Tsipi Ben-Haim and husband Zigi Ben-Haim and Shuli Kislev, the museum’s senior deputy director

Suzanne Ponsot, executive director of American Friends of Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and Tamar Rudich

Lauren and Steven Schwartz with Leon Constantiner

Audrey and Harvey Feuerstein, parents of Mark Feuerstein of Royal Pains, which started its fifth season in June

Janet Lehr of the Vered Gallery and attorney Sybil Shainwald

TEL AVIV MUSUM OF ART
‘When Kids Are Creating
They’re Not Destroying’

STORY AND PHOTOS BY TIM BOXER

"E

very creative mind can go the right way if you help them, and the wrong way if no one will help," Tsipi Ben-Haim says. Her passion is to help the world’s young people in the right way.

For 25 years Tsipi has been reaching out to youngsters to help them find their creative inner soul. As executive and artistic director of CITYarts, located in New York, the Israeli born powerhouse has guided young ones in creating and painting Peace Walls in Harlem, Tel Aviv, London and Karachi, Pakistan. Next stop will be Berlin where she plans to install a Peace Wall near the Holocaust Museum.

"It’s important," she says, "to have kids engaged in important art projects. When kids are creating, they are not destroying."

For her lifetime mission Tsipi was honored by the American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (AFTAM) at its spring gala last month at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan. Also receiving plaudits were AFTAM honorary chairman Martin Sanders as patron of the arts and Tal R as artist of the year.

Among the guests were AFTAM chairman David Genser, museum director and chief curator Suzann Landau, Family Management Corp. president Seymour Zises, attorneys Sybil Shainwald and Steven P. Schwartz, Janet Lehr of the Vered Gallery, Tamar Rudich, artist Jessica Mitrani, fashion designer Gabi Asfour, and Audrey and Harvey Feuerstein, parents of Mark Feuerstein, star of Royal Pains, which starts its fifth season in June on USA.

Tsipi married artist Zigi Ben-Haim 33 years ago. He promised her one thing: never a dull moment.

"He kept his word," she said. "But I do need a dull moment from time to time – but not tonight."

The artist of the year was born Tal Rosenzweig in Tel Aviv during the Six-Day War of 1967. At Tal’s birth, his father got a pass to leave his army post and hitchhike to the hospital to see his newborn. "I was born as a war child," Tal said.

"When I was 16, I was sitting on the beach in Herzliya. I told my friend I wanted to be in the army. He hit me on the head with his surfboard and said, ‘You’re not going in the army.’"

So he became an artist in Copenhagen known as Tal R.