Announcing the 2024 Birmingham Bloomfield Cultural Arts Awards Honorees
Our 29th Year
Hedy Blatt,
Advocate for Arts Education
2024 Cultural Arts Award
After a career first spanning 30 years as a Troy School District music and English teacher and, ultimately, the Director of Fine Arts overseeing music, theatre, visual art; as a composer and theatre performer; and as a community organizer, Hedy Blatt recently retired after another 20 years being the part-time one-person Fine Arts Consultant for the Oakland Intermediate School District (Oakland Schools). While at Oakland Schools, she led the Fine Arts Advisory Council, facilitated professional learning conferences, ran a daily listserv that reached almost a thousand teachers, and administered the Oakland County Treasurer’s Financial Empowerment Arts Contest, which has awarded $130,000 to public high school students over the past 13 years in partnership with was her indefatigable energy, the myriad partnerships and bonds she established with the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, the Center for Creative Studies, Oakland University’s Schools of Music, Theater and Dance, DAFT (Digital Arts, Film and Television), Matrix incorporating a ‘culture of creativity’ throughout the county to impact the students in all 28 of the county’s school districts. One can only dream of what Hedy will accomplish now that she is retired.
Gary Wasserman,
Creative Visionary
Special Lifetime Achievement Award
Birmingham native Gary Wasserman is a global business owner, cultural producer and philanthropist who is committed to excellence across a diverse range of organizations and affiliations. Long involved in the national cultural and civic community, locally he led the revitalization of the cherished America’s Thanksgiving Parade and served on the boards of Michigan Opera Theatre (now named Detroit Opera), Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Cranbrook Educational Community. Wasserman’s passion for Detroit led to re-investing in the city with the founding of Wasserman Projects, a hybrid space and art gallery which facilitates and promotes the work of outstanding artists in all fields. In addition, he was instrumental in recruiting internationally renowned director, Yuval Sharon, to Artistic Director of the Detroit Opera.
Village of Beverly Hills,
Supporting a Kaleidoscope of Arts Activities Partners with the Arts Award
Supporting a kaleidoscope of arts activities, the Village of Beverly Hills presents events in Beverly Park and other public parks planned and presented by the Parks and Recreation Department. Art fairs, concerts in the park, java and jazz and other concerts, the DIA Inside Out exhibit, movies, reading mornings, storybook trails, a “Little Free Library”, and sculptures in the park loans are a few examples of their diverse programming.
