48 | SEPTEMBER 28 • 2023 J N I t has been almost 20 years since multi-media artist Michelle Sider learned about the plight of Jewish people com- pelled to leave Yemen, and it has been some four years since she began communicating about them by designing mosaic images. With 10 images completed in the “I Am Yemenite” series and more images being planned, Sider has secured display space at ArtPrize, a Grand Rapids exhibition and competition held in summer and autumn since 2009. Represented are international artists, and this year the display lasts until Oct. 1. Sider’s images, based on a compilation from photos and considerable research, are being shown at Uccello’s Ristorante, 122 Monroe Street NW . “I believe the history of Mizrahi Jews (those basically from Middle East and North African nations) is an incredible part of his- tory that has been overlooked, ” said Sider, a Huntington Woods resident who traces her own background to the Ashkenazi popula- tion. “The driving force behind this whole series is to educate, and I would love for this series to be a spark for Jewish educators to widen their scope to include a more global and inclusive focus. ” In preparing her images out of glass, met- als and pottery found during a trip to Israel, Sider has read books and magazine articles and interviewed people who can trace the Yemenite culture in their own heritage. People interviewed have included those married into her family and a professor at the University of Michigan. Sider has told about learning of different prayer rituals, holiday customs and special- ized foods that have been associated with the Yemenite ways of life. According to what Sider has been advised, large numbers of Yemenites went to Israel soon after Israel became a nation. It was important, she said, to their looking for conditions favorable to the family traditions they knew and practiced. For example, Torah observances start very early among people following Yemenite expectations. ARTS&LIFE ART ELI SIDER Local artist has display at Grand Rapids ArtPrize. ‘I Am Yemenite’ SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Details To learn more about ArtPrize, which ends Oct. 1, go to artprize.org. Michelle Sider “Yemenite Coffee” “Literacy” “Alaskan Airlines”