ABOUT AANM NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD + STAFF OCT. 1, 2019 - SEPT. 30, 2020 National Advisory Board AANM Staff Honorary Members Diana Abouali, PhD | Director Her Majesty Queen Noor Al-Hussein of Jordan Jumana Salamey, AuD | Deputy Director Congresswoman Debbie Dingell Cushla J. (Hendry) Ahmad | Executive Assistant Yousif B. Ghafari Rasha Almulaiki | Educator Irene Hirano * Lejla Bajgoric | Community Events Organizer Secretary Ray LaHood Elizabeth Barrett-Sullivan | Curator of Exhibits Patricia Mooradian Amal Beydoun | Development Manager Kathy Najimy Brandon Coulter | Communications Specialist Congressman Nick Rahall Greta Anderson Finn | Grant Writer Betty Sams Aziza Ghanem | Administrative Assistant Tony Shalhoub Kathryn Grabowski | Curator of Public Programming George Takei Ahmed Jamalaldin | Maintenance Technician Elizabeth Karg | Librarian Executive Committee Ayah Krisht | Media Designer Fawwaz Ulaby, Chair Crystal McColl | Curatorial Specialist Ismael Ahmed Edwina Murphy | Archivist Raghad Farah Lujine Nasralla | Communications Specialist Edward M. Gabriel Iman Saleh | Administrative Support Sandra Gibson Dave Serio | Educator & Public Programming Specialist Leila Hilal Ruth Ann Skaff | Senior Outreach Advisor Sharif Hussein Matthew Jaber Stiffler, PhD | Research & Content Manager Manal Saab, Ex Officio Danya Zituni | Educator Aziz Shaibani Mouna Haddad Khoury, Chair, Friends of AANM General Membership Evelyn Alsultany Since opening its doors in 2005, the Arab American National Museum (AANM) remains the nation’s only cultural institution Anan Ameri that documents, preserves and presents the history, culture and contributions of Arab Americans. Located in Dearborn, Nazeeh Aranki Michigan, amid one of the largest concentrations of Arab Americans in the United States, AANM presents original Bassam Barazi exhibitions, cutting-edge art, film screenings and performances in Michigan and in major cities across the U.S., and Maya Berry continually documents the history and experiences of Arab Americans. Ahmad Chebbani Evon Ebeid AANM is one of just six Michigan Affiliates of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. AANM is a founding member of the Detroit area arts collective CultureSource as well as Haitham Eid the Immigration and Civil Rights Network of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience and the Michigan Alliance for Inea B. Engler Cultural Accessibility, and is a member of the National Performance Network. AANM is an institution of ACCESS, the largest George Jalinos Arab American community nonprofit in the nation, founded in 1971. Ronnie Jallad Adib Kassis Ihsen Ketata Albert Mokhiber Rima Nashashibi Ziad S. Ojakli Wafa Salah George Salem Helen Samhan * The late Irene Hirano passed away in April 2020. On cover: Fiber etchings by Yasmine Nasser Diaz, 2020, from the soft powers exhibition at AANM. Front: Call Waiting. Back: Noxzema & Lipliner (detail). 2019-2020 Annual Report 2 FROM THE AANM DIRECTOR FROM THE NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD CHAIR Dear friends, Dear friends, A little under a year ago, I wrote a letter to our supporters As you can see in the pages of this report, we slowly On December 31, 2020, I completed my final year as chair This year, my appreciation for AANM's community is as part of an Arab American National Museum fundraising adjusted to the “new normal” we were thrust into, —and my 15th year as a member—of the National Advisory heightened to an exceptional level. On behalf of the entire campaign. It was late April, and the Museum’s outlook was pivoting to exclusively online programs successfully, Board of the Arab American National Museum. Because of AANM Advisory Board, I would like to thank those who grim as a financial crisis loomed amid a rapidly spreading even though AANM had never attempted them before. COVID-19, it was a difficult year for everyone concerned, lifted the Museum through 2020 including our generous pandemic. In that letter, I mentioned an Arabic saying that We reached new national and international audiences. but thanks to the steadfast leadership of the Museum donors, Friends of the Arab American National Museum comes to my mind when I’m going through a particularly We partnered with Arab American cultural organizations and the dedication of its staff, the Museum adapted its Committee and the inspiring Arab American community. rough patch, and especially when things seem irreversibly nationwide and coproduced fantastic events, offering our practices and came through for the community. I must also express my resounding gratitude to director dire. That saying is, tafa’alu bil-khayr tajiduh, which roughly audiences the emotional fulfillment that only the arts can Dr. Diana Abouali and the entire AANM staff for saving translates as, “hope for good things and you will find them.” give. AANM staff worked tirelessly all year with unwavering In spite of the pandemic, the Museum's innovative practices the Museum during COVID-19 with a quick pivot to virtual commitment to our mission, buoyed by supporters like transformed a situation of isolation to community. As