Beit Ticho

I actually went to Beit Ticho yesterday, a break in my frustrating morning. Beit Ticho is an old Arab house, a villa really, which under the British mandate became the home of Dr. Abraham Ticho and his wife, Anna. Together theye ran an eye clinic which served all of Jerusalem, and helped save thousands from a disease rampant at the time which cause blindness. During the 1930 Arab riots against Jewish immigration, Dr. Ticho was stabbed in the back at his front door, and their was a public outcry all the way up to the Grand Mufti. He and Anna continued to live int he house, and run the clinic until they died in the 1960s, and gave over the home and their extensive art collection (Anna herself drew and Dr. Ticho was apparantly famous the world over for his menorah collection) to the Israeli government to be made into a museum.

On a more personal level, I have been going to Beit Ticho since I was 17. On EIE (high school program) we held our last dinner in their restaurant. On later trips I would bring friends to try their fabulous desserts (hot chocolate cake) or their marak batata, sweet potato soup. The house itself is lovely, but it is their extensive gardens, which in the summer time you can sit in, that is the real reason to go. If it's a nice day you are sure to find at least a few people sitting at easels with watercolors spread along the grass.

Though I have been to Beit Ticho often, I had never gone to the museum portion before. I read in a magazine about a photography exhibition called "Homes of Others" which sounded very intreesting. Unfortunately, it had closed, and instead I walked through the small galleries of "Signs of Life: Animating Ticho House." There was a great deal of video art, which I generally don't care for, but it was interesting as artists sought to bring life to objects normally taken for granted. One of the first pieces was a spilled cup, which continued to gush water all over a table without actually falling to the floor, but it felt to me like the kind of thing one saw in a science museum. Probably the only piece that really has stuck with me was by Sasha Serber, it was a burnt Pinocchio, and I found it very creepy (look here to see it). There were also little sketches and watercolors by Anna, and a selection from Dr. Ticho's menorah collection, which looked like a cheap Judaica store.

So all in all, not a thrilling museum, but I will go back for the food, and if a new exhibit arises that's exciting.

(Note: I got a charger for my camera, but I did not take these pictures, they are from the web)