Yotam Yakir, General Director, Haifa Museums
The Haifa Museum of Art was established in 1951 and is located in a historic building constructed in the 1930s in downtown Haifa.
HMA is the leading contemporary art institution in the northern part of Israel, and one of the top ranking museums in Israel. It has a diverse international exhibition program, as well as a wide range of public and educational programs. HMA aims at providing the best infrastructure for artistic research and work. It hosts diverse audiences, works with various communities, and promotes research in various cultural fields.
HMA opens a new cycle of exhibitions 3 times a year. These include solo shows by international and local artists, group exhibitions dealing with themes and trends in contemporary culture, a library space dedicated to artist books, as well a vast display of the museum’s collection in both permanent and temporary exhibitions.
The HMA collection has approximately 7,500 works by Israeli and international artists, reflecting a range of trends and movements in art. Paintings and drawings include works by prominent Israeli artists such as Yosef Zaritsky, Avigdor Stematsky, Mordechai Ardon, Lea Nikel, Raffi Lavie, Moshe Gershuni, Michal Na’aman, Pinchas Cohen Gan and Tsibi Geva. The sculpture collection includes works by Yigal Tumarkin, Yehiel Shemi, and Itzhak Danziger.
In addition, the Haifa Museum of Art has enriched its collections with the works of artists from Haifa and the north of Israel, including works by Ori Reisman, Moshe Kupferman, and Michael Gross.
International art comprises approximately a third of the Museum’s collection of works on paper, including works by masters such as Honoré Daumier, Odilon Redon, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Diego Rivera, George Gross, Chana Orloff, and André Masson. The collection of international prints holds thousands of prints from the mid-18th century to the present.
A unique component of the museum’s collection is the New Media Center Archive. Approximately 75 video works have been collected to date, creating the first Israeli library/archive of video art whose contents are accessible to the general public.
Future plans of the Haifa Museum of Art include an international residency program, an online art magazine, “Artist Rooms” created by prominent local and international artists, “The Platform” – a space for public art, and unique research programs for students and scholars.
Click here to watch a short video about programs at the Haifa Museum of Art.