Submitted by the Skirball Museum of Cincinnati
In conjunction with its current exhibition, The Guiding Hand: The Barr Foundation Collection of Torah Pointers, the Skirball Museum is offering a Lunch and Learn on Thursday, June 6 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. with curatorial consultant Abby Schwartz and preparator and collections manager Sheri Besso. Pre-registration is required.
Join Schwartz and Besso for an informal light lunch and conversation about the challenges of mounting this exhibition and the craftsmanship of these objects of material culture that are at once tools of devotion and exquisite works of art. The program includes a visit to the exhibition.
Pointers are tools exclusively used to keep one’s place in the Torah scroll, the central text of the Jewish faith, which is densely hand-written in Hebrew. The yad also assists in protecting the integrity of the quilled letters and the delicate vellum of the Torah scroll. For hundreds of years, Jews used simple tapered wooden sticks to point the way through the text of the Torah, or Five Books of Moses, the central text of the Jewish faith.
Virginia resident Clay H. Barr began acquiring Torah pointers nearly 30 years ago in memory of her late husband, Jay D. A. Barr. Her collection of more than 150 Torah pointers includes antique and contemporary examples that represent the full range of elaborate historic forms. Barr’s yads, 130 of which are on view in this exhibition, range in length from a few inches to nearly two feet. While some are made from traditional materials such as wood, silver, gold, or ivory and date to the 18th century, Barr has reached beyond Jewish artisans to commission Torah pointers from artists who fashioned them from Lucite, glass, beading, concrete, and even a skateboard among other unconventional materials.
This program is the final opportunity to engage with Schwartz and Besso, both of whom are leaving the Skirball later in June to pursue other opportunities. To register for this program, call, email, or visit the Skirball Museum website. The exhibition remains open through July 28, 2024.
