The School of Arts

The School of Arts was founded in 2012, bringing together three academic units: the Department of Fine Arts, the Department of Music, and the Department of Theatre. The School offers studies at BA and MA level, and provides a point of theoretical and practical contact between diverse artistic fields and those working within them. Our students study one artistic discipline in depth and are at the same time exposed to expressive forms drawn from other disciplines; this encounter takes place in a rich and thought-provoking creative space, in which the boundaries between artistic disciplines are re-examined and challenged.

Around 380 students study in the departments of the School of Arts: Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze and Circassians; veteran Israelis and new immigrants; secular and religious people; students from cities, students from cities, rural settlements and kibbutzim; from the periphery and from the centre of the country. In its daily life, the School of Arts is an exciting multicultural meeting point and a place of vibrant conversation between people of different backgrounds and shared interests.

The departments are based in the Hecht Arts Centre, established in memory of Dr Reuben Hecht. A modern and inspiring building that was inaugurated in 2006, the Arts Centre is built into the sloping peak of Mt Carmel in an area of natural beauty, overlooking an impressive view of sea, mountains and valleys, and secular and sacred sites. Our location serves as a meeting point between the university and the surrounding communities; inside, the work spaces of the Arts Centre were planned to provide optimal working conditions to students and for the teaching needs of the departments of Fine Arts, Music and Theatre.

The School of Arts produces a rich programme of exhibitions, concerts, theatrical performances, conferences, guest lectures, masterclasses, competitions and workshops; thus, the Hecht Arts Centre thus serves as a lively focal point of arts and culture.

The School of Arts also promotes community engagement projects that envisage the arts as a means tointervene in wider society. Within this framework, students go out to work with socially excluded communities and in organizations that work with populations with special needs in Haifa and northern Israel. These projects enable students to gain experience and to take on responsibilities, and to find opportunities to create positive change in the society around them. They discover how art that is attentive, engaged and adventurous can promote important values such as responsibility, commitment, justice and solidarity.

Among the staff of the School of Arts are artists and researchers of the highest level, whose names are well known in Israel and the wider world. They teach with professionalism and sensitivity, training students to meet intellectual and aesthetic challenges, and encouraging them to follow their independent ideas and to actualize them. Professor Sharon Poliakine (Fine Arts) served as the Head of the School of Arts during 2012-2015, and Professor Yuval Shaked (Music) currently serves in this position.

You are warmly invited to visit the School of Arts at the University of Haifa and to experience the rich life of the School: the artistic projects of our students, the open and inspiring atmosphere, and the dedication of our teaching, research and creative staff.