The Department of External Studies and Continuing Education maintains the original ethos of Shenkar, founded as a vocational school, being a link between industry and academia. Today, when professional milieus are many, and there is more than one career in a person’s lifetime, the department tracks and examines changes in both industry and cultural discourse to develop new and up-to date content.

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The department initiates and runs dozens of curricula and courses, ranging from short courses of several weeks to programs lasting several months. With a principle of life-long learning, these courses are designed to be accessible to everyone, regardless of background, age, or academic achievements. As such, individuals are able to expand and develop their capabilities, entering professional fields and occupations that they had always dreamt about. Some of Shenkar’s most innovative academic programs have originated as short-term studies at this department.

Of the many highly successful courses, a few place a particular emphasis on both local and global collaboration, including:

Arts in the Community

Opened in 2013, the Creative Entrepreneurship Incubator program was developed and directed by Adi Yekutieli, founder of the Association for Arts in the Community, Israel. In collaboration with the Rothschild Caesarea Foundation, the program trains social entrepreneurs - from a diverse spectrum of Israeli society - to use the language of visual and performing arts as tools to launch community projects involving thousands of people. One such project ‘Grandma Knits Me A Playground’, engaged with an increasingly vulnerable category - the elderly - for an inclusive activity adapted to suit diverse motor and cognitive capabilities. Residents of the Mishan Fichman (care home for the elderly) embraced communal knitting, towards the creation of a colorful, modular and interactive adventure playground for the visiting family and children.

To address the challenges of loneliness in the later years of life, program participants and graduates developed several ground breaking models in the field of geriatrics.

Curatorial Design Studies

This international program is designed for the next generation of curators, researchers and producers, fostering cultural entrepreneurs in the field of design. Headed by renowned professional Galit Gaon, the track focusses on major global themes in museum work. Providing a theoretical background and practical tools, the program aims to integrate students into the cultural field and lead it.

The studies provide participants with expertise in instigating, developing and setting up exhibitions in temporary, virtual or real spaces, both private and public, in Israel or abroad, at Design Weeks, museums, galleries and trade fairs. This is enriched by regular workshops with international guest lecturers: Agnieszka Jacobson (School of Form, Warsaw), Daniel Charny (From Now On, London), Marcel Bencik (Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava) and Maria Cristina Didero (independent journalist).

Toy Invention  

In collaboration with one of the most influential toy company in the world, Spin Master, Shenkar offers an intensive one-year long study track that immerses students into the market of gameplay and entertainment categories across a range of media, founded and led by Tal Schreiber. Facilitating this peculiar study field is a newly renovated workspace stocked with traditional and contemporary toys as well as prototyping equipment.

Toy inventors demonstrating academic excellence and valid proposals have the option to continue to the Toy Incubator track, working with a development budget and professional guidance from Spin Master. Stemming from this success, similar programs have been opened at Ryerson University and OCAD (Canada).