Ilana Goor Museum, Art museum in Old Jaffa, Israel.
The Ilana Goor Museum fills a three-story stone building in Old Jaffa, built in 1742 as a khan with massive walls and later an olive-oil soap factory. Its more than 500 works, around 300 of them sculptures, stand in rooms without white-cube display; a rooftop sculpture garden looks over Jaffa, Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean.
Built in 1742 by Yaakov Zanana as a khan outside Jaffa's walls, the three-story stone building sheltered Jewish pilgrims bound for Jerusalem. In the second half of the 19th century a Muslim family ran an olive-oil soap and cosmetics factory here; a furnace found during restoration is displayed near the museum shop. From 1949 Libyan Jews used part of it as a synagogue. Ilana Goor bought part in 1983, the rest in the early 1990s, and opened the museum in September 1995.
Ilana Goor calls the collection her "university", built over 50 years of travel and collecting. Rooms pair works by Diego Giacometti, Henry Moore and Josef Albers with African and Latin American ethnic art, and the design hall shows chairs by Frank Gehry and Gerrit Rietveld beside Goor's own limited-edition furniture.
The location is in Old Jaffa and easiest reached on foot since the area has narrow, cobbled streets. Plan extra time to explore the neighborhood as it has shops and cafes tucked throughout.
The building functions as both a public museum and a private home, with the artist herself living in an apartment above the galleries. This blend of residence and exhibition space creates an atmosphere where art and daily life coexist in an unusual way.
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