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Drexel Hillel Art Fellowship

Community Creative Collection

Inaugural Student Art Gallery Opening

On May 12, 2022, over fifty students, families, alumni, faculty, and community members joined us for an art gallery opening presented by Drexel Hillel art fellows under the mentorship of Artist in Residence Danielle Abrams ‘14.

Program Highlights

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The Art Fellowship at Drexel Hillel: A New Initiative

About the Fellowship

The arts have been a vital part of Jewish life for millennia. At Drexel Hillel we wanted to create deeper, more sustained avenues for students to explore the arts as a manifestation of their Jewish identities. We asked how might we make the rich cultural and artistic heritage of the Jewish people more accessible for our students?  How can we help students to experience art-making as a vital Jewish spiritual and wellness practice? And how might we better engage visual and tactical learners in Jewish life and learning?  

In Fall of 2021, Drexel Hillel launched a first-in-the-field Artist-Educator Residency to address these questions. The project builds relationships between Drexel students and working artists with a passion for Jewish life and learning. It enhances student engagement with Jewish values, culture and heritage, and supports their mental wellness and spiritual development.

Capitalizing on Drexel University’s reputation for attracting students who value hands-on learning, and the more than 2,000 students studying at the Westphal College of Media Arts and Design, this new Artist-Educator Residency allows Drexel Hillel to better meet the needs and interests of Jewish students on campus. 

We are looking for a generous donor to underwrite next year’s Art Fellowship and gallery. Please contact development director Mike Gross to learn more.

About the Arts Educator

Danielle is a mosaic artist based in Philadelphia and fuses her passion for product design with her knowledge of the fashion industry, earned from seven years of working in a retail buying office. She measures her success based on the joy each custom mosaic brings to her customers, the memories they preserve and the dialogue they start about how we choose to commemorate life milestones.

Danielle has developed & designed product that is sold in retail stores nationwide, is a street art activist with the Percy Street Project, and is an active member of the Philly Jewish community as a Rosh Chodesh facilitator and Moishe House Without Walls host. She graduated  from Drexel University with a B.S. in Design & Merchandising in 2014 and was a Tribe12 Fellow in 2019. She became Drexel Hillel’s first ever Artist Educator in Residence in 2021.