In response to growing interest and sold-out programs, Common Ground, a community-activated artwork by Los Angeles–based artist Adam Silverman, will remain on view through January 2027 and be utilized by the Skirball Cultural Center to foster human connection through shared meals and collaborative programming. 

Acquired by the Skirball Cultural Center in 2024, Common Ground includes a two hundred twenty-four-piece set of ceramic tableware consisting of fifty-six plates, fifty-six bowls, fifty-six cups, and fifty-six ceremonial pots. A major new addition to the Skirball’s permanent museum collection, Common Ground has been integrated into an array of Skirball programming, including holiday celebrations, sound performances, and family activities. 

To date, the Skirball has hosted a series of communal meals using Common Ground’s plates, bowls, cups, and ceremonial pots; bringing people from different communities together over food and conversation. By extending the exhibition of Common Ground throughout 2026, the Skirball will continue to host meals, providing more members of the public the unique opportunity to enjoy this singular, artistic dining experience. 

Taking place throughout the year, currently scheduled Common Ground dinners include:

• May 2025—Common Ground Dinner: A Sephardic Experience, featuring music with Sarah Aroeste and food commonly found in the Iberian Peninsula, where Sephardic Jews hail from
• July 2025—Common Ground Dinner: Celebrating Women, Food, and Storytelling, celebrating the collective power and the stories they hold
• November 2025—Common Ground Dinner: Commemorating Sigd, honoring the Ethiopian Jewish holiday
• January 2026—Common Ground Dinner: Jewish-Muslim Solidarity, an interfaith meal connecting Jews and Muslims
• March 2026—Common Ground Dinner: Nowruz Mubarak, a joyful Persian New Year celebration

During recent Common Ground meals, community members have engaged with civic leaders, grassroots organizers, artists, musicians, poets, and more. Common Ground menus are curated by the Skirball’s Executive Chef Sean Sheridan who, depending on the theme, collaborates with local chefs, community leaders, and foodways scholar Dr. Scott Alves Barton. Participants also enjoy a signature cocktail, beer, wine, and non-alcohol refreshments. Note: Dates and themes are subject to change. Details and tickets for each dinner will be available on the Skirball website.

About Common Ground
With the participation of nearly one hundred people from across the country, Silverman collected clay, water, and wood ash from all fifty American states, Washington DC, and the five inhabited US Territories (Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands). He then combined these materials to make a single, fully integrated, new material, erasing the borders of statehood and reimagining the country as a single, unified place. Silverman used this new combined material to make the glazes for Common Ground, which includes a tableware set of fifty-six plates, fifty-six bowls, fifty-six cups, as well as fifty-six ceremonial pots. The two hundred twenty-four objects are similar to one another in form, size, and composition, yet each is intentionally unique—just like each human being. The ceramics are intended as tools to facilitate conversation and build community. 

The exhibition of Common Ground by Adam Silverman at the Skirball is curated by Associate Curator Vicki Phung Smith. Exhibition designers include Kulapat Yantrasast, Bob Dornberger, and Shinsuke Ito. Community meals and activations of Common Ground are organized by Public Programs Vice President Marlene Braga and Senior Programs Associate Julie Gumpert. 

About Adam Silverman
Adam Silverman has served as the Skirball’s Artist in Residence since the institution acquired Common Ground, participating in programming with the Skirball team and the broader Los Angeles community. 

Known for his sculptural vessels, richly expressionistic glazes, and engagement with locally foraged materials, Silverman is among the most thoughtful and dynamic practitioners dedicated to ceramics today. Silverman’s training in architecture is often evident in his ambitious installations and the structural clarity and precarity of his objects. He develops and utilizes personal, exploratory techniques to glaze and fire his works. 

Silverman was born in 1963 in New York, NY, and received a Bachelor of Fine Art and a Bachelor of Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1987 and 1988. He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. 

Silverman’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, Kasama, Japan; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX; Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV; Palm Springs Art Museum, CA; Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI; Shiga Museum of Art, Otsu City, Japan; Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA; and the Yale Art Gallery, New Haven, CT. 

About the Skirball Cultural Center
The Skirball Cultural Center is a place of meeting guided by the Jewish tradition of welcoming the stranger and inspired by the American democratic ideals of freedom and equality. We welcome people of all communities and generations to participate in cultural experiences that celebrate discovery and hope, foster human connections, and call upon us to help build a more just society.

Visiting the Skirball Cultural Center
The Skirball is located at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049. Common Ground is available for FREE viewing in the Skirball’s Ruby Commons during normal operating hours: Tuesday–Friday, 12:00–5:00 pm; Saturday–Sunday, 10:00 am–5:00 pm; closed Mondays and holidays. Reservations are recommended for General Admission and the permanent exhibition Noah's Ark at the Skirball, which requires timed entry and is ticketed separately. For general information, the public may call (310) 440-4500 or visit skirball.org.