Organizational Background
The Festival Beshekel non-profit organization was founded in 2001 by a group of artists and social- change activists led by the prominent Israeli musician Sha'anan Streett (of the "Hadag Nachash" band). The founders of Festival Beshekel had a vision to combat cultural impoverishment in Israel's periphery. The organization promotes culture and art amongst socio-economically marginalized populations in Israel, allowing all sectors of our population access to high quality culture

Most of the people affected by our organization’s activities come from impoverished areas, broken homes, and the young people have few opportunities to express themselves and contribute to the culture and society of Israel. We believe that culture is a basic right and wish to enable equal opportunity for all to participate in cultural events and express themselves creatively.   Therefore, the price of admission to each one of Festival Beshekel’s activities is one shekel (approximately 20 US cents), which enables access for all sectors of Israeli society.

Programs and Methodologies
Festival Beshekel - Over the past 6 years we have established three to four outdoor festivals a year, each attended by over 8,000 citizens of diverse social and ethnic backgrounds. These festivals are held in selected underprivileged city neighborhoods and development towns around Israel, with well-known Israeli artists performing alongside local artists. The festivals are produced by a professional producer along with the local youth production group.  In addition to music, the festival also includes performances by street theatre artists, activities for teens and children, and a variety of booths and stands, all from within the community.

In order to enhance the awareness of culture and to encourage the local community to take an active part in planning these events, Festival Beshekel works within each community eight months prior to the festival event.  The projects in the local communities include these parts.

Leading Culture Workshops – Introduction to Production
We operate Leading Culture workshops each year for approximately 120 youth and young adults, involving them in the actual planning and production of their local Festival Beshekel activities. Each group has about 30 youth, from all sectors of the community, resulting in cross cultural relationships. For the youth involved, these workshops not only provide teens and young adults with tools and knowledge in the fields of production; but also result in young cultural leadership, social and cultural empowerment and community involvement.  For many of them, it is the first time they are acting to change their own lives and their community.

Each group is facilitated by a local peer-mentor and two or three volunteers who are all trained by Festival Beshekel. Through these workshops, the organization ensures that each "Festival Beshekel" event will reflect the community in which it is held and appeal to all of its members.        
 
The youth groups also produce by themselves a "Hometown of the Bands" event, and are involved in producing the summer festival under the guidance of professionals in the production fields.  After the summer festival, our production and volunteers coordinator continues mentoring these groups and their peer-mentors in order to ensure a substantial continuation for the group and its cultural role within the community. So far, over 60% of our production workshop graduates have stayed involved culturally and socially in their communities, and we aim to expand this number.

Hometown Battle of the Bands project in Memory of Tova Streett
Each year, before the festivals, there is a hometown battle of the bands event in each town where we work; it is through this event, which conists of performances and production work by youths trained in our workshops, that local bands are chosen by Festival Beshekel's advisory board of artists to perform in the festivals. At every festival event, three local artists perform on the same stage and with the same facilities as the better-known and more-established artists.  The chosen bands receive master classes taught by established artists and undergo a countrywide seminar that includes professional guidance in the fields of: composing, lyric- writing, the music business and performance before performing on the stage of Festival Beshekel in their community.  In addition, they also perform in a special night held for them in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. 

The performance of local bands along side more established ones is integral to Festival Beshekel's mission.  We believe that the sounds and voices coming from the periphery, created as they are in a different social context and cultural background, are inherently different from those of the mainstream, and bring an authentic, original and innovative quality to the emerging Israeli sound. In addition, these local sounds have the power to bridge social gaps and build understanding among different segments of the population.

2007-2008 
In addition to our regular programs (as described above), in 2007-2008, the organization is going to lead a project in which we will work with teenagers from dancing, drama and musical groups in the periphery.  We will work to enrich their pursuits by forming a program that includes master classes, workshops and seminars in these fields. Each program will be designed by an artistic manager together with the local instructors. This project will include spring festivals in participating towns in the fields of drama and dancing; the festivals will be of the same magnitude as the musical Festival Beshekel summer events, and include performances by both local talents and established artists. This project will take place Negev-wide and in the town of Kyriat Malachi, and will be led by us along with the Merage Foundation and the Negev Matnasim (community centers) company 

Contact Person
Mickey Gitzin, Deputy Director
Email: mickey.gitzin@gmail.com