Bet ot ha-motsar ha-Yerushalmi, Art museum and heritage site in Jerusalem, Israel
Bet ot ha-motsar ha-Yerushalmi is an art museum and heritage site in Jerusalem with multiple exhibition galleries displaying contemporary works that address social and political themes. The spaces feature various artistic mediums including installations, paintings, and other forms to present their content.
The stone building was erected between 1924 and 1930 for the Order of Saint John as a wing of the Saint John eye hospital, designed by British architect Clifford Holliday with Zoltan Harmat after the hospital was damaged in World War I. A tunnel under Hebron Road linked it to the main wing, now the Mount Zion Hotel. After 1948 the buildings stood abandoned beside the armistice line; from 1959 to 1964 the Teachers' Seminary for Religious Teachers occupied the site, and the art center opened in April 1969, following 1963 Knesset legislation creating the Jerusalem Product mark.
The name comes from the "Jerusalem Product" mark, a quality label rooted in 1963 Knesset legislation; the center opened in April 1969 to award and display works bearing it. About a hundred Jerusalem artists and craftspeople are registered, 25 of them working in studios on the upper floor, where visitors can watch glassblowing, painting, sculpture, Judaica, silverwork and ceramics. One ground-floor room, the Armenian Room, was decorated in 1925 with Armenian ceramic tiles by the artisan David Ohannessian.
The building stands on Hebron Road at the edge of the Ben Hinnom Valley, facing Mount Zion. Ground-floor rooms hold the exhibitions, while the second-floor rooms are working studios where artists can be seen at work. The rooms surround an open inner courtyard, and a former underground tunnel once linked the building to the hospital wing across the road.
The building's Armenian Room was decorated in 1925 with Armenian ceramic tiles by artisan David Ohannessian, and it still draws admirers of that craft. A tunnel under Hebron Road once linked the two wings of the Saint John eye hospital, serving as a passage and as a cool storage space.
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