Rachel Zaretsky
2020 Beth and Arthur Lev Student Research Fellow

Rachel Zaretsky is completing the second year of her MFA in Art at the USC Roski School of Art and Design. She planned to begin investigating VHA testimonies related to her family’s hometown -- Ostrów Mazowiecka, Poland -- where much of her family originated and perished during the Holocaust. She used her research with the Visual History Archive to inspire an artistic response to the archive. Ms. Zaretsky earned her BFA in Visual and Critical Studies from The School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York, and her art practice takes the form of performance, video installation and photography. She has created past artistic responses to the Miami Beach Holocaust memorial and to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Berlin. In her innovative proposal, she outlined several stages of her process that will culminate in her creating a work of art responding to the testimonies. The Center is excited about welcoming her to the Center as an intriguing illustration that research not only results in papers, theses, or books, but can result in artistic expressions as well.