On Thursday, April 27, 2017 at 7:30 pm, Bang on a Can and the Jewish Museum will present the final concert of their 2016-2017 concert season featuring Bang on a Can All-Stars pianist Vicky Chow. Chow will perform Tristan Perich’s Surface Image for solo piano, a monumental performance and installation with 40-channel 1-bit electronics, echoing the shimmering quality of Paris’ 19th century arcades and inspired by Walter Benjamin’s renowned essay "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Chow’s recording of Perich’s Surface Image, acclaimed for it’s “surreal, cacophonous beauty” (The New York Times), was listed #4 in Rolling Stone's 20 Best Avant Albums of 2014. The performance takes place alongside the Jewish Museum’s current exhibition, The Arcades: Contemporary Art and Walter Benjamin.

The Jewish Museum will present Modigliani Unmasked, an exhibition featuring early drawings by Amedeo Modigliani (Italian, 1884-1920) that were acquired directly from the artist by Dr. Paul Alexandre, his close friend and first patron. These works—many of which are being shown for the first time in the U.S.— will illuminate how Modigliani’s heritage as an Italian Sephardic Jew is pivotal to understanding his artistic output. The exhibition will be on view at the Jewish Museum from September 15, 2017 through February 4, 2018.

In conjunction with the new exhibition, The Arcades: Contemporary Art and Walter Benjamin, the Jewish Museum will present a series of public programs, including a day-long performance by musician John Zorn and poet Kenneth Goldsmith on June 4 and a walking tour led by Goldsmith and exhibition curator Jens Hoffmann on April 30.

The Jewish Museum will present Freedom Art Jam, a fun-filled family day for Passover, on Sunday, April 9 from 12 noon to 4pm. Special activities for the holiday include a dance party with Vered and The Babes, a drop-in art workshop, and gallery hunts.

The Jewish Museum joins the many organizations and artists across the United States in urging Congress to not eliminate the vital funding of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as outlined in the proposed federal budget.

The Jewish Museum’s 2017 slate of lectures, discussions, and events continues in April with a walking tour led by Kenneth Goldsmith and Jens Hoffmann and a concert by Vicky Chow of the Bang on Can All Stars. Other highlights include author talks with Charles Bronfman and Annette Libeskind Berkovits, a discussion with scholars Boris Groys and Michal Taussig, and an artist focus on Jennifer West.

The Jewish Museum’s long-running collection exhibition, Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey, originally mounted in 1993, will close to make way for a major, new collection display, Scenes from the Collection, opening in Fall 2017. Culture and Continuity’s last day on view will be Sunday, February 12, 2017. Scenes from the Collection will transform the Museum’s third floor and feature over 650 works from antiquities to contemporary art – many of which have rarely, if at all, been on view at the Museum.

The writings of Walter Benjamin, the influential German Jewish philosopher and cultural critic, are the basis for a contemporary art exhibition at the Jewish Museum from March 17 through August 6, 2017. The Arcades: Contemporary Art and Walter Benjamin examines themes in the author's magnum opus The Arcades Project via contemporary artworks in media ranging from photography and video to sculpture and painting, with annotations by the American poet Kenneth Goldsmith.

The colorful, fantastical world of visual artist, musician, composer, and performer Charlemagne Palestine (b. 1947, Brooklyn, New York) arrives at the Jewish Museum with an immersive installation influenced by childhood experience and by the artist’s Brooklyn Jewish roots. Charlemagne Palestine’s Bear Mitzvah in Meshugahland features hundreds of plush toys, including teddy bears, which the artist regards as shamanic representations of the soul. On view from March 17 through August 6, 2017, this is the first U.S. museum exhibition of the artist’s monumental plush toy installations. For this presentation, Palestine refers to the teddy bear's invention in Brooklyn, near where he grew up.

New York, NY, February 15, 2017 –The Jewish Museum will host two exciting concerts for families in March.

New York, NY, February 14, 2017 – The Jewish Museum will present visual artist, musician, composer, and performer Charlemagne Palestine in concert at The Church of the Heavenly Rest on Thursday, March 16, at 8pm.  The concert, titled  Aaa HHeavenlyyy RResttt SSchlingennn BBlängennnn, is held in conjunction with the exhibition Charlemagne Palestine’s Bear Mitzvah in Meshugahland, on view at the Jewish Museum from March 17 through August 6, 2017.

The Jewish Museum’s 2017 slate of lectures, discussions, and events continues in March with Charlemagne Palestine in concert; a lecture by guest curator Esther da Costa Meyer on Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design; and "Louis Brandeis" as portrayed by Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO, National Constitution Center, in conversation with the Jewish Museum's Jens Hoffmann. Other highlights include a discussion with furniture designer Dakota Jackson and architect Alexander Gorlin, and gallery discussions on specific themes and topics related to current exhibitions.