56 | SEPTEMBER 12 • 2024
J
N

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edy Blatt and Gary
Wasserman do not know
each other, but they
expressed similar feelings of sur-
prise when individually learning
about being chosen as recipients of
this year’s Birmingham Bloomfield
Cultural Arts Awards.
It is the 29th year of community
recognition for artists, patrons, volun-
teers and boosters.
While Blatt was recognized for
leading educational arts initiatives
in Oakland County, Wasserman was
cited for various lifetime achieve-
ments that reached inside Michigan
and outside to California, Florida,
Israel and beyond.
The honorees, who will each
receive a specially designed plaque
and a personalized bracelet, will have
their names placed on a permanent
plaque affixed on the wall of the
Birmingham City Hall. Awards will
be given at a reception scheduled by
the main sponsor, Cultural Council
of Birmingham/Bloomfield, for
Friday, Sept. 13, at the Birmingham
Bloomfield Art Center.
Honorees were chosen after formal
nominations were reviewed by a jury.
“I was absolutely surprised and hon-
ored,
” said Blatt, who retired this June
as fine arts consultant for Oakland
Schools, where she connected teachers
and students with community arts
organizations to enhance programs in
music, theater and the fine arts.
“It’s wonderful to be recognized, but
even more important, it’s wonderful
to have the arts recognized in such a
meaningful way. We are one of 56 enti-
ties throughout the state of Michigan,
generally county-wide, that assist
schools and provide services to schools
on a variety kind of basis.
“My work has often focused on
teacher training and offering confer-
ences to teachers and thereby reaching
their students. We’ve partnered with all
of the major cultural entities in Metro
Detroit.
”
Blatt, who lives in Bloomfield
Township and whose family holds
membership in Temple Israel, became
interested in the arts through piano
music she studied at Interlochen Arts

Academy for eight weeks when she was
8 years old. She began her 40+ years of
an arts career as a music teacher.
“I, at first, felt it was my job to have
parents come to concerts to entertain
them,
” she said. “Now, I would look
at it differently. When I was fine arts
director in Troy, overseeing all of the
art, I became enamored with visual art
because I can’t do it.
“I saw what was happening in the
art classroom that nobody saw. In
some cases, they didn’t do art shows or
public displays of student art, and that
started me down the road to getting
it out of the classroom and into the
public domain so that people could see
phenomenal, talented kids that may or
may not have been in the mainstream.
”
Blatt, who plans to give more time to
playing golf and studying cake decora-
tion arts, has a message for parents.
“It’s my hope that parents advocate
for quality arts education in their
schools,
” she said. “That is what a

quality district should have. It offers
students so much, especially students
who might be struggling.
”
Wasserman, CEO of Allied Metals
Corp. centered in Auburn Hills, has
two current Metro Detroit arts con-
nections. They include Wasserman
Projects in the territory of Eastern
Market, which is a presentation space
for different talents. Also important to
him is Detroit Opera. Board member-
ships have reached from the Detroit
Symphony Orchestra to Cranbrook.
With service to many types of orga-
nizations, Wasserman can trace his
interest in the arts back to his teen
years after receiving a small inheritance
from a grandmother.
“I thought I should do something
with the money so I always think of
her,
” Wasserman said. “I bought a
Steuben crystal object that was a gold
mouse on crystal Swiss cheese. That
was my first art purchase, and that is
still on my desk today, which is plus-60

years.
” A fine arts collection started
in his 20s.
“The arts have brought me a great
deal of inspiration and stimulation
because of the contact with people
who are creators and thinkers and
often live outside of conventional
thinking,
” he said. “I truly enjoy the
beauty and the underpinnings of it.
”
Wasserman said that his favorite
outreach has been supporting the
annual America’s Thanksgiving
Parade, conducted in Detroit with
television broadcasts. His direct
involvement, helping the parade
overcome some difficult issues, was
between 1988 and 1998.

Wasserman’s business takes him to
locations in other cities and countries
so he maintains several residences.
As his son joins him in that business,
he makes time for activities linked to
Jewish-based arts organizations.
Reaching outside Michigan, those
include the International Institute for
Secular Humanistic Judaism based in
Israel and Miami New Drama based in
Florida and founded by Venezuelan
Jewish refugees who had to leave their
country because of antisemitism.
With Reboot, centered in New York
and having work set in other cities,
he is supporting a theater project that
involves productions about antisem-
itism, and he hopes to bring produc-
tions into Michigan.
“
Artistry is an essential part of the
fabric that creates a vibrant part of
community,
” Wasserman said. “It
brings a certain intellectual and emo-
tional investment to a community that
strengthen that community.
“In Detroit, in its most dire days,
it was the cultural infrastructure that
held the city together such that it
provided the nodes that were able to
generate the beginnings, maintain the
interest and anchor the creation of
the new urban experience that today
Detroit has become.
“It has been a wonderful way for
me to engage with a community and
people that I otherwise would not have
known, and I feel that I am contrib-
uting something of myself over and
above just monetary contributions.
”

ARTS&LIFE
ART

Two Jewish community members
recognized with Birmingham Bloomfield
Cultural Arts Awards.

Art Honorees
Art Honorees

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Gary
Wasserman

Details
The Birmingham Bloomfield Cultural Arts Awards will be
presented 5:30-7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13, during a free program
at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, 1516 S. Cranbrook Road,
Birmingham. (248) 644-0866. culturalcouncilbirminghambloomfield.
org.

Hedy Blatt