T-MAGAZINE
By Natasha Wolff
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| A view of the mikvah at the former synagogue the artist Dana Barnes bought in 2013 to use as her studio and occasional living space. Credit Emiliano Granado
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Over 100 years ago, European Jews worshiped and bathed in the rooms of a building on New York City’s Forsyth Street that housed both a synagogue and a mikvah, a small, rainwater-filled pool considered a gateway to purity and holiness. Today
Dana Barnes and her staff of artisans create handmade textiles of vivid hues and knotty textures next to the stone walls where that thousands-year-old ritual was once performed. It took
Barnes some time to feel comfortable working here: “I wanted to make sure I wasn’t violating the space.” In the raw, unvarnished rooms, her handmade creations look as if they were conceived
by the building itself. [
link]
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| In 2013, Dana Barnes (pictured here) and her husband, Dale Westhoff, acquired a building on Forsyth Street in New York that was once a synagogue. It took time for her to feel comfortable working there.
Credit Emiliano Granado |
