Art and Photography Workshops
for Empowerment and Social Change
The Workshops
The Cook-Click-Eat workshop is our flagship workshop. It was first implemented in 2013 at The Women’s Courtyard in Jaffa. Participants met once a week over the course of eight months, with the supervision of a social worker who joined in the meetings.
The kitchen plays a central role in the meetings. It is both a communal space and a personal space, universally recognized as a place where people gather. But it also serves at times as a place of refuge, of conversation, of communication and of creation.
The kitchen brings together diverse populations who would not have the opportunity to meet outside this space. The process of cooking and photographing together at the workshops is both a creative and a therapeutic experience. The activities help support participants and allow them to address difficult subjects such as personal security and mutual aid.
The original workshop was designed for women, but can be rewarding and enriching for any type of group. In the workshops, the kitchen becomes an exciting place where people come together, open their hearts and explore the wonderful world of photography with the other participants and the facilitators.
We try to incorporate other types of meetings into each workshop as well. For example, in the Cook-Click-Eat group, one of the meetings featured a guest lecture on baking from chef Oren Becker.
The goal of this type of guest lecture is to take the women out of a familiar space and expose them to a new realm. It became a wonderful celebration for the participants! Oren and his father introduced them to the equipment, taught them how to work with yeast, how to knead dough and how to craft relatively complex culinary creations. As they all kneaded, baked and photographed together the, participants got to taste a variety of the chef’s delicious dishes.
Ron Barkai, Director of The Women’s Courtyard, Jaffa, on Cook-Click-Eat
“Young women, ages 17-24, residents of Yafo, participated in a food photography group, which operated on several levels: first, as part of a framework of enrichment that exposed the women to new areas of interest in a safe and warm environment; second was the development of professional skills and general competence with tasks, schedules, teamwork, and learning from successes while going through a process; the third and last area was therapeutic work on relevant issues, one-on-one and as a group, whether implied or directly addressed, such as: body image, women’s health, group dynamics and more.
The young women who took part in Chana and Lilach’s workshop live in a difficult and complicated reality. Moreover, some of them face violence in their homes, some lack a home or family support and live in a constant struggle to survive...Providing an experience that develops creativity and builds confidence in a group setting is a unique challenge which Lilach and Chana took on with devotion and great love.
They succeeded in providing the young women with a therapeutic experience of nourishment, family and creativity that had previously been so rare in the young women’s lives.
Lilach and Chana have shown great skill in running the workshop. From designing the structure of the workshop in collaboration with the Courtyard’s staff to overcoming challenges along the way, they have been there for the participants throughout the program, providing them with compassion and individual attention.
Chana and Lilach’s warmth, empathy, and flexibility helped to establish the workshop and ensure its continuity. I have no doubt that anyone who collaborates with Chana and Lilach will enjoy the benefits of working with these two professional and devoted women.”
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Recommended frequency of meetings: Once a week
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Ideal number of participants: 8-15
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Directed by: Chana Brazg and Lilach Bar-Tzion
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At each meeting the group decides what to cook the following week.
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Purchase of supplies (funded by the workshop) is organized by the participants.
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Each meeting includes preparation and cooking, photography of the process and a communal meal.
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Participants use cameras provided by the workshop and its facilitators.
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Over the course of the year, photography is incorporated into all of the workshops. At the end of the year, each participant creates a personal photo album.
About the Workshop – “Connecting to Sources of Inner Strength”
Chana Brazg and Lilach Bar-Tzion on their work:
“In our eyes, there is nothing more meaningful than taking part of a process in another person’s life. We believe that we’ve made a difference in the lives of many women through our workshops.
Our aim is to move away from objective or subjective weaknesses and challenges and to help workshop participants connect to their sources of inner strength - the place within that enables them to tap into their own creativity. Most of them have been able to do this successfully.
The exceptional girls and women we’ve met, for example in the Cook-Click-Eat workshop, went on such an impressive and exciting journey together.
Sometimes, they did this by the skin of their teeth, coming to the workshops despite the difficulties and challenges in their personal lives. Slowly, week by week, we saw how they were able to collaborate, to run the meetings, to take initiative, to help one another, to be involved and concerned and to create.
And photography accompanies us throughout the process, providing a tool that inspires creativity and helps us to do what is sometimes so difficult - to see and be seen!
And sometimes, there is even a real “Cinderella” who springs forth. In the Cook-Click-Eat workshop, there was someone who brought us all to the verge of tears. At our meetings in the kitchen of The Women’s Courtyard, she discovered her true purpose, made a substantial change in her life and she now works as a chef at a well-known restaurant in Tel Aviv.
As anyone who works with disadvantaged groups knows, it is difficult to materialize the mutual fantasy and “save” people who are living in at risk situations. Sometimes, the most we can offer in our workshops is an hour of kindness, compassion and safety. But often it goes beyond this. Often, we are able provide an opportunity for participants to engage in something new that demands strength, introspection, overcoming of fears and recognition of self-worth.
As we work with the participants, we are reminded of what it means to be a shoulder to cry on, an anchor and a window to new possibilities in the life of someone else.”