(AINA) -- The Assyrian Arts Institute (AAI) is an organization founded by Nora Betyousef Lacey in 2017 and claims to support Assyrian arts. AAI has sponsored a few events since its founding, including an Assyrian women's choir. AAI's mission statement is:

Through exhibition and scholarship, the Assyrian Arts Institute mainstreams Assyrian arts as a way to preserve the Assyrian identity, show continuity, and to raise global awareness so that the Assyrian culture and traditions may be embraced and celebrated by all.

The most ambitious project embarked upon by AAI is an original production of an opera based on the Epic of Gilgamesh. According to AAI:

The opera features an original score by acclaimed 2024 Grammy nominee music composer Derrick Skye, whose music masterfully blends traditional Assyrian motifs with contemporary orchestral arrangements. The libretto, crafted by renowned operatic entrepreneur and Assyrian descendant Diana Farrell, captures the timeless essence of the Epic of Gilgamesh while infusing it with modern relevance and emotional depth. Farrell and Skye, respectively, will serve as stage director and conductor for the World Premiere.

And therein lies the problem.

AAI commissioned a non-Assyrian, Derrick Skye, to write the score for the opera. Irrespective of Mr. Skye's qualifications, why did AAI ignore the eight or nine living, classically trained Assyrian composers by giving the commission to Mr. Skye? Does AAI not have faith and confidence in Assyrian artists?

Assyrian arts cannot survive without Assyrian artists. Assyrian artists cannot continually create art without patronage and moral support. The message AAI sends to Assyrian artists by hiring non-Assyrians is "we don't believe in you" and is demoralizing. It contradicts its mission statement and only serves to kill Assyrian arts.

Nora Betyousef Lacey and other philanthropists must have this awareness: Assyrian arts cannot survive without Assyrian artists.

This problem is not specific to AAI, other organizations have also done this, such as Mesopotamian Night, an annual fundraising gala held in San Jose, which, under former director Tony Khoshaba, presented Georgian folk dancing in 2014, and who refused to pay Assyrian artists, expecting them to donate their works because it was a fundraiser (yet all other staff was paid).

As a new immigrant community in the U.S., and following the path of other immigrant communities, Assyrians are now focusing on the arts of their culture, having secured their living standards, but this support is scarce. For this reason, such philanthropic efforts must be judicious in their application by supporting Assyrian artists. One organization who is doing this is the Assyrian Cultural Foundation, which produced an orchestral concert of original music by Assyrian composer Rasson Bet-Yonan.

AAI is commended for its efforts but its execution is flawed. This is understandable given that its board of directors has no artists on it --- they are from the technical, legal and financial sectors.

AAI and other philanthropic organizations must support Assyrian artists, that is the only way Assyrian arts will survive. Only Assyrian artists can create Assyrian art.