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Anan Ameri Retires As Arab American National Museum Director
She left, but she’ll return, so it’s not goodbye. She’s done working, but not really, so it’s not quite retirement. Not for the hard-working Dr. Anan Ameri, who called May 15 her official last day as founding director of the Arab American National Museum.
Ameri announced her decision in November, to give ample time to replace her. Interviews are under way, but the search continues. Another factor in her timing was being around for the museum’s eighth birthday and overseeing plans she’d laid out for these months.
“I have set an agenda that is a very aggressive agenda for our museum in the last year,” Ameri said. “And I did not want to set the aggressive agenda and walk away from it; I wanted to stay here and see it materialize.”
The agenda included travelling exhibits that opened and will open this year in Florida, California, Texas, Pennsylvania and Minnesota. And during a late-April interview in the AANM board room, Ameri also was looking to the May 2 opening of a “Little Syria” exhibit in New York.
She speaks about the museum like it’s her baby. Although it’s clear a lighter workload appeals to the 67-year-old Ameri, it’s also clear walking away isn’t easy.
“I don’t know that there’s ever a good time to retire, you know?” she said, adding that it has been a long stretch between building the museum and keeping it afloat. She says she’s tired and things feel stable now.
“So, it’s a good time to leave, if there’s anything called a good time to leave,” she said.
The Arab American National Museum at 13624 Michigan Ave. in east Dearborn opened at 5 p.m. May 5, 2005; five years after ACCESS leadership came up with the idea for it.
In a past interview with The Press & Guide, Ameri said that specific date and time were chosen to make the opening special. The AANM is one-of-a-kind in the country. Its original aim of practical — ACCESS needed more room for cultural arts programs — has evolved into worldwide respect for the institution and Ameri feels satisfied with the progress made in less than a decade.
She complimented the “extremely passionate and competent staff,” and is pleased with the museum’s growing national presence — from the travelling exhibits to its Smithsonian affiliation to the forming of a national board.
Despite a hefty resume with jobs spanning at least three countries — mostly nonprofit work — building a museum from scratch didn’t come naturally. Passion for the mission of sharing Arab-American culture and stories, especially in the post-9/11 world, and bringing all cultures together helps motivate her. That and not being afraid to ask for help when needed.
“We learn; we make mistakes,” Ameri said. “The important thing is that we own (those mistakes) and are willing to ask other people, and read books and articles.
“If you know a museum does better than you in one area. I have no hesitation to pick up the phone or go visit them and tell them, ‘Listen, you look like you’re doing really well in this area. We’ve tried this, we’ve tried that; it’s not working. What’s your secret?’”
Ameri credited folks at the Japanese-American National Museum in Los Angeles for sustaining a long-term, mentor-style relationship with her. Local collaborations with institutions like The Henry Ford in Dearborn and the Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit, have provided immeasurable support and input as she and her staff learned by trial and error.
Fellow community activist and ACCESS co-founder Ismael Ahmed appointed Ameri to her position, saying she had the trust of people across the country and that she was a perfect fit — she also was the first treasurer of ACCESS in the ‘70s and sat on the board of directors.
“She’s done amazing work,” Ahmed said. “She helped birth the museum and she helped run our arts program even before we had a museum.”
Ahmed, the former director of the Michigan Department of Human Services and now the associate provost at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, had trouble focusing on one highlight of Ameri’s work.
“Everything is kind of A-class that she does, but I’m particularly proud of the programming she’s brought to the museum,” he said.
He said even though the programs and artists she brings in have an Arab-American side, she still provides programming that’s for everyone.
During a phone interview, Ahmed confirmed a new director hasn’t been chosen yet.
Because the museum is up and running now, the final decision will go more typically through the ACCESS board, which Ahmed remains part of.
When asked what she’d like to see from a new director, Ameri said the financial stability of the museum is important, but she’d leave the rest to her successor.
“I don’t want to tell the new director what to do, but I hope he or she will have the vision to carry this museum to its second stage,” she said.
Ameri sees the second stage as continuing the national impact, expanding to the purchased buildings next door and continuing to connect with the national Arab-American community.
Ameri felt, too, that the museum needs to connect more with the local community and counted the marketing for that a challenge. But those things won’t worry her for now.
An Ann Arbor resident, Ameri said first on her to-do list is relaxing and travelling. She went to Baltimore on May 19 for a luncheon and accepted the 2013 International Service Citation given by the U.S. Committee of the International Council of Museums.
Under her leadership, the museum also has received numerous awards, like the national Coming Up Taller Award from the President’s Committee on the Arts. Ameri herself has been honored many times, including a “Michiganian of the Year” nod from The Detroit News; a “Woman of Wayne,” from her alma mater Wayne State University; and “Arab American Businesswoman of the Year,” from the Arab American Women’s Business Council.
Ameri was born in Palestine and grew up in Amman, Jordan. The author of multiple books, including, “Arab Americans in Detroit: A Pictorial History,” Ameri earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Jordan and holds a master’s degree in sociology from Cairo University and a Ph.D. in sociology from Wayne State.
Before coming to the U.S., Ameri worked as a journalist, educator and community organizer in Jordan and Lebanon. Here, she formed and directed the Palestine Aid Society of America in Washington, D.C., and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
She still remembers her first-ever job in Amman.
“The first dollar I got paid was acting in a theater in Jordan,” Ameri said, with a big smile, though she doesn’t remember the part now. Working 9-to-5 has never been her thing, she said, though she was happy to adapt to bring the museum to life.
Sometime in the fall shell plan her next steps, which she expects to include a consultant position to the museum.
From “getting some books out of her head” to consulting for other places, Ameri has too many plans to call her May 15 departure an actual retirement, and she smiles when she’s called on it. She’ll at least cut her working hours from 50 to 60 to 20 to 30, she protests. And technically speaking, the word fits, she points out.
“It’s an official retirement of the position of the director of the Arab American National Museum,” Ameri said. “Definitely it is.”
Julie Walker Altesleben
Press & Guide Newspapers