programming. To all of you, your generous service and I’ve repeated that saying many times these past twelve you. And in the end, we received wonderfully good news: we shut the doors of our galleries and moved into virtual our lovely memories together made my job fulfilling for months, whether in the mornings with hours of back-to- AANM was designated as one of America’s Cultural rooms, I realized this institution's resilience is not only many years. back Zoom meetings ahead of me or in the evenings after Treasures by the Ford Foundation! measured by overcoming obstacles but also in honoring endlessly writing and rewriting grant applications. I would these challenges as part of our story. My time at the Museum, especially this past year, has think of it when I entered the quiet and solemn AANM We must move forward while acknowledging the historical taught me that our community surpasses the physical building, seeing the darkened exhibits that were once hardships of this past year, as well as celebrating the AANM continues to lead the way in uplifting the Arab walls of our institution. It is greater than that. It is our art, sparkling with the boundless energy of school children. I successes. We dare to hope that the lessons we have American voice. In 2020, our virtual film screenings fostered innovation, allyship and friendship. As I leave you in the said it when we made difficult and impactful decisions, and learned from both will carry us onward. I look forward to a sense of camaraderie and the online open mics kept our capable hands of my successor, Leila Hilal, I am honored when I walked past the offices of former colleagues. I thought anticipating, with you, all the good things that are in store spirits alive. We hosted several artists-in-residence who that you individually and together define for me my sense of it as I read about scientists working to develop a COVID-19 for the Arab American National Museum in the coming year. extended their talents past our circumstances' limitations of a “true community.” vaccine while the death toll amounted, and as Black Lives with their beautiful work. This year we were also reminded Matter protests spread across the nation and the world. Sincerely, of our institution's role in connecting the Arab American Sincerely, community to our allies. As discussions on racial inequity The saying became this secular supplicant’s prayer; each rose to the surface, the Museum honored its responsibility time I said it, my mind refocused on a future that I had to to listen to the Black community and host programming on believe would be brighter, healthier, more just. And— accountability, education and race. eventually—it bore true. Good things were indeed found. Fawwaz Ulaby Diana Abouali 3 Arab American National Museum 2019-2020 Annual Report 4 OCTOBER 2019 NOVEMBER 2019 With various events and exhibitions planned, our fall season was in full swing by October. We welcomed visitors to engage Alongside ACCESS, the Center for Arab American Philanthropy (CAAP) and the National Network for Arab American with us through literary events with popular authors Susan Muaddi Darraj and Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha; we kicked off our Communities (NNAAC), AANM was proud to co-host MOVE, the second convening of its kind bringing together over 400 SURA Arts Academy Fall semester; we partnered with the National Immigrant Integration Conference (NIIC) for a special Arab American artists, activists, philanthropists and their allies to discuss the most pressing issues facing our community. Concert of Colors performance; and we continued to make the Museum more accessible to members of our community We were also excited to announce our JAM3A summer music and arts festival on the last day of the conference, building through My Turn: Sensory Friendly Sundays (an AANM experience designed for families affected by autism and other hype for the upcoming year. Later in the month, we also welcomed many members of the Arab American community to our sensory-processing challenges). We were looking forward to the exciting events planned for the next few months as we Grand Gala, hosted by comedian and performer Chris Farah, where we successfully raised funds for underserved school headed into the new year. districts to visit and tour the Museum. Halloween Party Dancing Identities/ Celebrating Halloween in an educational Defining Place: and inclusive space with our community, we hosted 200 people at a merry-not- How do our bodies carry and process scary Halloween celebration featuring ancestral embodied knowledge? In exhibit trick-or-treating, crafts, a story collaboration with Daring Dances, Jeremy Dutcher read aloud in English and Arabic, a Reading Coffee/ MOVE Minneapolis-based Leila Awadallah Once There Was and costume contest and more. (along with performance partner Noelle As an institution that stands on Writing the Future Throughout the conference, AANM Awadallah) and Detroit’s own Audrey Once There Was Not Anishinaabe land, AANM is committed to presented exciting and memorable Johnson took audiences on a thought- uplifting Indigenous artists and activists.