Exhibition to bring Jewish

and Chaldean artists

together at BBAC.

It is easy to understand

why the 10 members

of the Chaldean/Jewish

Building Community

Initiative's Arts & Culture

Committee have been

having such a good time

together.

Above:
Robert Schefman, "Building My
Own," charcoal, 2007

Left
Reni Stephan works on his
painting, "The Lion Hunt."

Facing page:
Sam Selou, "Sound of Music," oil,
2010

The expertise of the committee
members spans the performing,
visual and culinary arts, archi-
tecture, the humanities, cultural
archives, museum and general
arts administration, arts advo-
cacy and patronage, with every-
thing in between.
What binds them as colleagues
and friends is their mutual inter-
est in arts and culture, coupled
with their personal passion for
the communities they represent.
Since the committee was
organized, their activities have
generated great interest and
much success. In fall 2010, more
than 100 people attended an
evening of architectural tours of
Shenandoah Country Club and
the Jewish Community Center,
both in West Bloomfield. That
event was topped in August
2011 by the Special Festive Food
Tasting Event, where 150 hun-
gry patrons enjoyed culturally
inspired signature dishes from
24 of our best home and profes-
sional chefs.
The newest program on the
committee's agenda is "ROOTS:
An Exhibition of Chaldean and
Jewish Artists" to take place at
the Birmingham Bloomfield Art
Center (BBAC) in Bloomfield
Township from Thursday, July 12,
to Saturday, July 14.
The exhibition will include
10 Chaldean and 10 Jewish art-

ists, with the goals of increasing -
cross-cultural awareness and
exchange and highlighting the
many talented individuals in
both communities.
The multimedia exhibition
is expected to include painting,
sculpture, ceramics, fiber, perfor-
mance art and other arts media
and will serve as a dialogue about
where they come from, what they
have in common and where they
are going.
Mary Romaya, director of
the Chaldean Cultural Center at
Shenandoah and co-chair of the
Arts & Culture Committee, said,
" 'ROOTS' will
enable us to
promote our
many artists
to their own
respective
community
and to the
other com-
Mary Romaya
munity as
well. Very often artists find it
difficult to showcase their work
and, if they have an art show, the
audience can be limited to family,
friends and arts aficionados.
"We are excited to sponsor
such a wonderful event to share
with each other and the public
our similar heritage and the
unique and diverse talents of our
artists:'
Dr. Sulafa Roumayah and Mira
Burack, members of the Arts
& Culture Committee and co-
chairs of "ROOTS;' are respected
local, visual artists who strongly
identify with their cultural back-
grounds.
Roumayah is a well-known
practicing pediatrician in Royal
Oak who equally defines herself
as an artist who paints seriously
each week with a group at BBAC.
"As a Chaldean artist, I feel I
am always influenced directly or
indirectly by my culture,' she said.
"I do find, however, that many of
my artist friends are much more

Roots on page 38

34 May 3 • 2012

