Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Our generation is evolving. Specifically, ever-changing circumstances require us to adapt quickly. Gone is the work stability that older generations depended upon and gone is the possibility of relying solely on one skill to get by. These days it seems like college graduates need to be exceptionally innovative in order to find a job because having a college degree no longer gives you much of an advantage and with work being scarce, many graduates end up creating their own jobs instead of looking for existing opportunities. So, one must either invent the next iPod (or Snuggie, for the less ambitious) or hope the girl that sat next to you in History class in sophomore year hasn’t forgotten your existence when you apply for the job of being her next assistant.

Few people exemplify this concept of successful adaptation quite like the women behind San Francisco’s newly opened Sanyok Gallery, Jenny Belotserkovsky and Michal Tavrovsky. I had the opportunity to sit down with them at their gallery to what I thought would be a chat with emerging artists but that turned into so much more. Friends, artists, business partners, DJs—the question “What can’t you do?” came to mind. Together, they have five different ventures covering the areas of entrepreneurship, art, and, well, fun.

Their first undertaking was a group called “Jews for Fun” which came about when the two discovered a lack of genuinely appealing events for young Jewish adults. “We wanted to get young Jews to connect a little bit and which wouldn’t be the kind of situation where you go…because you have to,” Ms. Tavrovsky elaborates. “We want it to be high-quality kind of stuff, we didn’t want it to be food wrapped in foil.” As part of their desire to create a sophisticated social atmosphere, they started “Jemm Entertainment” and “Jemm Productions” which allow them to create complete “in-house production” for an event, “in terms of lights, music, entertainment, decorations, flowers,” adds Ms. Belotserkovsky. This is where their DJ talents come in. It strikes me that the term Ms. Tavrovsky used in regards to the services of Jemm Entertainment would also be very appropriate to describe their duo, “the complete package”. But, as they noted, there is more to creating a warm and friendly atmosphere, “A lot of [other Jewish events] are very cliquey. People come with their friends, no one interacts with other people and not knowing too many people could be very uncomfortable. So we wanted to try something different,” Ms. Tavrovsky tells me. They make a point of being very open and amicable to guests, as I experienced when I showed up to their exhibit opening for the first time: they welcomed me smilingly and cordially as though we were old friends, even though we were just meeting for the first time. And this comportment is perfectly in earnest, as during our later conversation, their happy chemistry made our interview feel like a catch-up chat over coffee. Clearly, their amiable dispositions are well-received: their “Jews for Fun” Facebook group has over 1,200 members as of this writing, they have successfully hosted events in Los Angeles, and plan to expand.

The success of “Jews for Fun” led them to create the next endeavor, “JFE Network,” or Jews for Entrepreneurship, “We’d meet so many people, like a person who’s looking for a job or other people who are hiring in the same field and we’d think, ‘Oh, we need to connect you with that person’ and we figured out that we should start JFE network, which is just for entrepreneurship, and stress the business networking aspect,” Ms. Tavrovsky continues. “The business networking  goes into events; we have a really interesting pitch event coming up… but we also have mixers, speaker panels, presentations, people ranging from entrepreneurs to investors, lawyers,” Ms. Belotserkovsky explains.

Finally, there is “Sanyok Gallery,” a bright Marina home that has been converted into an art gallery. This unique choice of location allows for a more pleasurable art-viewing experience as it defies the usual cold, box-like feeling of a typical gallery, where people “just stand around”. At their opening exhibit, “people stayed for 3 hours, had fun, invited their friends, were inspired and wanted to go and paint. It was so great,” exclaims Ms. Belotserkovsky. This inspiration is a running theme in their motivations for doing everything that they do, “We want to bring people the experience of art, not in the old stuffy way, but in a really entertaining way—a way that they can really enjoy themselves. We want to inspire people to create: art, entrepreneurship, to take everything into their own hands. We do hear great stories; people find jobs, are inspired to start their own start-up, even some romantic ones. A lot of people really make good friends and start going to a lot of Jewish events,”  she adds proudly. They also pride themselves on getting reactions to their art without being disturbing or needing to use the shock factor. Instead, Ms. Tavrovsky lists as her inspiration the earlier works of Russian artist Boris Kustodiev, his portrayal of real people, and color, “I’m all about color,” while Ms. Belotserkovsky enjoys the sublime, peaceful nature of Pre-Rafaelite paintings, and, among other inspirations, is fascinated with space and boasts a collection of books on the heavens.

Their vast assortment of talents is, partly, a result of their diverse backgrounds. Ms. Belotserkovsky was born in Kazakhstan and spent five years living in Israel during her childhood. Although she has been drawing since she was a small child, she chose to study Economics at UC Berkeley, “Art has always been a part of my life. I even minored in Art History in college. But I wanted to go into econ and take business classes.” Ms. Tavrovsky, on the other hand, is from Moscow and came to San Francisco when she was fifteen years old. For her, art was also a hobby and she chose to pursue a more traditional pre-medical education. When she decided that medicine wasn’t the calling for her, she switched to graphic design—a step towards her desire to pursue art, without the fear that comes with jumping headfirst into “fine art fine art”. Perhaps this is why they hesitate to identify themselves with just one label, “We identify ourselves as artists and entrepreneurs. It goes hand in hand. It’s almost like you have to be one to be the other. We’re innovators,” Ms. Tavrovsky suggests. One thing is sure, they are definitely not the cliché of the typical “starving artists.”

With so many projects, it’s only natural that they would have plenty of exciting events on the horizon, with Purim Disco being the most anticipated, so far. It will take place on March 18th at 8:00pm at Sanyok Gallery and they promise to go all out: disco ball, 70’s theme, open bar—there is even a Jewfro competition. They will also be celebrating their two-year anniversary in June, followed by Ms. Belotserkovsky’s birthday, the Rosh Hashanah ball, and Ms. Tavrovsky’s birthday, which usually falls on Hanukkah. Their new Spring Exhibit opened on March 3rd at Sanyok Gallery.

Ms. Belotserkovsky expounds on their philosophy, “We’re raising the bar for every other kind of Jewish event out there. No donations, no causes, just fun [because] sometimes people just want to enjoy themselves. We just try to make sure everyone has a good time.”

For more information, check out the following sites:

Sanyok Art Gallery: www.sanyokgallery.comJFE Network: www.jfenetwork.comJews for Fun: www.jewsforfun.org, or find them on Facebook.

Tatiana Sundeyeva enjoys travel,  literature, puns, and anything with an unhealthy sugar content. And not necessarily in that order. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley where she got a degree in English with a minor in Italian.

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