Open Gallery Saturday in the Western Galilee ― July 18, 2026

Open Gallery Saturday “A Small Piece of Earth”

Saturday, July 18, 10 am – 4 pm 

Part of the 9th Annual July Art Festival – Art, Culture & Music in the Western Galilee

From Western Galilee Now – A Small Business Consortium

 

We invite you to a journey through galleries, studios, and exhibition spaces throughout the Western Galilee under the title “A Small Piece of Earth.” The theme of this year’s Open Gallery Saturday deals with the connection between people and the place where they live and work, and the influence of that place on the creative processes of the artists and craftsmen living and creating in the Western Galilee.

In a joint process of the artists and craftsmen and gallery owners, accompanied by curator Asia Dublin, exhibitions and meetings were born that offer a look at the local artistic language and the variety of voices and materials that characterize the work in the Galilee.

During the day, artist meetings, demonstrations, and tours will be held in the galleries.

The audience is invited to wander through the galleries, meet the artists, be exposed to diverse work processes and techniques, and enjoy a rich art experience within short driving distances.

Admission is free, with advance registration.

You can visit the galleries independently or choose one of the recommended routes.

Please Note: Each gallery will host a gallery talk or demonstration twice throughout the day.

 

Curator’s Words, Asia Dublin:

This time we invite you on a journey through the Western Galilee ― but our Galilee is much more than landscapes of sea and mountains. It is a fascinating and multi-layered human space, a living mosaic of cultures, traditions, languages ​​and stories, unique to this region.

The theme of this year’s Open Gallery Saturday deals with the connection between a person and the place where they live and work, and the influence of the place on the creative processes of the artists who live and create in the Western Galilee.

The immediate environment penetrates the work ― and influences, sometimes without us even realizing it, its content, materiality, working methods, the world of images, and the stories it seeks to tell.

As Shaul Tchernichovsky wrote:

“Man is nothing but the pattern of the landscape of his homeland.”

The landscapes we have absorbed, childhood memories, daily encounters with the environment, the communities in which we grew up, and the materials that surround us ― all of these become an inseparable part of who we are, and are expressed in artistic practice.

As part of the event, the participating artists were invited to address the annual theme and create installations, inspiration walls, and special poses in their work spaces, reflecting their personal relationship with the place where they live and work.

Thus, during the Open Gallery Saturday, a kind of human-cultural-creative map of the Western Galilee is built ― a mosaic of voices, materials, memories, and different creative languages, which together create a broad and multifaceted portrait of the place through the eyes of the artists who live there.

The audience is invited to enter the work spaces, meet artists, be exposed to creative processes, raw materials, and sources of inspiration, and talk with the artists about how the place continues to shape their work.

This year, Open Gallery Saturday also has an additional meaning.

After a complex and difficult period in the North, the opening of the studios and the renewed meeting with the audience are an act of returning to life; strengthening the local creative community and encouraging cultural activity in the region.

The choice to open doors, host, be exposed, share, and continue creating in the Galilee is an act of growth, renewal, hope and faith in the power of culture to connect people and places.

Asia Dublin, Event Curator

 

Asia Dublin is a curator, designer, and goldsmith living in Adamit in the Western Galilee. Over the past few years, she has produced and initiated a wide range of projects in the Galilee in various fields. Over the past decade, she has curated dozens of exhibitions in various private and public spaces such as the Lohamei HaGeta’ot Gallery, the Rosh Hanikra Gallery, the Cabri Gallery, and the Space Gallery in Old Akko. She also produced and curated the academy spaces at the “Galilean Color” art fair. Asia began her career studying goldsmithing and later designing jewelry, and after a career as a designer in the high-tech field, she turned to independent multidisciplinary work. Today, she is also an interior designer and engages in architectural design, characterized by an eclectic style that boldly and originally combines different periods and styles in design and architecture. At the same time, she is engaged in restoration, reconstruction, and conservation.

“The Reincarnation of an Object”
Igal Rozenblatt Studio for Artistic Sculpture from Old Metal Objects, Tzurit

The studio will be open for visits from 10 am – 4 pm.

