Things to Do in Beer Sheva

Beer Sheva Culture, Music and the Arts

Looking for things to do in Beer Sheva? Beer Sheva is Israel’s city of the future, as so many major projects, attractions and new museums are in the making. It is well worth visiting for its theater, orchestra, and the Be’er Sheva Art Experience.

Beer Sheva Museums

Negev Museum of Art (Photo: צילום:ד”ר אבישי טייכר, CC BY 2.5)

In the Old City, Beer Sheva’s Negev Museum of Art and two more museums are under construction and renovation. The new Science Museum with a surrounding park is being built and another museum surrounding Abraham’s Well is being rebuilt.

Abraham’s Well (Photo: Daniel Baránek, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Negev Museum of Art

The Negev Museum of Art is housed in a renovated building from the time of the Ottoman Turks that was a governor’s house on 60 Ha’atzmaut Street. There are four exhibit halls with rotating exhibitions of early and contemporary Israeli art, guided tours and live concerts and performances in the museum courtyard during the summer.

Beer Sheva Theater

The Beer Sheva Theater began in 1973 as a small municipal theater. Today it has 70 employees and produces five shows a year that visit the main theaters and educational institutions in Israel. Over the years, many young actors from the Beer Sheva Theater became well known performers in Israel.

Beer Sheva Theater (Photo: Daniel Baránek, CC BY-SA 3.0)

The theater has a number of effective programs to assist the community, including a program that reaches out to disadvantaged neighborhoods and works with youth-at-risk. There is an acting workshop pairing hearing-impaired youth with normal hearing youth, and a program for religious women from Netivot to share their experiences in acting exercises. Establishing dialogue between Jewish and Bedouin children is yet another project carried out by the theater. The theater is located at 41 Rager Boulevard. For further information email: ayeletb7t@br7.org.il or call: (08) 626-6417.

Israel Sinfonietta

The Israel Sinfonietta founded in 1973 by new immigrant musicians began as a small chamber orchestra and is now a major orchestra based at the Center for Performing Arts. It performs all over Israel including amphitheaters in Caesarea and Beit Shean and also abroad at such venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Festival Hall in London, and the Gaudier Hall in Barcelona. Many famous musicians have performed together with the Sinfonietta including Isaac Stern, Shlomo Mintz and Pinchas Zukerman. It also offers special performances to enhance musical education to students of all ages.

Beer Sheva Art

Sculpture at Ben Gurion University Campus (Photo: heatkernel, CC BY 2.0)

The Beer Sheva Art Experience founded by British artist Hannah Rendell offers educational tours and pre-designed and custom designed workshops for groups visiting Beer Sheva. For further information email: b7artexperience@gmail.com

The Avraham Baron Art Gallery and the Art Gallery in the Senate Building at Ben Gurion University have ongoing exhibits.

Things to Do in Beer Sheva: Did You Know?

The Israel Sinfonietta is 40 years old this year.