The Paley Center, a new three-level cultural facility-devoted to an extensive study of both Jewish and Arab arts, was donated to the Israel Museum by William S. Paley, chairman of the board of CBS Inc., it was announced yesterday at a press conference here. Ground will be broken for the center by Aug. 1 and is expected to be completed within a year. The center will cost an estimated $1 million, including the price of the land which was donated by the Israel Museum under whose aegis the center will be.
The building is being established by Paley in honor of his mother, Mrs, Goldie Drell Paley, 94, of Philadelphia and Palm Beach. Paley explained that he delivered a model of the center to his mother and stated that she was “delighted” with the idea. Paley has already honored the memory of his father, Samuel Paley, with a park and waterfall situated in Manhattan, At the conference, he stated that he received the conception of the arts center from the park.
WILL SERVE JEWS AND ARABS
“The center will be devoted to the advancement of the arts and their enjoyment by the people of Jerusalem,” Paley explained. The center, designed by architect Moshe Safdie, will serve both Jewish and Arab children and adults. Teddy Kollek, Mayor of Jerusalem, at a simultaneous announcement in Jerusalem, reaffirmed that “it will serve the entire area of eastern Jerusalem, both Jewish and Arab.”
He added: “In addition to its intrinsic cultural and recreational value, the Paley Center will also be a natural meeting ground for Jewish and Arab children in a variety of classes, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, batik, drama and dance. This is a meeting ground which transcends differences in language, in culture, in ways of life.”
Paley expressed the hope that the center “will become a symbol of peace as well as a cultural. institution,” He emphasized that the foremost purpose of the center “is to contribute to the nurturing of a new generation of understanding in this troubled area of the world.” He observed that “art is a universal language appropriate to the cause of peace.”
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