986 in Musrara, Jerusalem. The school has created an alternative academic environment that enables its students to evolve their personal and professional artistic perspectives. The school offers 5 departments in the three-year course: Photography, New Music, Digital Media, Animation and Phototherapy. The school also offers three post-graduates programs: Photo-therapy, The continuation studies program in photography and video (forth year) and a unique study program called ‘Artists for Social Change’.
The Bezalel Academy
The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Israel’s oldest institute of higher education was established over 100 years ago by Prof. Boris Schatz and is currently Israel’s leading Academy of Art, Design and Architecture and one of the most prestigious of its kind in the world. Bezalel’s dynamic and interdisciplinary approach to curriculum includes 8 departments for undergraduate degrees and 4 programs for master’s degrees with over 2000 students and 400 faculty members studying in the fields of architecture, industrial design, fine arts, visual communications, ceramics & glass design, photography, fashion & jewelry design and screen based arts. The interaction of tradition with the dynamic and ever changing technologies of artistic expression are an important part of the Bezalel experience. Bezalel enjoys an exchange program with over one hundred and forty of the top art schools throughout the world, sending and receiving over 100 exchange students each year.
Visit The Bezalel Accademy’s website
The School of Art – Hamidrasha
Hamidrasha is a leading academic institution in Israel for training artist-teachers. Its activities span the fields of plastic art, video, digital media, and film (About the film department see separately). Hamidrasha helps students learn art as a language and a way of thinking, while endowing them with a practical and theoretical foundation. Alongside art studies, students prepare themselves to teach art in Israeli schools. Art studies are conducted in a variety of ways, including hands-on classes; independent work at home or in Hamidrasha’s workshops; analysis and critique of works; lectures; and discussions on art theories. Alongside the practical art studies, students study education and art instruction in all its various aspects, curatorship, pedagogy, and visual culture. Hamidrasha offers a B.Ed. F.A., a joint bachelor’s degree in education and fine arts.
IAC – Israeli Animation College
IAC – Israeli College for animation is a professional college for the studies of animation and digital media. The College offers a various courses, mostly in the form of evening studies and do not offer an academic degree.
The Ma’aleh School of Television, Film and the Arts
The Ma’aleh School of Television, Film and the Arts, situated in downtown Jerusalem, is the only film school of its kind in the world. Founded in 1989, Ma’aleh is an institution of higher education which trains filmmakers to produce work inspired by their Jewish heritage, fostering a unique connection between the world of media and Jewish culture. The school aims to build bridges between Jewish tradition and social experience, as well as between the religious and secular worlds. Groups visiting from North America, Europe and Australia participate in Ma’aleh’s film workshops at the school every year. The school also boasts a number of important social programs which contribute to the wellbeing of the wider community. The Ma’aleh School of Television, Film and the Arts offers two main curricula: The Production and Directing Track and The Screenwriting Track.
The Jerusalem Studio School
Founded in 1996 in Jerusalem by Israel Hershberg, the Jerusalem Studio School is situated in a most perfect location for an art school. As the first institution in Israel devoted to developing the painterly traditions of representation and figuration, the school offers training in the rigorous disciplines of drawing and painting within the figurative tradition. The JSS’s intensive studio program is based on the model of a “master class” and is aimed to build an intimate engagement with great art of the past, and an attainment of the personal vision that grows from continuous practice.
The Life & Work at the Jerusalem Studio School
Visit The Jerusalem Studio’s website
The Kibbutz Artists Workshop
Kibbutz Artists Workshop aims to mold a new generation of creative artists and develop a cadre of critical, informed people who appreciate culture. Due to it’s open-nature and unique character, the workshop attracts a wide range of students from different social and professional backgrounds, from ambitious artists to amateurs that see art as a counter and completing process or pensioners who come to fulfill past ambitions and hopes.
Oranim Art Institute
Oranim Art Institute was established in 1952 by pioneering artists such as Marcel Yanko, Yohanan Simon, Dov Feigin and more, who teamed up with educators from the kibbutz movement. The institute is a centre for art, culture and society that offers an academic degree and teachers’ certification.
Design
Avni Institute of Art and Design
Avni Institute of Art and Design, Tel Aviv was established in 1936. It is the largest, the oldest and the most renowned Art Institute in Tel Aviv. Since 2000 the institute has successfully cooperated with the Open University in order to enable students to get an academic degree.
Visit Avni Institute’s website
The Bezalel Academy
The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Israel’s oldest institute of higher education was established over 100 years ago by Prof. Boris Schatz and is currently Israel’s leading Academy of Art, Design and Architecture and one of the most prestigious of its kind in the world. Bezalel’s dynamic and interdisciplinary approach to curriculum includes 8 departments for undergraduate degrees and 4 programs for master’s degrees with over 2000 students and 400 faculty members studying in the fields of architecture, industrial design, fine arts, visual communications, ceramics & glass design, photography, fashion & jewelry design and screen based arts. The interaction of tradition with the dynamic and ever changing technologies of artistic expression are an important part of the Bezalel experience. Bezalel enjoys an exchange program with over one hundred and forty of the top art schools throughout the world, sending and receiving over 100 exchange students each year.
