Tiny Gallery Show in our Visitors’ Center – open daily December 5th through January 19th

Meet the fantastical creatures of Jewish mythology through the eye of our December Tiny Gallery artist, Sophie Bugat. Sophie’s “All in the Family” collection offers an exquisite field guide to the mysterious and spectacular creatures of Jewish mythology. Discover Theli, a cosmic dragon thought to hold great power over the universe; Rahav, a fantastical sea creature that symbolizes divine conquest over evil; and the Keres, a multicorn thought to have great medicinal value—plus, delicate yet fierce depictions of old friends such as the Leviathan, the Behemoth, and the golem.

Details for Sophie’s artist reception coming soon. Updates on Tiny Gallery shows here.

About Sophie:

Sophie Bugat attends the Rhode Island School of Design. She works in a variety of media – oil, watercolor, ink, pencil, and clay (air-dry, ceramic, metal clay) are recent favorites – and loves to experiment with new materials.

Sophie has admired miniatures ever since she was a child, creating objects like cabinets, stove tops, a functioning lamp, and a tiny replica of her dad’s favorite rocking chair, all of which became part of her nine-year-old repertoire. She sold her first piece of art to a local Montclair business in 9th grade.

Last year, she created a spinning “carousel” about famous fairy tales (including those by the Brothers Grimm and those animated by Disney), and the anti-semitic tropes they contain. She made this piece for educational purposes, as a way to encourage discussion about how this particular form of bigotry has manifested itself for centuries. In All in the Family, Sophie repudiates traditional fairy tale antisemitism with depictions of mythical beings that appear in Jewish texts and folklore. The miniature pieces displayed in the Tiny Gallery celebrate the types of stories she wished she had read as a child. With them, Sophie hopes to educate the public and introduce them to the diverse and whimsical world of fantastical Jewish creatures.