BIMA’s Program
BIMA offers four core areas of artistic study: music (instrumental or vocal), visual arts,  writing, and theater. Participants have the opportunity to develop techniques, hone skills, enhance their ability to express themselves in their chosen medium, and collaborate artistically with other participants. In addition, participants choose from a range of dynamic workshops.

The entire BIMA community comes together regularly to build community and learn experientially.

Participants collaborate to create options for the entire community to celebrate Shabbat. BIMA is supportive of all of the ways in which Shabbat and Judaism are observed.

BIMA participants eat in one of the Brandeis dining halls. Kosher dining (under Orthodox supervision) is available at all meals.

BIMA participants have full use of Brandeis facilities (including arts facilities, libraries, student centers and the athletics facilities). Participants venture off campus for field trips throughout Boston and to the Berkshires.

Mission
BIMA is a summer arts program for teenagers. Our mission is to guide students as they develop their imaginative and artistic faculties and explore the relevance of Jewish tradition to students’ lives. BIMA is committed to the value of a serious and dynamic encounter between artistic expression and Jewish life. We aspire to serve as both a nurturing community and a creative catalyst for this interaction.

BIMA cultivates a vibrant, pluralistic environment for participants to hone their artistic skills, to deepen their Jewish knowledge, and to ask questions about the intersection of their identity as young people committed to pursuing the arts.

BIMA also encourages teenagers to see themselves as active participants in a vital Jewish culture, and promotes a reinvigoration of creative expression and artistic imagination within Jewish religious and communal life.

We are guided in this endeavor by three central commitments:

1. Artistic Expression
   BIMA takes seriously the growth and education of young artists. Focusing on music, painting, creative writing and acting, BIMA emphasizes artistic expression, self-reflection and collaboration.
   
   
2. Jewish Learning
   Jewish creativity depends upon Jewish education—education that challenges the mind and speaks to the heart. BIMA includes a range of opportunities for Jewish learning that is substantive, passionate, and engaging.
   
   
3. Jewish Diversity
   We believe that interaction among teens of diverse backgrounds enhances Jewish continuity and creativity, and that exchanges among artists of different disciplines enrich artistic growth. Our approach to both Jewish and artistic education at BIMA is pluralistic, with an emphasis placed on the dignity of individual identity and expression, a discourse of mutual sensitivity and respect, and a spirit of openness and friendship within a diverse community.

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