Visit The Bezalel Accademy’s website
Holon Institute of Technology
HIT – Holon Institute of Technology was established in 1969 and became an independent public academic institution of higher education in 1999, certified by the Council of Higher Education. The Faculty of Design provides comprehensive and professional design education, supported by distinguished faculty. The Faculty of Design grants Bachelor’s degrees in Industrial Design, Interior Design, and Visual Communications Design, as well as a Master’s Degree in Integrated Design.
The Neri Bloomfield Academy of Design and Education
Situated mid-way between Haifa’s harbor and the world-famous Bahai Gardens, The Neri Bloomfield Academy of Design and Education awards academic degrees in six main areas: Graphic Design – Visual and Digital Communications; Architecture; Photography; TV and Film (Including a new and unique Non-Fiction Film department); Fashion and Textile Design; and Public Administration.
Visit the Academy’s YouTube channel
Shenkar College
Shenkar College of Engineering and Design was founded in 1970. Shenkar’s uniqueness as an academic institution lies in the close ties between two faculties: the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Design. While both the faculties maintain their own special character, they run joint projects, designed to expose the students to various disciplines. Shenkar is the first Israeli academic institution to operate a wireless campus. This allows dozens of students to communicate with others, browse freely the internet and access the college’s network. Shenkar has achieved an international reputation and is recognized as one of the best institutions of its kind in the world.
Visit Shenkar College’s website
Theatre
Anat Barzilai Acting School
Established in 1999 by the current manager Anat Barzilai, the school offers one, two or three-years acting courses. Each class is a mix of 15 students from different ages and backgrounds, and with different studying approaches. The school runs an agency that can provide its students and graduates opportunities to get in the industry.
Beit Zvi
Founded in 1960, Beit Zvi School of the Performing Arts has been in existence longer than any other school of its kind in Israel. The principal goal of Beit Zvi is the training of actors at a high level of professionalism and technical skill in the areas of acting, voice, and movement . In addition to its three-year actors-training program, the school also trains stage managers, designers and directors complementary to the overall production schedule.
Department of Theatre Arts Tel-Aviv University
The Department of Theatre Arts focuses on teaching and research of the following areas: History of the Theatre; Performing Arts; Theoretical approaches to Theatre and Performance; Israeli Drama, Theatre and Performance; Body, Movement and Dance; Community and Educational theatre; Visual Culture of the Performing Arts; Intercultural issues in Theatre and Performance. The department offers two masters degree programmes as well: Research Track (Master of Arts – M.A.) and Creative Track (Master of Fine Arts – M.F.A).
Visit the department’s website
Department of Theatre and Drama Haifa University
The department of theatre and drama in Haifa University offers undergraduate degrees in various aspects of theatre such as acting, directing and social theatre therapy. The department works in cooperation with the Creative Art and the Music Departments and has shared classes and many shared cultural activities.
Visit the department’s website
Nissan Nativ Acting Studio
Nissan Nativ Acting Studio was founded and operates according to the belief that education is the key to the creation of non-compromising, creative quality theatre. The Studio has been operating for over 40 years in Tel Aviv and for 20 years in Jerusalem. It is a three-year drama school, where theatre, film and television actors in Israel acquire education, knowledge and skills. Each year only 17 students are awarded a place in the studio, in which they will engage in intense studies with 42 to 65 hours a week.
In 2008, the prestigious Israel Prize was given to Nissan Nativ in honor of his outstanding contribution to the Israeli theatre in cultivating generations of leading actors and directors.
Visit Nissan Nativ Studio’s website
Sela – Performing Arts Studio Founded by Yoram Loewenstein
Sela Studio was founded in 1988 by the acting teacher Yoram Loewensteinand and is one of the best known acting schools in Israel. The Studio offers a full three-year acting studies program and gives the students skills to be professional actors in films, T.V and theatre. The studio is located in the heart of the Hatikva Quarter in the South of Tel Aviv. This Quarter is considered to be one of the weakest socioeconomic areas in Tel Aviv, struggling with poverty and neglect. Active community involvement is an important element of the school identity as a professional acting institution. Therefore Second and Third Year students are required to work with different groups in the community such as: elderly people, hearing impaired, new immigrants’ children, migrant workers children and youth in peril as part of their training to be actors.
Stage Centre
Stage-Centre was established in 2002 as a laboratory for artists of different professions, in order to provide a creative environment outside the mainstream institutions, with the freedom to investigate, experience, and new modes of artistic expression. The centre holds workshops for actors, dancers, directors, choreographs, designers, clowns, scriptwriters and musicians by Israeli and international masters.
