Ringing in 90th birthday, Tel Aviv Museum of Art to party on New Year’s weekend

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art is celebrating its 90th birthday with a weekend of celebrations that includes free entry for the public during the last weekend of the year, December 30-31.

Billed as “A Crazy Weekend at the Museum,” events include a Friday night sleepover for kids in the museum’s galleries and a New Year’s Eve ball on Saturday night, December 31, with a 1930s theme.

Established in 1932, the museum was the country’s first art institution, 16 years prior to the founding of the state. It first began operating in Beit Dizengoff, the home of Tel Aviv’s first mayor, Meir Dizengoff, at 16 Rothschild Boulevard.

By 1959, the institution had received its own larger venue, the Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art, later moving in 1971 to the main building that is still being used, on Shaul Hamelech Boulevard.

Known by its shorthand nickname, TAMA, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art now hosts some 1 million visitors each year.

The weekend events will take a look back at the institution’s history, sharing some of the lesser-known stories of its establishment and art collections, and celebrating them.

At the 1971 opening of the new building of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which will celebrate its 90th on December 30-31, 2022. (Courtesy PR/Haaretz Israel Architecture Archive)

One of the opening events will include screenings of four short documentaries made during the creation of the museum, exposing new details about how the museum was founded.

There will also be tours of the museum’s archives and collections, performances throughout the galleries of the museum, as well as workshops and meetings with artists.

More details and tickets for certain events are available on the Tel Aviv Museum of Art website.