Great art has no passport.
we bridge great artists and the rooms that matter
Currently featured
This week at Bridgewell
New York · Est. 2026
Artists are not their government. We make sure the work gets in the room.
Bridgewell Arts is the bridge between exceptional emerging and mid-career artists and the galleries, museums and collectors who should already know them. The art world is strongest when it empowers its best storytellers; lately it has been boycotting some of them over a variable nobody chooses. We connect Israeli and Jewish artists to the mainstream art world and, in doing so, build a more robust ecosystem for everyone in it. Talent over passport.
What we do
Salons, studio visits and exhibitions that put artists in front of the galleries, museums and collectors who should know them, across every line people have been told not to cross.
Panels, toolkits and a weekly editorial voice that give institutions the language to program with confidence, and the spine to use it.
Public art, curatorial muscle and the fundraising to match. Rooted at the Museum of Jewish Heritage was the first. It will not be the last.
Featured artist
A new artist every other Monday, plus select studio visits, first looks and the occasional surprise. Follow one, follow them all, or ask about a work and we introduce you to the artist or their gallery and step out of the way. We are never the dealer. We are the plus-one who knows everybody and wants to make intros.
The room
Walk the show
A virtual gallery hung with the featured artist. Walk it, stand in front of a work, click to see it full size. Every featured artist gets a room.
Amir Fattal · 23 works
Hanging the show
Loading the gallery.
Closing this weekend · Museum of Jewish Heritage
Rooted
A monumental tree built from hostage tags and yellow ribbons donated by the people who wore them. Conceived by Dede & Nitzan, curated by Shlomi Rabi, commissioned by UJA-Federation of New York. Now on view in the UJA lobby, 130 East 59th Street.
Founder
Shlomi Rabi has spent 25 years at the center of the art market.
After running the photographs departments at Christie's and Phillips, he founded Greenhouse Auctions, the first social-impact auction platform, which Artsy acquired before bringing him on to lead its global auctions business. Through all of it he has spent a decade as a leader in New York's Jewish arts and culture community, and Bridgewell is where those two careers finally meet.
For donors
Fund a bridge, not a brochure.
Everything we build is funded by people who wanted it to exist: the dinners, the Bridges exhibitions, the artist releases every other Monday, the writing. Tell us what you are most excited about and how you would like your gift to be used, and we will build it with you. You get the best seat in the house.
Be the first to know.
New artists, openings, salons and the writing. One email, when there is something worth sending.
Partners and hosts
The talent
We champion emerging and mid-career artists with serious practices and excellent credentials, and we put them in front of the curators, collectors and institutions who should know them. Follow an artist and you hear from them, not from us. Ask about a work and we make the introduction.
Now on the wall
Amir Fattal
Drag, scroll or use the arrows. Click to enlarge.
Artists: want in?
Features are by invitation. That said, we love a good surprise. Artists are welcome to send a site or Instagram, a CV and a few images to the address below. We read what we can; we are a small team and cannot promise a reply, but the strongest matches have a way of finding us.
Evidence
Panels, conversations, evenings, a commission, an exhibition and a book, in the order they happened. Click an image for the photographs. Add what is coming to your calendar.
Resources
Two long shelves. One on antisemitism and antizionism, where each came from and how they relate. One on the Jewish and Israeli artists who were in the canon the whole time. Pull a spine; it opens.
The first shelf
Antisemitism and antizionism
Scroll sideways. Click a spine.
The second shelf
Jewish and Israeli artists
The biographies, monographs and artists' own books on the people on our About wall, starting with the oldest.
Scroll sideways. Click a spine.
Added by you
The readers' shelf
Every empty outline is a book someone has yet to recommend. Pull a spine to see why it is here.
Add your own book
What should be on this shelf that isn't?
Tell us the book and why you'd press it into someone's hands. We read every one, and the strong ones go on this shelf with your note and your first name.
Our peers
The organizations we think are doing excellent work to make the art world more open, and we want to give credit where it is due. Not all of them are Jewish organizations, not by a long shot. Some exist only for Jewish and Israeli creatives; others serve everyone and simply never wavered. We work alongside all of them, not instead of them. This list is nowhere near final, and we are always hoping to add names. Filter by city or by what they do. If you belong here and are not listed, write to us.
Where they are
New York, walking distance of each other.
Tap a number on the map, or a name in the list, for the address, the closest subway, hours and what's on now.
New York
Israeli and Jewish artists showing across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, plus our partners' calendars. Click a day, then add anything to your own calendar. Galleries can submit a listing.
Select a day
Every listing checked against the venue. Last verified November 2, 2026.
For institutions
Be the ones who didn't blink.
Galleries, museums, cultural institutions, exhibition centers, residencies, universities. If you show art, we want to work with you. We are always looking for new partners.
What we are made of
A name made entirely of people.
Artists, curators, directors, funders, writers. Give them a reason and they find each other.
Three reasons the best institutions partner with us
Be part of
The solution.
Every institution is being asked where it stands. The ones that answer by programming excellence, across every background, get to say they stood for unity. They honored the first promise of the art world: that every storyteller gets to tell us who we are. Partnering with Bridgewell Arts sends a clear message that your institution is a safe space for all creatives, and that the only thing you screen for is the work.
Be remembered
For standing up for what is right.
Someone will write the history of this moment. The institutions that made sure an excellent storyteller was never silenced for a variable they do not control will be in chapter one. The others will be a footnote about who canceled what.
Never let
Ideology override talent.
Your mission statement already says it. Partnering with Bridgewell Arts is how you prove it: the work gets judged on its merit alone, your curators get the backup to say so out loud, and you get to say you helped build this bridge.
