JEDDAH, 18 October 2006 — The 7th Annual Saudi Arabia Day will be held at University of Central Missouri (UCM) in Warrensburg today with Deya A. Elyas, director of public affairs for Aramco Services Company, Houston, Texas, as an honored guest.
Paul and Colleen Nance will be the other honored guests at the festival, which is aimed at bringing together the cultures of America and the Middle East.
The Nances made a gift of the Nance Middle Eastern Collection, one of the most extensive collections of Middle Eastern art and artifacts in the United States, to UCM’s Arthur F. McClure II Archives and University Museum in 2003.
The hundreds of items in the Nance Collection were carefully gathered during Nance’s career of more than 30 years with Aramco in Saudi Arabia.
Elyas, as senior advisor to the President and Board committee on all public affairs matters for Saudi Aramco Services Company, is responsible for enhancing the image of Saudi Aramco in North America and overseeing the distribution of Aramco World magazine.
The Saudi Arabia Day program will begin at 3:30 p.m. in south read and relax area of the first floor of the James C. Kirkpatrick Library. Following a welcome by Joy Stevenson, UCM director of international programs, Paul Nance will make a presentation of a new addition to the Nance Collections at the university.
It will be followed by a student response by Homam Bogary, a UCM graduate student and former officer of the UCM Muslim Students Association.
An exhibition titled World of Weaving: A Cross-Cultural Examination of Weaving will also be available in the McClure Archives and University Museum in the James C. Kirkpatrick Library.
The exhibit will feature demonstrations of warp-weighted weaving by Mary Ellen Rowe, UCM professor of history.
