I.C.U. - International Cultural Union (R.A.)

The ICU organization for international culture is a non-profit association established in 1999 by a group of artists. The organization was established in order to promote cultural ties between communities and organizations of artists in various states, to collect and to exhibit the work of contemporary artists. Mr. Lev Kiperman acts as the General Director of the association and Dr. Zvi Israel serves as the President.

The office of the association is based in the Castra Arts Center in Haifa, Israel. In this center the association runs the Picasso Gallery and the New Castra Gallery. These galleries curated by the association exhibit the works of contemporary artists, members of different artists' organizations, in a variety of one-man and group exhibitions. The association also runs two additional galleries at the Textile Center, Tel Aviv.

The association is in continual contact with artists and art organizations outside of Israel, organizing one-man and group exhibitions in municipal galleries and museums in various countries. These international projects are organized under the auspices of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Israeli embassies in the relevant countries.

The As part of its activities the association offers all Israeli artists tools to realize their visions, helping them with professional assistance to design and curate exhibitions, to produce catalogues and books.

The association maps and publishes the contemporary arts scene in Israel, including the creative work of many Israeli artists in different art fields as exhibited in high quality museums, galleries, and artists' houses. The association is assisted in publishing these activities by the publication of its contemporary arts' magazine: 'Can', a periodical journal produced by the association and distributed to leading scholastic institutions, libraries, galleries and museums.

An annual tradition is the publication of a comprehensive book of art as a supplement to the magazine, a supplement organized to present the contemporary art world in Israel and the Western World according to the study of specific visual issues, for example: The Place, Society and Criticism, Women, Identity, Photography and Video-filming. It also relates to a series of different complementary aspects to form a broad mosaic that reflects contemporary discourse in the arts.

This magazine: Can- Israeli Reality in the Arts and its supplement are the fruit of the cooperation between the association and major arts institutions in Israel, such as: The Tel Aviv Museum of Arts; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Museum of Israeli Arts, Ramat Gan; The Open Museums; The Gordon Gallery, The Kibbutz Gallery, The Shlush Gallery and the different arts' academies: Oranim, Wizo, Betsallel, Shenkar and others that serve as sources of up-to-date knowledge in order to promote this project.

I.C.U. GALLERIES