Source: BIMA - A Four Week Summer Arts Institute for High School Students
The Berkshire Institute of Music & Arts - BIMA is a summer arts program for teenagers held for four weeks at Brandeis University. Its mission is to guide students as they develop their imaginative and artistic faculties and explore the relevance of Jewish tradition to students’ lives. BIMA is committed to the value of a serious and dynamic encounter between artistic expression and Jewish life.
BIMA cultivates a vibrant, pluralistic environment for participants to hone their artistic skills, to deepen their Jewish knowledge, and to ask questions about the intersection of their identity as young people committed to pursuing the arts.
BIMA also encourages teenagers to see themselves as active participants in a vital Jewish culture, and promotes a reinvigoration of creative expression and artistic imagination within Jewish religious and communal life.
BIMA offers four core areas of artistic study:
• music (instrumental or vocal)
• visual arts
• writing
• theater
Participants have the opportunity to develop techniques, hone skills, enhance their ability to express themselves in their chosen medium, and collaborate artistically with other participants. In addition, participants choose from a range of dynamic workshops.
The entire BIMA community comes together regularly to build community and learn experientially.
Participants collaborate to create options for the entire community to celebrate Shabbat. BIMA is supportive of all of the ways in which Shabbat and Judaism are observed.
BIMA participants eat in one of the Brandeis dining halls. Kosher dining (under Orthodox supervision) is available at all meals.
BIMA participants have full use of Brandeis facilities (including arts facilities, libraries, student centers and the athletics facilities). Participants venture off campus for field trips throughout Boston and to the Berkshires.