Gilah Yelin Hirsch facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gilah Yelin Hirsch
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| Born | 1944 (age 80–81) |
| Nationality | Canadian-American |
| Education | UC Berkeley (BA), UCLA (MFA) |
Gilah Yelin Hirsch (born 1944) is a talented artist who works in many different ways. She is a painter, writer, curator (someone who organizes art shows), and filmmaker. Her art explores how science, art, and spirituality are all connected.
Gilah Hirsch has been a leader in groups that study subtle energies. She also helped start one of the first art groups for women, called the Los Angeles Council of Women in the Arts (LACWA). She was very active in the feminist art movement in Southern California. From 1973 until 2020, she was an art professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills in Los Angeles. Now, as a Professor Emerita, she continues to paint, write, and make films. She often shares her work at conferences and online events around the world.
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Gilah's Early Life and Learning
Gilah Hirsch grew up in a Jewish community in Montreal during the 1940s. She learned from the Torah in Hebrew and Yiddish from a young age. Her regular schooling was in English and French. During her childhood, Gilah faced some tough times at home. To help her through these challenges, she read many books. She explored works by great thinkers, writers, and early feminists. This helped her understand the world and herself better.
Later, Gilah published a book called Demonic to Divine: The Double Life of Shulamis Yelin. This book shares parts of her mother's diaries and stories.
Gilah went to college at the University of California, Berkeley, earning her first degree in 1967. She then earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from UCLA in 1970. After finishing her studies, she taught at Santa Monica College and the University of Judaism. In 1973, she joined the art department at California State University Dominguez Hills. She became a full professor there in 1978 and retired as a Professor Emerita in 2020.
Gilah's Art Career and Impact
Gilah Hirsch was a founding member of the Los Angeles Council of Women Artists (LACWA) in 1971. This group was very important for many other feminist art organizations that followed. She also helped create the Joan of Art Seminars. These seminars taught artists how to handle the business side of their careers. This kind of training is now a common part of art school programs. Gilah said that back then, "women did not exist in art" in the same way they do now.
In 1974, Gilah introduced the work of Canadian artist Emily Carr to American universities. This happened at a major art conference in Washington, D.C.
Exhibitions and Curation
In 1978, Gilah curated an art show called Metamagic at California State University Dominguez Hills. This was one of the first big art shows in the country to focus on spirituality in art. It gained attention from all over the world.
In 2009, she helped organize Stepping into the Light. This exhibition featured portraits made by art students of women who had faced difficult experiences. The show was first displayed at the YWCA in Carson. It then traveled to New York, London, New Zealand, China, Mexico, and parts of Africa.
International Work and Ideas
Gilah Hirsch was a visiting artist at Saint Martin's School of Art in London, England, in 1979. She shared her paintings and ideas at a conference on consciousness in Kansas in 1982. She has presented at many such conferences and even organized two of her own.
In 1983, Gilah first shared her unique idea about where alphabets came from. She called her theory Cosmography: The Writing of the Universe.
In 1985, Gilah received a special grant for senior artists. This allowed her to travel in Asia for a year. In 1986, she met Ngawangdanhup Narkyid (Kuno) in India. He was the official biographer of the Dalai Lama. This meeting started a friendship that changed Gilah's life.
Art Shows and Archives
Since 1968, Gilah Hirsch's art has been shown in many places. These include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Her work has also been displayed in galleries in Moscow, Budapest, Kraków, Kyiv, and Bratislava. Her art was also part of the Jerusalem Biennale. All of her important papers and artworks are kept in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
Gilah also has an interest in architecture. Over 35 years, she restored an old duplex building in Venice, California. Her house was even featured in a 2010 book called Cottages in the Sun: Bungalows of Venice, California.
Gilah's Films
Gilah Hirsch has written and produced two documentary films.
- Cosmography: The Writing of the Universe (1995)
- Reading the Landscape (2019), which won a Silver Winner award at the International Independent Film Awards.
Books and Writings
Gilah Hirsch has written three books so far. She has also published many articles in different journals. She connects all her writing to her artwork.
- The Traveling Exhibition, 2005 – 2009: Gilah Yelin Hirsch (2010)
- Demonic to Divine (2015)
- Archaeology of Metaphor: The Art of Gilah Yelin Hirsch (2023)
Important Moments in Gilah's Career
Here are some key moments in Gilah Yelin Hirsch's career:
- She helped found the Los Angeles Council of Women Artists (LACWA) in 1971.
- She became a Professor of Art & Design at California State University in 1973, teaching there until 2020.
- She started developing her Cosmography theory in 1981.
- She first presented her Cosmography theory in 1982 at a conference in Kansas.
- In 2010, she received the Alyce and Elmer Green Award. This award recognized her for "innovative blending of science and art."
- Her archives became part of the Smithsonian Archives of American Art in Washington D.C. in 2017.
