The Italian Cultural Centre’s latest exhibit offers an immersive glimpse into the Jewish Ghetto of Venice.

The Venetian Ghetto:  A Virtual Reconstruction 1516-2017, will run from July 25 to October 30, in honour of the fifth centenary of the ghetto. The exhibit focuses on the visual history of the ghetto from 1516 to 1797, starting with decrees made by Doge Leonardo Lorendan on March 29, 1516, enforcing the enclosure of Venice’s Jewish community. The show will examine the visual history of cultural, architectural, and religious responses to the Doge’s restrictive decrees, until the advent of Napoleon in 1797. Also featured are digital reconstructions of the Jewish Cemetery, the Synagogue, and the Ghetto before and after the Napoleonic age.

The exhibit saw its world premiere in Venice’s Doges Palace from June to November 2016. The show has been brought to Vancouver by the Italian Cultural Centre Museum, in partnership with the Museums Association of Venice, the Jewish Community of Venice, the Jewish Community of Vancouver, and Bard on the Beach.

The opening reception for the exhibit is scheduled for next Tuesday (July 25). Other Venetian-Ghetto themed events are also taking place in Vancouver during its run—an art exhibition at the Jewish Centre (July 27 to September 30) and Bard on the Beach’s productions of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice (June 22 to September 16) and Mark Leiren-Young’s Shylock (September 6 to 15).