The Outset Partners Awards Programme 2020 awarded an Impact Award to Beit Ha’Gefen Gallery’s The Third Space. Beit Ha’Gefen Gallery, an Arab-Jewish Cultural Centre in Haifa, established The Third Space as an art and education lab that offers a unique and participatory experience in an artistic context.
In the new wing, spread across an entire floor, are activity stations for exploring familiar questions and new aspects about identity and belonging in a multicultural society. Visitors are invited to get involved in the content and adapt it to their own unique story – an opportunity for an encounter with experiences, memories and stories, some familiar and some completely new, about ourselves and about others.
All the works in the Third Space’s permanent exhibition are related to the concept of Home which serves as an anchor for identity and belonging. Here visitors can find a kitchen cabinet filled with surprising objects they don’t find in their own kitchen and a living room with a floor made from all kinds of spices, where you can sit and listen to the story of the Moroccan Cinderella or take a look through the window at graffiti about Haifa’s myths by the group Broken Fingaz. In the Visual Identity Lab, designer Roni Levit tries to understand Haifa through incidental data and subjective interpretation. A cinema provides a viewing space featuring a variety of films dealing with language barriers, prejudice and the frustration resulting from the cultural and language gaps that prevent us from properly deciphering messages and intentions. In the square, the steps are used for resting and as an informal meeting place in which artist Davi Barel has created an environment that connects residential buildings in Haifa with dream-like faraway landscapes.
The activities in the Third Space are modular and diverse and combine work in the various spaces with experiential tours in Wadi Nisnas and offer continuing education courses, seminars, tours, conferences and workshops, where visitors can learn about the traditional crafts of different cultures in the local sphere.
