Help open a window to a lost world

Handshouse Studio is a 501c3 non-profit founded in 2002.
Donations are tax-deductible. Our tax-id number is 04-3715575.

It has been 10 years since the final installation of the Handshouse Studio Gwoździec Re!construction, now a permanent centerpiece of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. We are so grateful to mark this moment with a significant new effort to make the historic research gathered through the MAKING/HISTORY: Wooden Synagogue Project and the Gwoździec Re!construction more accessible to the general public.

With the support of Mass Humanities funding, we have created the foundation from which to share this archive in a web-based platform we call A Portal to Gwoździec.

Building the digital platform has been the first phase.

Creating A Portal to Gwoździec has allowed us to establish the foundation to begin to share this history, revealed the scope of the work to organize a comprehensive archive of our resources, and has begun helping us to learn more about what is possible through connections with communities, professionals, and institutions interested in participating in the project.

We hope that if we can create a place to make records of Gwoździec and other 17th-18th century wooden synagogues of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth available, perhaps we can continue investigation together, and further understanding of cultural heritage yet to be illuminated.

The MAKING/HISTORY: Wooden Synagogue Project opened a window into a lost world. 

Understanding that world has only just begun.

Illuminate history with your donation today.

Your tax deductible donation to the A Portal to Gwoździec campaign will go 100% to making this project happen.

If you'd like to learn more about the project, our work, or how you can get involved, please reach out to Handshouse Studio, Executive Director, Marie Brown.

YOU DONATION WILL HELP FUND THE NEXT PHASES OF THE PROJECT

Building a Comprehensive Archive

• Digitizing and organizing our multimedia records, 

• Transcribing and logging hours of documentary footage taken throughout the MAKING/HISTORY: Wooden Synagogue Project and Gwoździec Re!construction. 

• Working with library and Information scientists to organize and make this archive searchable. 

Creating Curriculum

• Working In collaboration with educators and filmmakers, creating process and informational modules, curriculum to offer professional development opportunities for educators to use these resources to lead hands-on workshops.

• In collaboration with the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, we will expand and deepen the contextual resources available in the archive and curriculum about 17th-18th century wooden synagogues through contributions from other notable historians, architects, scholars, craftspeople, and project participants.

Workshops and Exhibitions

• One of the primary reasons we began to design an open, expandable, and accessible interface was to make it possible for teachers, students, scholars, and the general public to learn how to use these resources for hands-on research and workshops. Resuming hands-on workshops to study additional aspects of Gwoździec and other wooden synagogues is another way we can further this research and share the hands-on experience of this cultural heritage.

• We also hope to share the beautiful physical process materials and objects created during the 13 years of the MAKING/HISTORY: Wooden Synagogue Project as an exhibition series, celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the opening of the Gwoździec Re!construction.

Building the Virtual Synagogue/Interactive Archive

We have already begun to build the virtual synagogue with the hopes of allowing anyone with access to the internet the opportunity to experience “visiting” the Gwoździec synagogue reconstruction. You now have the opportunity to see a 3-D video rendering of this experience will be made possible by high resolution professional photography taken by Trillium Studios during the Handshouse Studio Gwoździec Re!construction process, and 3-D video animation created by Crazybridge Studios.

Where there is nothing that compares to the experience of being physically present inside spaces built by hand, the enthusiasm for this project has inspired us to find ways to make it more accessible. For this, we have turned to 21st century tools, hoping to employ cutting-edge technology to share the experience of the Gwoździec Synagogue.

We are working with user-interface innovators and cutting-edge digital technology to design ways to offer visitors the chance to experience the space of the synagogue in a virtual reality, where they will have the ability to fly up into the painted ceiling for close observation of the rich imagery covering all its surfaces. And from there we are creating an interactive object-centered user-interface for visitors to explore curated information about the imagery and iconography. 

Handshouse Studio curriculum is intentionally object-centered and encourages participants to follow their own individual lines of inquiry into understanding an object by close observations that lead to deeper questions. This platform will be a tool to allow participants to engage with the growing resources of this project research in way that allows their eyes and senses to drive their curiosity into the world of this history.

We hope to design this tool to let participants to engage with content in a non-linear space, allowing their curiosity to explore resources of this project research, such as archival images, material process, testimonials, and informational media and scholarly articles, in an unique object-centered digital user-interface. 

Through combining the scalability made possible with digital technological tools with hands-on research, we aim to create innovative ways to amplify the stories embedded in historic technology and cultural heritage, making this history more widely accessible to a global audience.

HANDSHOUSE STUDIO IS AN INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED NON-PROFIT EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION THAT CREATES ADVENTUROUS HANDS-ON PROJECTS.

Handshouse Studio projects are remarkable learning adventures — ranging from helping reconstruct Notre-Dame de Paris timber roof structure, making historic Gourd Banjos, designing and building Toys for Elephants and Monkeys, exploring histories of the woven Rainbow Bridges of China, the art and structure of the Trojan Horse, as well as, the lost wooden synagogues of Europe.

Handshouse projects rely on the power of the collective mind and the collaborative support of a community. Through partnerships with prominent organizations, students, and experts from around the globe, Handshouse creates signature project-based workshops that illuminate history, explore science, and perpetuate the arts.

Handshouse Studio is a 501c3 non-profit founded in 2002.
Donations are tax-deductible. Our tax-ID number is 04-3715575.