In 2016 Outset Israel supported 'Making A Room For' by Eyal Assulin, the educational community project The Igloo Art Garden. This sculpture garden was part of The Igloo Art Center - one of the leading projects in the town of Ofakim, located in the south of Israel. The garden was created in order to provide a public space that would be attractive and inviting for anyone who attends the center, or just passes by it. Concrete geometric objects were built in the Igloo Art Garden, and are being used as a colored relaxing zone, for the center's activities and open to the public.
The Igloo Art Center and the Igloo Art Garden function as a successful case study for "creative place making", leading also other projects that are happening and are planned to be realised in the entire Negev over the next decade.
The Igloo is a contemporary art center, located in the town Ofakim. The center facilitates art related activities and also serves as an art gallery for the last two decades. The Igloo is a dome shaped building that for many years was neglected - it didn’t reflect the social and artistic work that it holds. This project - involved the participants of about 300 children, including local kids and children delegations from abroad - improved the center's front and appearance so it will reflect its achievements and activities. In one month, using Garffiti art, The Igloo had turned from a "non-place" to an attractive and appealing center that attracts a lot of attention, the kind of attention that it deserves.
Eyal Assulin (born 1981) lives and works in Ofakim, his childhood town, away from the art center, lead by a sense of responsibility towards the society which he grew in. He holds a BFA and MFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Assulin received "The Young Artist Award" in 2014 and "Artist in the community Award" for 2010-2014 for his work with local communities in Ofakim and the Bedouin city Rahat. Assulin's work has been shown at Museums and galleries in the country and around the world: Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Petah Tikva Museum of Art, Israel Center for Digital Art, Ashdod Museum, Negev Museum of Art, Center for Contemporary Art NIMAC Nicosia, The Sculpture Symposium in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, and a solo exhibition in the museum Beelden Aan Zee in The Hague, Netherlands.
