About Dagesh

Dagesh – Jewish Art in Context enhances the visibility of diverse forms of artistic expression by Jews. As a platform and network, Dagesh has been exploring a contemporary, self-confident, and forward-looking Jewish self-image since its inception. Dagesh on Tour is a cultural education programme that conveys various dimensions of Jewish life in Germany using the arts. The programme organises creative workshops for children and young people aged 8-18 throughout Germany.

Jewish life in Germany today is more diverse than ever. This diversity finds expression in current works by young Jewish artists. Contemporary Jewish art in Germany tends to grapple with themes related to the interaction between Jewish communities, Jewish cultures and mainstream German society.
Considering the (sometimes tense) relationship with German non-Jewish society as well the long history – and current manifestations – of antisemitism and racism here, it is no surprise that Jewish plurality can trigger friction and conflict. Dagesh grapples with manifold themes: Experiences and stories of migration, questions about belonging and identity (or identities), the positions of minorities and the dynamics of intersectionality, confrontations with family, religion, history, politics, sexuality and gender, exclusion and violence.
Despite the fact that there are well over 200,000 Jews living in Germany today, mainstream society still considers them to be “foreign,” standing on the fringes of German and European society and not part of the German “we.” Art and emancipatory art education offer us the opportunity to reflect together on Jewish life in Germany, to tell the outside world about Jewish life, and to challenge stereotypes and attributions of foreignness.

With exhibitions, the Dagesh Art Prize, readings, art and literature festivals, catalogues and more, Dagesh offers this productive circle of artists greater visibility, improved networking and opportunities for intensive collaboration in joint projects.

Interested Jewish artists are welcome to join our network.

**The dagesh is a dot, a small square in the centre of letters in the Hebrew and Yiddish alphabets. It carries no meaning in itself, but can change the meaning of words by shifting emphases. This, too, is what art is about: setting accents and shifting meanings.