A private family foundation named after Daniel Amichai Marcus. The foundation is led by his mother, Mrs Linda Streit, who firmly believes in the power of Sport and the arts to lead social change while encouraging excellence, creativity, and innovation.

The foundation supports these areas mainly in Israel, aiming to increase the number of Israeli athletes winning international competitions, to globally promote Israeli arts and creative industries, and to encourage innovative projects in the arts worldwide.

The Arts & Culture strategy crafted for the Daniel Howard Foundation

The Daniel Howard Foundation has a vision of allowing Israeli artistic and cultural* creation to prosper and lead outside the geographical borders of Israel, all around the world.

We adopted the broader definition of “culture and arts,” which includes the “Arts” in their traditional sense as well as the “Creative Industries”.

Israel has a breadth of unique innovation in various fields, perhaps innovation can be a main tool for us? If so, how can we harness it to realize this vision?

The definition of “Innovation” is not unequivocal, and to a large extent depends on culture, social trends, and one’s point of view. The starting point in our attempt to conceptualize what “Innovation” means for us was based on the principles of openness, attentiveness, and dialogue.

According to the collective knowledge we gathered,
innovation consists of eight components

Ingenuity

Collectivity

Playfulness

Creativity

Imagination

Doubtfulness

Interdisciplinarity

Experimentation
and Boldness

To formulate our strategy, we conducted conversations with professionals in the field of culture and tangent areas, trying to understand the nature of the challenges and existing obstacles in the field from which culture is created and grows, the resulting needs, and possible actions leveraging innovation to facilitate the desired change and realize the vision.

Two challenges were often repeated:

  • The lack of infrastructure for the development and cultivation of human capital in the arts and cultural field.

  • Audiences on the micro and macro levels.

We believe that especially during a time of social and political chaos, there is a manifold importance of creating the conditions that will allow independent, original, and free artistic expression to form, thrive, and facilitate unique and innovative ideas.

The field of culture and arts in Israel works in synchronization, coordination, and collaboration, thereby increasing its positive influence, both in the local field and in the international arena.

We strive to establish an ecosystem of creatives, artists, arts workers, and audiences who work and create together in collaboration. To this end, we will build infrastructures, foster innovative connections, create opportunities, and cultivate spaces of inspiration, while remaining attentive to the different voices that emerge from the field.

Through our journey we identified several leading values
that will guide the Foundation’s future operation

Decentralisation/ Collectiveness

Management by Objectives

Quality and Excellence

Field Action

Flexibility

Building the infrastructure

Establishing connections with various art organisations, locally and internationally, who may be both thought partners and offer platforms for presenting any future creative outcomes.

Approaching the creatives
and artists community to
invite them to join the project
and to map their pressing needs.

Building partnerships with
business companies in order to establish creative spaces‭.‬

Formulating and implementing the model

A joint work by

Michal Engelberg
Executive Director
Daniel Howard Foundation

Eldad Abel, Sharon Bar-Lev, Milana Gitzin-Adiram, Yaron Deutscher, Dr. Talia Hoffmann, Emmanuel Witzthum, Yair Vardi, Oz Zaloof, Dr. Lior Zalmanson, Mushon Zer-Aviv, Roy Zerahia, Oded Chai, Itay Mautner, Samer Muallem, Dr. Jonathan Menuhin, Nardeen Srouji, Dr. Tal Feder, Hillit Zwick, Asher Regan, Clare Reddington, Iris Ronly Riklis, Rotem Ruff and Yael Sherill.

Yeala Hazut Yanuka
Consultant, researcher, lecturer and activist in the fields of cultural policy, strategy and cultural management.