Winter 2024: Collaging Esther

Collaging Esther: Playing with Purim

Do you like Pinterest mood boards? Miss tearing up magazines to decorate your walls? Join us! For five weeks leading to Purim we’ll study Megillat Esther and create collages inspired by our learning. By the end, you’ll have experienced making visual midrash by playing with magazines and whatever supplies call to you. (No artistic experience required—collage is for everyone!)

Purim is a time for turning ourselves upside-down, seeing the world and Jewish texts in new ways, and celebrating our survival thanks to Esther’s craftiness. The unique Megillot we create will uncover new pages of the Purim story, revealed through your own eyes, your classmates’, and my demonstration pages.

  • You definitely need magazines, scissors, glue sticks and/or double sided tape, and 11x17” cardstock (folded in half it’s 8.5x11” which is perfect for magazine images). You might also want gel pens, markers, colored pencils, watercolors, stickers. etc.

You also want somewhere to store cut up pieces between sessions—I like these folders.

For this project, you want some magazines with lots of people, some with food, and some with interior decor (plus anything else that makes you happy!).

Meet your teacher:

  • Artist/scholar

    I studied and taught political philosophy and law for 15 years before rediscovering my art-making practice. Nowadays, I merge my two fields together, making art rooted in texts—visual midrash, if you will. I love teaching, and guarantee that whether you see yourself as an artist or not, I can teach you to make interesting pieces yourself! (After all, every single one of my students understood the ins and outs of Brexit before it happened—if I can teach that rigamarole, you’re in good hands here.