(haipo) - In honor of the 100th anniversary events of the Bat Galim neighborhood in Haifa, a festive project was held on Thursday, 18/7/24, with the participation of the residents of the neighborhood and under the guidance of members of the "Decoration Committee" association, in which a colorful and impressive painting was painted on the wall of the neighborhood community center.
The steering committee for the centennial celebrations, which consists of residents and is managed by Inbal Bar Shai, director of the Bat Galim community center, was established about three months ago, when its members decided on Several interesting events that are still ongoing:
- A photography course by Nissim Toito, in which the special neighborhood was photographed and at the end of which a summarizing exhibition will be shown.
- "The Beautiful Garden" contest is a prize-bearing contest that will end on August 15, 2024.
- Sailing competition of vessels made only of cardboard.
- Tours in the neighborhood on behalf of "Forum Bat Galim", which have been held for two years on Fridays at noon.
- A painting on an exterior wall of the neighborhood community center building - the residents chose the style and the local motifs that would appear in it - a vessel, a sea turtle, and the central motif: the casino building that stood at the end of Bat Galim Avenue and became the symbol of the neighborhood.
Fight for the casino
These days, when the residents of the neighborhood are waging a fight for their right to participate in shaping the future and image of the casino, the mural gave another token of their love for the building.
Happy picnic and protest - come!
And today, Sunday 21/7/24, at 18:00 p.m., A joyous picnic and protest will be held by the residents on the Bat Galim promenade, near the casino, calling for the casino to be returned to the residents of the city And you are all invited!
Come to the protest picnic, which will be held next to the casino - to rejoice, demonstrate presence and give more strength and power to the residents of the neighborhood!
An information booth will also be set up on the spot, for anyone who wants to hear and know more about the casino program.
Inbal Yadfat Na'eman, a resident of the neighborhood:
"On Thursday, the neighborhood was renewed with a stunning new mural (thank you decoration committee, and even more thank you, the steering committee for the 100th events). At the center of the painting is the casino, a neighborhood and city symbol, and not without reason - the casino enters the hearts of all of us. It is a shame that the municipality is not educated take advantage of the building, the symbol and the resource that it is, but helps the developer to promote a plan that will turn it into a hotel and close the stretch of beach on which it sits, as a beach for the rich only. We, the residents of the neighborhood and the city, will come back and remind the municipality and the planning committees of their role as gatekeepers against exactly such predatory plans ."
The mural trend in Haifa
Although the city that is considered the graffiti capital of Israel is Tel Aviv, it can certainly be said that Haifa is no longer lagging behind, also thanks to commissioned projects by the Municipality of Haifa, contributed by groups such as "Broken Pingas" which consists of artists who grew up in the city and became internationally renowned after their works appeared on the walls of the downtown and the port, and also thanks to other well-known artists who work here, such as Erez Shimkh known as EREZOO, or Ziv Shimh known as ZivInk, and other artists who hide behind the nicknames - FINST CLAW, LEO, MAMALI My most favorite, as her art is crochet, and many others.
decoration board
After several discussions and various suggestions that came up, the residents from the steering committee chose the "Decoration Committee" group to carry out the mural painting on top of the community center building in the Bat Galim neighborhood with the cooperation of the residents.
"Decoration Committee" is a Jerusalem non-profit organization, a collective of artists, city planners, educators and art lovers, whose goal is to improve the appearance of the public space in Israeli cities, or as stated in their brochure - to add color to the streets.
After they painted Safed blue, decorated the Levinsky market floor in Tel Aviv with geometric shapes and raised creative and beautiful projects in different cities, it was Haifa's turn.
The residents are part of the creation
The artists practice - they prepare stencils and draw outlines - then they serve the residents with brushes and paints - and let's go to work! They certainly could have "ticked off" the work themselves and faster, but the idea is to share with the public and give the residents the joy of working to improve the space in which they live, and thus the work lasted two days, full of color, familiarity and joy. After the painting was ready, the residents of the neighborhood were invited on Thursday to the event of its presentation.
The artists were quite surprised by the difference in the weather in the neighborhood next to the beach, compared to the dry air they knew from Jerusalem, and they even had trouble dealing with the heavy humidity in the air, but the residents of the neighborhood made sure to pamper them with delicious food and wonderful desserts made by themselves. The joy of the joint creation can be seen here in the pictures. So cheeky!
And don't forget to come for a picnic, the residents of the neighborhood are waiting for you!
Sunday 21/7/24, at 18:00 p.m., Bat Galim Promenade, next to the casino
We will be there!
Respect and artists, beautiful work, continue to beautify and make art accessible to everyone. I didn't understand, we are fighting for the casino.?
Wonderful article, wonderful people, wonderful neighborhood.
Every word in this article gives hope.
And the moral of the mind is one and clear:
The change will come exclusively - from below, from the people, from the public, from the community.
Don't blame politicians, "leaders", decision makers.
You are the decision makers!!!
speak up
You will come to an agreement.
decided
Follow it.
The power is with you. always was. You were just tricked into thinking he wasn't.
A very beautiful mural and adds color, it's just a shame that the Haifa municipality chooses not to renew the decades-old public buildings in the neighborhood. She knows how to give permits for thousands of new apartments, but prepare for these residents the public buildings, the kindergartens, the daycare centers, the day centers - she doesn't know that, that is, she knows but tries not to do it (maybe they won't submit the extreme density of another 4000 units in the future and more 20 thousand residents instead of 4 thousand today?).
So yes it is possible to produce protests about the casino and also beautiful murals. The main problem is the bad planning combined with the lack of budgets for public buildings in the municipality. The mural cannot hide the fact that no new public building has been built in the neighborhood in 50 years, and the new Hulda Promenade also continues to be closed to the public, and we will not be surprised to hear that due to the war the Navy is withdrawing from opening the seafront around the base and demanding that this section be taken over again...
Thank you, dear Eyal, for your insights and correct comments.
Greetings to the residents of Bat Galim in Haifa
Kudos to the caring residents! I wish you would save this gem
You should change the name of Haifa to "Anti".
But, not by voting because they will be anti 🤷🏼♂️
Read in depth. The residents are not anti, they are for development! Correct development that will preserve the area for the benefit of the entire public