What you get
Pre-screened on the terms you already use: training, exhibition history, career stage, seriousness of practice. Studio visits, not a stack of unsolicited PDFs.
IHRA-aligned frameworks, drafted with leading nonprofits, that separate criticism from hate in language your counsel and your audience both accept. Your board sleeps.
Jewish philanthropy funds culture at scale and is actively looking for institutions that program with confidence. We make the introductions and help you tell the story.
Twenty-five years at Christie's, Phillips and Artsy means acquisition strategy, provenance and pricing are in the first conversation, not the last.
Rooted opened at the Museum of Jewish Heritage with UJA-Federation behind it. That is what a partnership looks like when it is done properly.
No portal, no intake form routed to an intern. Shlomi reads every message on this page and replies himself, usually within the week.
Start a conversation
Tell us what you are thinking about.
A show, a panel, a toolkit for your board, a studio visit program, or just a coffee to see if we like each other. Shlomi answers these himself.
Already in the room
Substack
For three years the art press has been remarkably one-sided: a single opinion, repeated, with very little critical thinking and even less diversity of view. This is the other column. Everything from both of our Substacks, in order, with a share button because these are meant to travel.
Guest writers
Have something to say? Say it here.
We are always looking for guest writers to publish through Bridgewell. Critics, curators, artists, historians, people who have been biting their tongue at dinner. If you have a piece, or the beginning of one, write to us.
Who We Are
Founder
Shlomi Rabi has spent 25 years at the center of the art market.
Christie's, Phillips, Artsy, Greenhouse Auctions. And a decade active in New York's Jewish arts and culture community. Bridgewell Arts is where the two careers finally meet.
VP and Head of Photographs at Christie's, Head of Sale at Phillips, VP and Global Head of Auctions at Artsy, and founder of Greenhouse Auctions, the first social-impact auction platform, acquired by Artsy within two years of launch. In October 2026 he curated Rooted by Dede & Nitzan at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the first art commission in the history of UJA-Federation of New York.
In parallel, more than a decade active in New York's Jewish communal ecosystem: Co-Chair of the ADL New York Advisory Board, a member of UJA-Federation's Arts & Culture Committee, a fifteen-year member of AFIM, and a board member of the Arts Funders Forum. In March 2026 he co-moderated "From Gallery to Museum: Dismantling Antisemitism in the Arts" at ADL's Never Is Now summit, the first volunteer-moderated panel in the summit's ten-year history. In October 2026 he joined Seth Pinsky of 92NY and author Jean Meltzer on ADL's State of the Arts panel on the exclusion of Jewish and Israeli voices in culture. He also writes a Substack on the art world and the people running it.
Israeli-born, raised between Israel and Mexico, a native Hebrew speaker and a collector of emerging artists, he holds an MA in Art History from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA from Tulane.
Plain answers
Bridgewell Arts LLC runs its charitable programs under the fiscal sponsorship of Jewish Creativity International (JCI), a 501(c)(3). Gifts are processed by JCI and are tax-deductible to the extent the law allows.
No. When you ask about a work, we introduce you to the artist or their gallery and step out of the way. We like the artists too much to take a cut.
No, on purpose. We activate inside galleries, museums and cultural institutions across New York. Lower overhead, better rooms.
By invitation, on the strength of the practice: training, exhibition history, career stage and the seriousness of the work.
Artists first, then the rooms they belong in: museums, galleries, residencies, universities, and the people who fund them.
Write to info@bridgewellarts.com. A person reads it. Usually the founder.
For donors
Overhead is capped. Programs are priced. Pick the thing you want to exist and we will tell you the number.
The argument
Every bridge we build is paid for by someone who wanted it to exist.
Not grants that arrive two years late, not a gala. A collector who wanted a dinner to happen. A family who wanted Rooted standing in a museum lobby on October 7. People who wanted the next artist on the Bridge to be seen by the right curator. You pick the thing. We tell you the number. Then you get the invitation, the credit and the story.
Proof it works.
Rooted
A commission, from sketch to museum lobby, in one year.
UJA-Federation of New York commissioned it. Dede + Nitzan made it. Meisner cast it. It opened at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on the third anniversary of October 7, with the Governor and the Speaker of the City Council in the room. Funded start to finish by people who said yes early.
Table of Contents
A dinner that turned into a program.
One UJA grant, one anonymous donor, one gallery, one chef, fifty people who had never been in the same room. Now a series. The next one is already being planned at a private funder's home.
Photobook
A grassroots movement, diligently documented.
Private funders stepped up to ensure the story of the American arm of the Hostage and Missing Families Forum will be told and preserved. Everyday people, choosing how legacy will be shaped.
Ways to give.
Your name on two weeks of featured talent: the newsletter, the studio visit, the dinner for six industry insiders, the professional write-up on our dedicated Substack, the exposure. From $3,000
An evening in a gallery or a private home with up to 12 people, including collectors, curators and artists who have never been in the same room. They will be, by dessert. From $7,500
Our signature program, in which we partner with leading cultural institutions. Designed to promote open dialogue, platform excellent talent across the spectrum, and ensure that Israeli and Jewish artists keep their seat at the table. From $20,000
Rooted was the first. The next public commission can carry your name, your family's, or someone you want remembered. Let's talk
Because We Decided., the Hostage and Missing Families Forum U.S. photobook. Proceeds to 255, the Israel-based nonprofit supporting hostage families. From $5,000
Every gift goes through JCI and is tax-deductible to the extent the law allows. Give now →
Tell us how you want to help
What do you want to exist?
A show, a dinner, a commission, a book, an artist nobody has heard of yet. Shlomi reads every one of these himself, usually within the hour.