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Michigan native Sarah lacobs
cornes full circle at the BBAC.

BY SUZANNE CHESSLER

PHOTOGRAPHY

BY BRETT MOUNTAIN

arah Jacobs built a career in the
New York fashion world. Now
she hopes to fashion a new world
of sorts for the Birmingham
Bloomfield Art Center (BBAC) in Birmingham.
Jacobs, who took ceramics classes at the BBAC
while in high school at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook,
has just been named the first development director
at the arts institution.
"I believe art makes a big difference to a commu-
nity," says Jacobs, 41, who was raised in Huntington
Woods and moved to New York City after earning a
bachelor of fine arts degree at Washington

University in St. Louis. "I grew up loving art, and I
think more people should know about the BBAC
and all the wonderful work that is done there."
Jacobs, in charge of raising funds for the organiza-
tion, lived in New York for 12 years. During that
time, she was director of merchandising for Liz
Claiborne and later vice president of merchandising
for Emanuel, a division of Emanuel Ungaro opera-
tions.
"I always was interested in fashion," she says. "I
decided I wasn't going to be a great artist and went
into the business side of the field."
Jacobs' return to suburban Detroit happened four
years ago, after she and husband Jonathan Jacobs
decided they wanted to be close to family again.
Although they knew each other in Michigan, the
two became reacquainted and married while in New
York, where he did computer work.
The couple, raising three daughters, settled in

Sarah Jacobs in the
galleries of the BBAC.

Franklin. Jonathan Jacobs has established himself as
a Web site designer with a list of clients that
includes Congregation Shaarey Zedek and Ira
Kaufman Chapel, both in Oakland County.
"After we returned to Michigan, I did promotion-
al merchandising for Broder Bros.," says Jacobs,
daughter of Janet and Ellsworth Levine. "Then I
conducted some workshops with my husband. One
was at the BBAC, teaching artists how to develop
their own Web sites. I was asked to join the BBAC
marketing board and then offered the new posi-
tion."
Jacobs, whose family belongs to Shaarey Zedek
and who was confirmed at Temple Emanu-El in
Oak Park, is getting to know all about the art center,
the people who keep it moving forward and its stu-
dents before coming up with a specific agenda.
"It's so nice being back at the center," says
Jacobs. "It's a place I believe in." El

JNPLATINUM • NOVEMBER 2(05 • 23