Gallery Talk “The Reincarnation of an Object” & Demonstration Will Take Place at: 10 am & 12 pm

Rozenblatt creates a world of figures and creatures from the remains of local life — tools, metal parts, and everyday objects collected over the years. His works range from humor to poetry, from personal memory to local memory.
At a meeting as part of the Open Gallery Saturday, Igal will speak about the connection between material, memory, and place, and the way in which objects that have carried a previous life take on a new form and presence.
Register Here

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“Roots & Homeland”
The Artist & Blacksmith Walied Khoury at his Workshop & Gallery, Fassuta

The workshop and gallery in Fassuta will be open for visits from 10 am – 4 pm.
Gallery Talk “Roots & Homeland” & Demonstration Will Take Place at: 10 am & 2 pm

Walied Khoury is an iron artist and metalworker from the village of Fassuta in the Western Galilee. His work combines ancient local tradition with a contemporary sculptural language.
In the talk that will take place as part of the Open Gallery Saturday, Walied will address the works he created during the war, the feeling of life on the border, and concepts such as home, roots, and homeland as they are reflected in his work.
During the meeting, Walied Khoury will hold a live demonstration of traditional blacksmithing and share the audience’s experience of the encounter between fire, iron, and creation.

Register Here

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“Community of Objects”
Artist Paula Rykin at the Tin Time Studio, Gilon

The studio will be open for visits from 10 am – 4 pm.
Gallery Talk “Community of Objects” & Demonstration Will Take Place at 12 pm & 2 pm

In Paula Rykin’s studio, everyday objects collected from life itself — cans, toys, corks, and fragments of objects — are reassembled into a colorful, humorous, and lively world.
Through the act of collecting, disassembling, and reassembling, a playful and sensitive visual language is created, giving forgotten objects a new identity. From the unexpected connections between materials, colors, and shapes, a world is built that tells something about the place where we live — about people, memories, and lives that exist side by side in the Western Galilee.
Like a community, Paula’s works also exist from the connection between different and dissimilar parts, which together make up our “little piece of land”.

Register Here

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“The Stamp of Plants”
Hasi Fiber Studio ― Artist & Quilter, Bustan HaGalil

The studio will be open for visits from 10 am – 4 pm.
Gallery Talk “The Stamp of Plants” Will Take Place at 12:30 pm & 3 pm

In Hasi Naveh’s works, nature is not only a source of inspiration ― but an active partner in the creative process.
Through botanical prints, natural dyes, and fibers that bear traces of time, she creates a living material archive of the environment in which she lives and works.
Alongside the works, an inspiration table with examples of work processes will be displayed alongside the works.
Viewers are invited to peek into the ongoing relationship between the studio, garden, and local landscape.
Hasi will talk about her work, the female circles that form around the craft of botanical printing, and the way in which the work is not only influenced by the environment ― but also changes and reshapes it.

Register Here

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“Roots of Inspiration”
Sculptor Yael Netanel in Her New Exhibition “Hidden Garden” at the Space Gallery, Old Akko

The exhibition will be open for visits from 10 am – 4 pm.
Gallery Talk “Roots of Inspiration” Will Take Place at 10 am & 3 pm

As part of July Art 2026, Yael Netanel will open her new exhibition “Hidden Garden” — a poetic space in which body and landscape, material and textile, are intertwined.
Yael, who works and lives in Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk in the Western Galilee, creates metaphorical gardens of softness, rest, and holding in her works. Her ceramic figures are assimilated into knitted and vegetal environments, as if they seek to disappear into nature and become part of it.
During the Open Gallery Saturday, Yael will hold an artist talk and share with visitors her material and emotional world, and the sources of inspiration that accompany her work.

Register Here

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“Drawing in the Air”
Koby Sibony Studio ― Design & Art with Iron Wires, Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta’ot

The exhibition will be open for visits from 10 am – 4 pm.
Gallery Talk “Drawing in the Air” & Demonstration Will Take Place at: 10 am & 2 pm

In Koby Sibony’s studio in Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta’ot, thin iron wires become lines in space ― sculptures, reliefs, and images that look like a 3D drawing in the air.
Sibony, a graduate of the Industrial Design Department at Bezalel, creates a personal and imaginative visual world, in which human figures, animals, musical instruments and structures float in space like creatures from local mythology.
The delicate materiality creates a world that moves between sculpture and drawing, between line and shadow, between playfulness and fragility ― a poetic world of images born from local life and the human landscape of the Western Galilee.

