LABA BAY AREA is a laboratory for Jewish culture and a program of the Firehouse.It is part of an international collective of LABAs, all of which use classic Jewish texts to inspire the creation of art, culture, conversation, and community. The program began at the 14th Street Y in New York City 2007, and now has hubs in Buenos Aires, the Bay Area, Berlin, and Barcelona.
LABA presents Judaism’s rich literary and intellectual tradition in a free and creative setting, so that these fertile stories and ideas spark new thought and creative work. The output from our laboratory hubs pushes the boundaries of what Jewish culture can be and what Jewish texts can teach.
The Firehouse is a real place located in San Francisco. It’s also a place for the imagination, where artists, activists and educators are invited to be in conversation with one another and the world. In person, online and through their creations and activities, residents embody varieties of creative community.
THE HOUSE OF STUDY
For 2026, LABA BAY AREA will select up to 10 fellows, a mix of visual artists, writers, dancers, musicians, actors, and other culture-makers, to study classic Jewish texts in a non-religious, open-minded, free-spirited, and emotionally, intellectually and physically accessible setting. The yearly curriculum is centered around a theme, and previous ones include Taboo, Beauty, Paradise, Eat, Mother, and Humor. The 2026 theme for all LABA locations will be NAME, and will be explored through writings from the Torah, Talmud, Mishnah, and Zohar alongside select contemporary texts.
LABA PROJECTS
LABA BAY AREA fellows create new work in response to these texts. The process need not be a linear one; a line from text to project that others can easily trace. Instead, the texts serve as an opening to a new part of your psyche and creative process that leads you in new directions. The texts are fertilizers--not instruction manuals.
These works will be read, exhibited, and performed at the LABAlive showcase in late fall of 2026. Throughout the year, the LABA team will look for other ways to share fellows' projects with the wider Bay Area community, and, whenever appropriate, through partnerships with cultural and ritual organizations.
LABA COMMUNITY
LABA fellows join an enriching and supportive community through the fellowship. In addition to the connections they form with their cohort, they will also have numerous opportunities to meet, inspire and be inspired by, support and be supported by, and potentially collaborate with local LABA fellows from other cohorts, and fellows from other LABA hubs including Berlin, Buenos Aires, Barcelona and New York.
THE THEME: NAME
We will be exploring the act of naming, the act of being named, and humanity's strange relationship with language overall.
For thousands of years, Jews have been obsessed with names, interrogating the relationship between language and existence and consciousness. Assigning language to a particular person, place, thing, feeling, and so on has never been, and will never be, a neutral act. To NAME is to give power, and to NAME is to give limits.
According to some Jewish mystics, the world was created through naming things. “By means of the twenty-two letters, by giving them a form and shape, by mixing them and combining them in different ways, God made the soul of all that which has been created and all of that which will be,” says the Sefer Yetsirah.
In the Torah, one’s name is often synonymous with one’s destiny, and a change of name can represent a profound shift. In the Talmud, we are warned against calling people bad names, which is seen as equivalent to the sins of murder and idolatry, and subject to divine prosecution. We are also forbidden from saying God’s presumed actual name, while one of things we are allowed to call God is, evocatively, “The Name.” Meanwhile, Maimonides believed there is, and never will be, an adequate name or language, to describe God.
This year at LABA we will be jumping headlong into the potency and mystery behind names, considering how language both makes and distorts reality. Language is our primary tool for understanding the world around us, and making sense of our lives. It also allows us to avoid truths, or ignore the presence of all that is ineffable or unexplainable. We’ll dive into the whole mess of it, all the while having a great time talking, eating, drinking, learning, and laughing in the lush, fertile, free-flowing, romantic, super-serious, and endlessly playful environment of LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture.
We invite you to contemplate how language and names provoke and inspire you, and apply.
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FAQ FOR LABA BAY AREA ARTIST FELLOW APPLICANTS
1.) Who can apply to LABA BAY AREA?
Anyone who is curious about classic Jewish texts; wants to study them in a non-theological, non-moralistic, and non-academic manner; and has a desire to use ancient Jewish texts to enrich their creative endeavors. Maybe you're a rabbi, or maybe you've never read a single page of the Torah in your whole life. It doesn't matter. Everyone will be welcome as long as they are up to approaching texts in this fashion. Also, LABA BAY AREA defines culture-makers very broadly. This includes artists, dancers, actors, musicians, composers, writers, dancers, directors, as well as chefs, landscape architects, video-game designers, and more.
2.) What kind of time obligation is LABA BAY AREA?
There will be nine in-person study sessions from January through June 2026. They are held on Sundays, 3:30-7:30, at the Firehouse in the Cole Valley neighborhood of San Francisco. Beginning in July, we will take a summer break during which fellows will have time to work on their LABA BAY AREA projects.
We will return to the Firehouse in early fall, when we will have two project workshop sessions on Sundays, 3:30-7:30. In late fall, we will host two LABAlive showcases during which fellows will share their LABA projects with the public.
3.) Do LABA BAY AREA projects have to be about Jewish texts or Jewish themes?
Not necessarily. The goal of LABA BAY AREA is for the ideas, feelings, and contradictions of Jewish texts to inspire new work. Sometimes this yields work that is identifiably Jewish, other times it does not.
4.) Is LABA BAY AREA a paid fellowship?
Yes! LABA BAY AREA fellows will receive a $1000 study stipend to attend the study sessions. There will also be additional production support available for the LABAlive events or public art projects or performances. In addition, LABA BAY AREA will promote our fellows on our website, social media, and through our connections with other cultural institutions around the Bay Area--and beyond.
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NOW IT'S YOUR TURN!
Please fill out the application below by NOVEMBER 10, 2025.
Fellows will be announced by DECEMBER 1, 2025.
Please send any questions to: labafirehouse@gmail.com
