 OCTOBER 8 • 2020 | 31

here’s to

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently announced 
appointments to the Michigan Council for Arts and 
Cultural Affairs. Among them is Anessa Kramer of 
Bloomfield Hills, a partner and board member at 
Honigman LLP. She is also a member of the board 
of directors of the Jewish Fund, the Roeper School 
and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. 
Kramer is appointed for a term expiring Sept. 1, 
2023. The Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs serves to 
encourage, develop and facilitate an enriched environment of cre-
ative and cultural activity in Michigan. 

The Michigan Municipal League has honored Sen. 
Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) as one of the League’
s 
2020 Legislators of the Year. Following his service 
as the youngest city council person in the city of 
Southfield’
s history, Moss was immediately installed 
as the ranking Democrat on the Local Government 
Committee upon his election to the Michigan House 
in 2014. He has a long record of passionately defending local con-
trol, speaking out against efforts to preempt local units of govern-
ment and pushing for restoring funding to communities. 

The 25th Annual Birmingham Bloomfield Cultural Arts Award hon-
orees were announced recently. Among them are Sue Marx, 2020 
Special Lifetime Achievement Award; and Jason Polan, 2020 Special 
Posthumous Award. The jury was impressed by Marx, 
of Birmingham; many of her documentaries, some 
of them pro bono, tell the story of our region, includ-
ing the Detroit Zoo, Children’
s Hospital, the DIA, a 
Cranbrook series, the Purple Rose Theater, the People 
Mover, the Detroit Boxing Gym, and most impressively 
the Math Corps, a collaboration with Wayne State 
University to assist underserved youth to learn math 
that has been shown all over the country. The jury felt 
very strongly that Polan, who grew up in Franklin and 
who passed away this year at the age of 37, deserved 
to be recognized for the incredible mark he had in 
Michigan where he left murals in Ann Arbor and men-
tored local artists from Birmingham and those in the 
Detroit art scene, but also for his national and inter-
national impact on the arts, with collaborations with 
Uniqlo, Warby Parker, Marvel Comics and Nike, his 
illustrations in children’
s and adult books, his efforts and ultimately a 
book to draw Every Person in New York, and his daily cartoons in the 
New York Times, as he “drew to help the world see.”

Sue Marx

Jason Polan

B I R M I N G H A M

We can’t help you 
clean out the garage.

But we can help you 
bank from home. 

Member FDIC