Register Here

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“Threads That Connect”
Exhibition “Time Embroidered” at the Secrets of the Kibbutz Miracle ― Monio Gallery, Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk

The exhibition will be open for visits from 10 am – 4 pm.
A Discussion with Curator Efrat Peled-Sade “Threads That Connect” Will Take Place at: 10 am & 2:30 pm

The Monio Gallery, located in Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk, presents rotating exhibitions of contemporary Israeli art that deal with environmental, social, and community issues.
As part of July Art 2026, the gallery is presenting an exhibition “Time Embroidered” — an exhibition that deals with collective memory, community, and identity through the art of contemporary embroidery.
The exhibition features traditional handicrafts and contemporary works of art. Embroidered texts, images of nature, human figures, and local landscapes become a rich visual language that seeks to tell a personal and collective story.
This year, as part of the “A Little Piece of Land” project, a discussion will be held for Open Gallery Saturday, that will address the renewed meaning of embroidery ― not only as a craft, but as an act of connection, sojourn, preservation, and community building.

Register Here

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“Shapes Born in Fire”
Glass Artist Ariel Aravot at the Aravotart Studio, Yuvalim

The exhibition will be open for visits from 10 am – 4 pm.
Gallery Talk “Shapes Born in Fire” & Demonstration Will Take Place at: 10 am & 2 pm

Ariel Aravot is an international glass artist, a graduate of Bezalel, and holds an MFA in glass from RISD in the United States. His work combines contemporary material research with traditional glassblowing and processing techniques.
Aravot’s work is an ongoing dialogue with glass, in which the working process itself plays a central role. Within the fire and heat, the material changes, reacts and flows — and gives rise to unexpected shapes and textures. At the studio meeting, Ariel will speak about the connection between material, technology, and ancient craftsmanship, and about the possibility of glass telling a contemporary story through an ancient and fragile material.

Register Here

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“Testimony in Material”
Varda Yatom Studio, International Sculptor, Kibbutz Sasa

The exhibition will be open for visits from 10 am – 4 pm.

Gallery Talk “Testimony in Material” Will Take Place at: 12 pm

Varda Yatom, who lives and creates in Kibbutz Sasa, is considered one of the most influential artists in the field of contemporary ceramic sculpture in Israel. Varda Yatom’s work deals with the fragility of human existence. Over the years, Varda has developed a unique sculptural language in which actions of dismantling, burning, tying, and rebuilding become a unique artistic language.
As part of the Open Gallery Saturday, a body of selected works will be presented to visitors, and Varda will talk about the work processes, techniques, and sources of inspiration that have accompanied her work over the years.

Register Here

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“A City of Layers”
Moshe Afuta, Owner of the Akko Art Gallery, Old Akko

The exhibition will be open for visits from 10 am – 4 pm.
The “A City of Layers” Gallery Talk Will Take Place at: 12 pm & 2 pm

In the heart of Old Akko, between the stone alleys, the market, and the sea, the Akko Art Gallery operates ― a colorful and spacious space that brings together works by Israeli, Akko and Galilean artists alongside private collections and well-known artists.
As part of Open Gallery Saturday 2026, Moshe Afuta, the gallery’s founder and avid art lover, will host a personal conversation about art, place, and memory. Through the works in the collection ― Akko landscapes, figures, alleys, and the sea ― Moshe will tell the story of the city as it is reflected in the eyes of the artists.
This is an encounter with a rich Israeli art collection, but also with Akko itself ― a city of layers, cultures, people, and stories, where past and present continue to live side by side.

Register Here

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“Local Mythology”
Artist Liat Gilad from Studio Lil ― Ceramics, Goldsmithing, Art, Material & Spirit, Kibbutz Ga’aton

The exhibition will be open for visits from 10 am – 4 pm.
Gallery Talk “Local Mythology” & Demonstration Will Take Place at: 10 am & 2 pm

In her works, Liat creates a personal language of symbols and images that range from amulets, ritual tools, archaeological objects and images from nature and the human body. Inspired by ancient cultures, traditional crafts and natural materials, she builds a contemporary visual world wrapped in layers of time.
As part of Open Gallery Saturday, Liat will present an installation in the studio that was created from a dialogue with the theme of the event ― “A Small Piece of Land”. Through objects, symbols, natural materials, and ceremonial images, the installation will examine the connection between man, land, memory, and language.

Register Here