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While many festivals on Jerusalem's annual calendar serve to spotlight the city's cultural vibrancy, only the Jerusalem Season of Culture, premiering in the summer of 2011, seeks to unify the most compelling of the Holy City's ground-breaking offerings.

Planners estimate that some 70% of the events being marketed under the auspices of the Jerusalem Season of Culture already existed in one form or another. But thanks to efforts from the Oklahoma-based Schusterman Foundation's Jerusalem office in cooperation with the municipal government and the Jerusalem Foundation, the city is being treated to a new brew of high-profile international talent and edgy home-grown initiatives, ranging from a philosophy symposium at Mishkenot Sha'ananim with DJ Spooky to video art displays at the Uganda pub to a series of audience-generated works on display at Bezalel Academy's new downtown gallery space to interpretive dance in people's homes to soprano Renee Fleming's finale at Binyanei Hauma.

Perhaps the most striking example of how the Jerusalem Season of Culture melds global with local is its 2011 Artist of the Season commission, which has sponsored a music video project by splice-meister and party music mogul Kutiman. A recording artist, DJ and producer, Kutiman gained an international following when he sampled hundreds of amateur YouTube musicians and melded them into one mesmerizing project he calls Thru You, which has garnered millions of views and accolades from Time magazine. No stranger to Jerusalem, Kuti has in recent years played at venues including the Tower of David and Beit Avi Chai's underground P7 space. His Jerusalem Season of Culture project drops on the world wide web later this week, but below is a sneak peek, which somehow manages to capture the pulse of the contemporary Holy City to perfection.

Over at the Israel Museum on July 14, experimental artists are set to "respond" to the museum's collections via dynamic installations and performances in the second annual Contact Point evening, culminating with a silent headphone dance party under the stars.

In a combined production of the Jerusalem Season of Culture and the Israel Festival, the museum is also hosting the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, currently in the midst of its 40-city farewell tour, with gallery interpretations as well as performances in traditional auditorium spaces.

Running for 24 intimate performances, starting at the end of June, is the Tower of David's production of avant-classical composer Steve Reich's influential and Grammy-winning piece Different Trains. The multimedia "visual concert experience" has been conceived by The Jewish Theater of Stockholm's Director Pia Forsgren, with performance by Swedish musicians The Fleshquartet and glass sculptures by artist Ann Wahlstrom.

Forsgren explains that her performance company has recently grown in renown as purveyors of experimental and avant-garde theater, offering "something that is not theater and not pure art but combines elements of both," she tells GoJerusalem.com. Bringing the production to Jerusalem this summer has been a challenge, says Forsgren, whose residence represents the first time that the Tower of David's "Kishle," an Ottoman-era prison, is open to the general public.

"It's a really big challenge to respect the space but also take advantage of it. The space was raw, an archeological site. As they were preparing it, they found archaeologically interesting pieces and they had to stop [construction and call the Israel Antiquities Authority]. We had to care a lot about the site. We tried to make it fit together, the performance space and the old walls. Compared to our contemporary and modern space [in Sweden], it's a richer, even a sexual space."

Excited about encountering the warmth of Jerusalem vibes, Forsgren says she hopes that audiences will "be happy and have a strong experience. My dream is that they will be moved by the project." The Different Trains production comes to the Jerusalem Season of Culture via an invitation from Naomi Bloch Fortis (read more about the Jewish Theater of Stockholm's production of Different Trains here), the co-director of the festival who formerly helmed the Batsheva Dance Company, where she previously collaborated with Forsgren. "Naomi thought that the piece was appropriate to Jerusalem and the Tower of David space," Forsgren says.

Indeed, philanthropy and an international network of arts patronage are key players in the Jerusalem Season of Culture. Current Batsheva Dance Company boardmember Robert Weil, a prominent Swedish-Jewish financier and patron of the arts, also serves as chair and sponsor of the Jewish Theater of Stockholm. Weil has maintained a residence in Tel Aviv since the mid-1990s, while energy heiress and Jerusalem Season of Culture honcho Lynn Schusterman told the Jewish Telagraphic Agency upon the initiative's launch that "Jerusalem is my second home, a special place, where local arts and cultural organizations contribute so much." As a whole, "Jerusalem has huge potential, and I want to encourage more young people - Israelis and others - to come and visit," she has told the press.

Silent headphones dance party photo courtesy of Barak Aharon for the Israel Museum. Photos of Different Trains courtesy of the Jewish Theater Stockholm.