We don’t talk about it, because everyone now has democracy to save on their heads, but the cost of living in Tel Aviv continues to skyrocket, the prices of food and drink continue to soar, and the world of culture, which was never very economical anyway, continues to fade into the crisis. The major cultural institutions in the city (still) receive massive government and municipal funding and show no signs of concern, but anyone involved in culture, performances and nightlife can tell you that running an independent business in the field has become a suicide mission. Most of the independent cultural institutions have a hard time keeping their heads above water, and here falls the first of them.
culture? The place we’re going to doesn’t need culture. Lecture at Talkhouse (Photo: Itai Cohen)
Talkhouse, the independent cultural center at the Tel Aviv port, will close at the end of March after its owners and founders, Ayelet Harel and Ilan de Paris, came to the conclusion that they would not be able to continue to own it financially. The club was established in 2016 and succeeded in its seven years to become one of the pleasant places in Tel Aviv port and a lecture and performance institution that was characterized by bustling cultural activity, including hundreds (if not thousands) of fascinating lectures, intimate music performances and cultural events of all kinds that hosted the best creators in Israel.
In a particularly painful post on Facebook, Harel explained that “from the beginning we knew it would be very difficult to maintain a cultural institution without support. All these years we tried to find financial solutions that would finance the activity for the general public. I worked hard. Sometimes we succeeded. Sometimes less. I swallowed a lot of water and I can no longer keep my head Above the water. In the last few months, I realized that it is no longer realistic to continue to own the place. Working from morning to night won’t help either. We tried to find solutions, supports, investments. But there were no satisfactory solutions.”
The performances and lectures planned at Talkhouse They will continue until the end of March, as mentioned, and Harel notes that there are also thoughts about a possible future for the concept, but in the meantime, Tel Aviv has lost another player in the cultural field. “In such a loud, loud and violent reality in which we live, it was important for us to give a platform for openness, equality, freedom of thought, thought and listening,” wrote Harel in the post in which she announced the closure of the place, and it is disturbing to think that this is the future that awaits the independent culture that developed in the city in the previous decades. We will continue to follow.