Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History 

accessible at www.djnfoundation.org

62 | JULY 7 • 2022 

A Passion 
for the Arts
T

he editorial staff recently conducted 
brief interviews with Mumford High 
School’s 1960 Jewish graduates for 
the JN’s 80th Anniversary Issue, which will 
be published next week. I greatly enjoyed 
interviewing four of them, all very genial and 
all highly accomplished. One of my assigned 
interviewees was Barbara 
“Bunny” Kukes Kratchman. 
First, let me let you in on 
a little secret. At the outset of 
my interview with Kratchman, 
I learned that, although most 
people know her as “Bunny,
” 
she really doesn’t like her nick-
name. I will honor her wishes.
My interview with Bun ... ah, I mean, 
Barbara, was a lot of fun. We had a few laughs 
and I learned a bit about her career. Then, 
when writing my “Looking Back” about the 
new Top Gun movie a few days later, there 
she was again, quoted in an article about 
Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer 
(Nov. 10, 2005, JN). So, I just had to see what 
I could find about Barbara in the William 
Davidson Archive of Digital Detroit History. 
First, Barbara is mentioned on hundreds of 
pages. She grew up in Northwest Detroit and 
graduated from Mumford and the University 
of Michigan. After sojourns in California, 
Washington, D.C., and Cleveland, Barbara 
returned to Detroit to stay. She is married to 
Michael Kratchman, and they have four sons, 
a daughter and six grandchildren.
Barbara’s work and interests are inter-
twined; that is, politics and the arts. There 
are too many career highlights to name in 
this column. I would need a few pages to 
note them all, but perhaps Barbara’s greatest 
impact upon our state began when Michigan 
Gov. James Blanchard appointed her director 
of the Michigan Council for the Arts. 
Since that time, Barbara has been pro-
foundly engaged in supporting the arts in our 
city and state. For example, in addition to the 
Council, she was the founding president of 

ArtServe,1997-2007. In 2008, Barbara 
received the Governor’s Art Advocate 
Award. Recently, Barbara was instru-
mental in establishing the Creative 
Expressions Program with Kadima — 
now known as Gesher after Kadima 
merged with JVS (Sept. 25, 2021, JN).
To understand Barbara’s passion for 
the arts, read her letter in the Aug. 15, 
2013, JN. Its message that “Support for 
Arts must be [a] Jewish Communal 
Priority” in our modern society is still 
relevant today.
The Archive also provides a vivid 
portrait of Barbara as someone who 
has made significant contributions 
to various cultural endeavors beyond 
art itself. For example, the Jewish 
Ensemble Theater honored her work 
in 2010 (Aug. 26, 2010, JN). Barbara 
also served as a member of the advi-
sory board for the Detroit Public TV 
and Sue Marx documentary Detroit 
Remember When: The Jewish Community 
(Nov. 20, 2008).
Barbara was also a “Cover Girl” for 
the JN, appearing on the cover of the Nov. 9, 
2017, issue of the JN with Mary Romaya. The 
featured story of that issue was about the new 
Chaldean Museum. Indeed, Barbara is men-
tioned in several JN stories regarding efforts 
to build relationships between the Metro 
Detroit Jewish and Chaldean communities.
The moral here is — Barbara doesn’t sit 
still. She is still actively supporting the arts, as 
well as local Jewish communal organizations, 

the Federation 
and Shaarey Zedek. I had a blast chatting 
with her. 

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation 
archives, available for free at www.djnfoundation.org.

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair