When business takes you to Tel Aviv, be sure to take a moment to escape to Jaffa. While wandering the cobblestoned streets of the ancient shipping port area, don’t miss a stop at the Ilana Goor Museum.

Goor was born in Tiberius to a family of respected doctors and artists. She never studied art formally yet today is considered an internationally renowned, multifaceted, intuitive artist. Her work includes sculpture, furniture, lighting and jewelry and has been exhibited in Israel and abroad. She won the Peres Roscoe Design prize in 1986, and her works can be seen at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem and Charles Clore Park in Tel Aviv.

Goor believes people can only understand art if they touch, feel and use it. In the museum, art mingles with life. The building, with views of the Mediterranean, is also the artist’s home. More than 280 years old, the building was originally an inn. When Goor bought it in the 1990s, she couldn’t have known what she would uncover, including a rare stone oven and an amphorae ceiling. The museum houses more than 500 works of art from around the world and also hosts events. A gift shop is on site, and tours are available.