The school for Alternative Theatre
Situated in Shlumi Centre, the school for Alternative Theatre is aiming to train alternative and interdisciplinary artists. The school offers a three-year programme that includes theory and practical studies. The school works with the centre’s ensemble and the students take an active part on the group’s productions.
The School for the Art of Puppetry
The Israel Puppet Centre in Holon, incorporates a puppetry school, a museum, a theatre auditorium, a library and archives, as well as the international puppet-theatre and film festival. The school offers 4 main study programmes: Puppeteers Training, The Puppet as an Educational Tool, Puppetry as a Therapeutic Tool, and The Art of the Carnival. The School exposes its students to a wide range of subjects: puppet manipulation, acting, puppet- and set-design, writing and directing. The school also offers a choice of programs and workshops for amateurs.
The School of Visual Theater
The School of Visual Theatre trains artists and professionals in fields ranging in the performing and visual arts. It is the only institution of its kind in Israel and among the few in the world offering inter-disciplinary studies of performance-art, Movement Theater, multimedia performance, video, puppetry, stage design visual art and others. The school was founded in 1986. At present it offers a full 4-year curriculum (certification program), or a full 4-year undergraduate-studies framework for a B.Ed. degree and teachers’ certification. In addition, the school welcomes students from various institutions in Israel and abroad every year, as exchange students. The school is invited every year to participate in various festivals in Israel and abroad.
Music
Rimon School for Jazz and Contemporary Music
Rimon School is one of Israel’s largest, independent professional music scholl for the advanced study of contemporary music. Over 550 students and 85 faculty members work to provide the most complete music learning experience possible. Rimon offers students a three year program that concentrates on eight majors: Composition and Arranging, Film Scoring, Songwriting, Jazz Performance, General Performance, Music Production and Engineering, Music Education and an advanced Combined Program of Composition, Performance and Production.
Naggar School of Photography, Media and New Music (Musrara)
The Naggar school was established in 1986 in Musrara, Jerusalem. The school has created an alternative academic environment that enables its students to evolve their personal and professional artistic perspectives. The school offers 5 departments in the three-year course: Photography, New Music, Digital Media, Animation and Phototherapy. The school also offers three post-graduates programs: Photo-therapy, The continuation studies program in photography and video (forth year) and a unique study program called ‘Artists for Social Change’.
Keshet Eilon Music Centre and Violin Mastercourse
Keshet Eilon Music Centre and Violin Mastercourse, a 21-year-old centre of excellence in the Western Galilee near Israel’s northern border, trains and promotes gifted young violinists from Israel and throughout the world. Led by an internationally renowned faculty, under the musical direction of Prof. Itzhak Rashkovsky, Keshet Eilon operates The Keshet Eilon International Violin and Strings Mastercourse, Keshet Eilon Seminars for Israeli Violin Students and Teachers and Annual Concert Series at the Keshet Eilon Concert Hall.
The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance
The Jerusalem Academy of Music and, founded in 1958 as the Rubin Academy of Music, is located on the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1965, Hassia Levy-Agron, a pioneer of dance in Israel, established the school’s dance department. Today the school has 160 staff members, and over 600 students, and includes a Faculty of the Performing Arts, a Faculty of Composition, Conducting and Music Education, and a Faculty of Dance, Movement and Movement Notation. The academy runs an annual two-week program called the International Summer Institute for Strings. Also, adjacent to the academy’s main building, is The Academy High School which was founded in the late 1960s, and offers a curriculum that combines general studies with specialization in music and dance.
Israel Conservatory of Music
Founded in 1945, the Israel Conservatory of Music is one of the old-timers institutes in Israel for music studies for children age 3 to 18. It holds six departments: wind instruments department, stringed instruments deparment, piano department, the department of jazz music, ancient music department and vocal department.
Visit the Conservatory’s website
Hed College of Music
Hed College of Contemporary Music in Israel is an accredited college affiliated with Oklahoma City University in the United States. It was established in 1990 in Yehud and is located in Tel Aviv since 1998. The college offers to educate musicians that are interested in the fields of Jazz, Pop and Rock, and World Music, with related areas such as sound engineering, computers, film scoring and electronic music.
bpm – Sound and Advanced Music College
Located in Tel Aviv, bpm, a centre of education & training of producers, musicians and sound engineers, was established in 2002. It is the only college institute in the Middle East that has the recognition of Steinberg Authorized Training Centre and the first Israeli college to get authorization of Apple Training Centre.
