I recent­ly had the plea­sure of check­ing out the new exhib­it at the Jew­ish Muse­um in NYC called Rein­vent­ing Rit­u­al: Con­tem­po­rary Art and Design for Jew­ish Life (Sep­tem­ber 13, 2009 – Feb­ru­ary 07, 2010). The exhib­it was extreme­ly engag­ing, espe­cial­ly for some­one who is explor­ing the role of Judaism in their life, and with that, the role of rit­u­als and objects relat­ed to Judaism, in an uncon­ven­tion­al or new way. Rein­vent­ing Rit­u­al explores the new ideas about rit­u­als, art, and objects that have bub­bled to the sur­face since the mid-1990′s through the per­spec­tives of a wide range of artists. The works on dis­play were all cre­at­ed between 1999 and 2009 and cov­er indus­tri­al design, archi­tec­ture, video, draw­ing, met­al­work, jew­el­ry, ceram­ics, comics, sculp­ture, tex­tiles, and instal­la­tion art. Each work fits into one of the four themes of the exhib­it: Cov­er­ing, Think­ing, Absorb­ing, and Building.

After the Jew­ish Muse­um in NYC, the exhib­it will trav­el to the Con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish Muse­um in San Fran­cis­co (April 22 to Sep­tem­ber 28, 2010).

Can’t get to the Jew­ish Muse­um of the Con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish Muse­um? Check out the book of the same title, pub­lished by Yale Uni­ver­si­ty Press here.

For more infor­ma­tion about the exhib­it, vis­it the Jew­ish Museum’s web­site here.

For more infor­ma­tion about the book, vis­it Yale Uni­ver­si­ty Press’ web­site here.