Community & Arts Partnerships
Betzalel is rooted in the Jewish calendar and connected to Long Island's broader arts community. We believe art crosses every boundary — cultural, religious, and geographic.
From our first exhibition, Betzalel has built relationships with artists, organizations, and community initiatives across Long Island — Jewish and secular alike. These partnerships are not incidental to our mission. They are our mission. Every collaboration we build brings more voices into the gallery, more artists onto our walls, and more community members through our doors.
West End Arts Visual Artists Guild
West End Arts is a secular visual artists guild on Long Island, founded by Betzalel co-founder and VP Kathleen Regan. The relationship between Betzalel and West End Arts is unique — built into the organizational DNA of both institutions from the start.
Through this partnership, West End Arts promotes Betzalel's call-to-artist to its own membership, cross-promotes opening receptions and events, and actively encourages its artists to submit work to our exhibitions. The result is a consistent pipeline of secular artists into a Jewish cultural space — and a model for how Jewish and secular arts organizations can work together in genuine, ongoing collaboration.
Long Beach Jewish Experience at The BACH
The Long Beach Jewish Experience is a community initiative hosted at The BACH Jewish Center in Long Beach, NY — bringing together Jewish community members across denominations and backgrounds for shared cultural and spiritual experiences.
Betzalel's inaugural exhibition was formally partnered with the Long Beach Jewish Experience, which led community outreach and event programming for the opening reception. That opening included Rosh Hashanah services and a community brunch — bringing together worship, celebration, and art in a single gathering that drew members of the Long Beach Jewish community who might never have walked into a gallery otherwise.
This partnership represents Betzalel at its most essential: art woven into the fabric of Jewish communal life, not separated from it.
Israel Chesed Center —
Am Echad B'lev Echad Mosaic Project
For October 7, 2024 — the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel — Betzalel partnered with the Israel Chesed Center to lead the Am Echad B'lev Echad community mosaic project. The name means "One People with One Heart." Community members came together over the course of the day to build a single collaborative mosaic — an act of collective remembrance, resilience, and creative expression on one of the most significant days in recent Jewish memory.
The finished mosaic stands as both a work of art and a communal statement: that even in grief, a community can create something whole.