Dance
Hakvutza
Hakvutza (‘The Group’), a Home for Dance, Contact and Improvisation, is an independent school for contemporary dance, inviting both inexperienced and experienced students. The studies focus on contemporary technique, classical technique, improvisation, contact improvisation and yoga. The school was established in 2000 by a number of dance students who wished to combine contemporary dance with improvisation and contact-improvisation technique, as a basis for personal and group creation. The school works in the Jewish- Arabic Center in Jaffa.
Mehola Dance Centre
Mehola dance centre was established at 1988 in Jerusalem with the support of the Jerusalem municipality and leading dance groups in Israel. Mehola is a private institute and is the biggest dance center in Israel for Folk dance, Ethnic dance, Modern dance and Jazz dance, with branches in Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. Mehola has 3 professional folk dance groups: “The Bogeret”- adults (18-28), “Neurim”- teenagers (15-18), and “Nitsanim”- children (12-15). Each group has special repertoires.
Nadine Bommer Dance Academy
Nadine Boomer Dance Academy is an academic centre for dance. The Academy was founded in 1994 by Nadine Boomer with the vision to create, reshape and educate dancers and artists. A unique method taught at the Academy, N.B.D.T. (Nadin Bommer Dance Technique) aims to create and develop dancers by providing a strong technical base that allows them to handle all styles of dance. Senior teachers and staff from Israel and abroad enrich the variety of academic classes at all levels.
The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance
The Jerusalem Academy of Music and, founded in 1958 as the Rubin Academy of Music, is located on the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1965, Hassia Levy-Agron, a pioneer of dance in Israel, established the school’s dance department. Today the school has 160 staff members, and over 600 students, and includes a Faculty of the Performing Arts, a Faculty of Composition, Conducting and Music Education, and a Faculty of Dance, Movement and Movement Notation. The academy runs an annual two-week program called the International Summer Institute for Strings. Also, adjacent to the academy’s main building, is The Academy High School which was founded in the late 1960s, and offers a curriculum that combines general studies with specialization in music and dance.
Literature
Alma – Home for Hebrew Culture
Alma is a cultural and educational center for adults that is part of the Tel Aviv intellectual scene for over a decade. As a Home for Hebrew Culture, Alma opens its doors to people of all backgrounds who wish to feel at home within this culture. the studies provides an unconventional intellectual experience, with a mix of perspectives and disciplines, combining classic Jewish texts, such as the Bible and the Talmud, with literature, poetry, philosophy and the arts – both classic and modern, both Jewish and Universal. Alma offers a Hebrew culture program for English speakers.
Multidisciplinary Arts
Bicoray Ha-itim
A professional multidisciplinary centre for the performance arts in Tel Aviv. The centre provides a place for choreographers, artists, teachers, and theatre productions. It is also serves as digital media centre and the official home of the Tel Aviv dance company. The centre offers programmes in professional dance studies, professional theatre studies, digital media studies and non-professional courses for adults and youth.
Visit Bicoray Ha-itim’s website
Kibbutzim College of Education
The kibbutzim College of Education is a multidisciplinary institute. The college offers many options for studies, toward various degrees and qualifications: Undergraduate Programs, Graduate Programs, Teacher Training for Graduates and Advanced Studies. The bachelor’s degree studies at Kibbutzim College of Education include a great selection of degree and certificate programs in education and the arts. In the arts field, courses range from studies of art, literature, theatre arts, dance, design and media and film.
Visit Kibbutzim College’s website
Minshar for Art
‘Minshar for Art’ is an art school and a lively cultural centre in the heart of Tel-Aviv. Its goal is to educate through studies and creation in the vast disciplines of art: Cinema, Animation, Photography, Theater, Visual Media, Visual arts and Writing, and to encourage the involvement of the artistic action in its political and social environment. The studying program enables its students to participate in interdisciplinary courses and special artistic work-shops. ‘Minshar’ provides a B.A. degree given by the ‘Open University’. The first floor of ‘Minshar for Art’ includes an active and innovative contemporary art gallery, a projection hall that performs feature, documentary and experimental films, library and cafeteria. Minshar organize symposiums, lectures, discussion, culture events and social happenings, related to the art and its performance fields – all of these are open to the public for free.
Visit Minshar for Art’s website
The Neri Bloomfield Academy of Design and Education
Situated mid-way between Haifa’s harbor and the world-famous Bahai Gardens, The Neri Bloomfield Academy of Design and Education awards academic degrees in six main areas: Graphic Design – Visual and Digital Communications; Architecture; Photography; TV and Film (Including a new and unique Non-Fiction Film department); Fashion and Textile Design; and Public Administration.
Visit the Academy’s YouTube channel
Thelma Yellin High School of Arts
The Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts was founded 45 years ago in memory of the Israeli cellist, Thelma Bentwich Yellin, who immigrated to Israel in the 1920s from England. Thelma Yellin is a national high school. The program offers courses in six majors: dance (ballet and modern dance), classical music, jazz, drama, film and visual arts.