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 Chairman's Letter
For the past nine months, I have had the pleasure of leading a skilled and very committed group of DIA volunteers working with our consultants, the Phillips Oppenheim firm in New York City, to identify and hire Graham Beal's successor as our next DIA director. Acting upon a recommendation of our search committee, both the DIA Executive Committee and full Board of Directors unanimously named Salvador Salort-Pons as director, president, and chief executive officer of the DIA. Salvador will assume his new role and responsibilities on October 15, 2015, and I know you will join me in extending our warmest DIA welcome to him, his wife, Alex, and their family.
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| Gene Gargaro congratulates new director Salvador Salort-Pons |
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While our search attracted both national and international candidates, we were very fortunate to have someone of Salvador's high caliber and respected reputation right in our midst. Salvador has served as director of the museum's European art department since 2011, adding the role of executive director of collection strategies and information in 2013. He also serves as the Elizabeth and Allan Shelden Curator of European Paintings at the DIA and has played a key role in the museum's strategic planning process. His extensive knowledge of the DIA, his international experience, and his management skills make him the ideal choice to lead the DIA in the coming years. Two of our leading priorities at the DIA are expanding our museum's tri-county and statewide outreach and increasing our endowment. Salvador has the skills and experience to lead in both of these key areas. His extensive and intimate knowledge of the DIA's collection, his interpersonal skills, and his relationship with the museum's current and prospective donor base and other advocates will enable Salvador to have an immediate impact on the DIA. We owe our thanks and appreciation to our search committee members: Dick Gabrys and Reggie Turner (both search committee vice chairs), Ken Eisenberg, Blake Ellis, Jennifer Fischer, Mary Ann Gorlin, Chacona Johnson, John Lewis, Reuben Munday, Dennis Scholl, Marc Schwartz, Tom Sidlik, and Alan Schwartz. As the saying goes, timing is everything. With the Detroit bankruptcy successfully concluded and the DIA now an independent institution owning its art collection and museum building, the search environment was significantly enhanced by the exciting stories circulating about Detroit and the well-deserved worldwide acclaim about the survival and future of our DIA. As we begin the fall season with a full menu of DIA events, we do so with the exciting expectation of even greater accomplishments in our future. We have all been looking forward to the opening of our Ancient Middle East Gallery this month--a 2,855 square foot first-floor gallery that includes remarkable art from the ancient empires of Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, and the Arabian Kingdom in modern day Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen. Our next special exhibition, 30 Americans, featuring African American art from the outstanding Rubell Family Collection in Miami, opens October 18 for twelve weeks, featuring the work of many of the most important African American artists who rose to prominence during recent decades. In the coming weeks and months please make it a priority to enjoy your DIA to the fullest. 
Eugene A. Gargaro, Jr
Chairman, Board of Directors
Detroit Institute of Arts Back to top |
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Exhibitions 30 Americans October 18, 2015 through January 18, 2016
Special Exhibition Galleries South A dynamic showcase of recent art by African American artists, this exhibition explores issues of racial, political, historical, and gender identity in today's culture. The fifty-five paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs, and video on view were created by many of the most important African American artists working over the past thirty years, including Kerry James Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, Nick Cave, Kehinde Wiley, Carrie Mae Weems, Robert Colescott, Glenn Ligon, and Lorna Simpson. All the works are drawn from the Rubell Family Collection in Miami. In describing the origins and development of the exhibition, Don and Mera Rubell state: "As the show evolved, we decided to call it 30 Americans. 'Americans' rather than 'African Americans' or 'Black Americans' because nationality is a statement of fact, while racial identity is a question each artist answers in his or her own way, or not at all." Members see the exhibition free and first, but reservations are necessary for complimentary timed tickets. Member preview days are Friday, October 16, from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Saturday, October 17, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. To reserve your complimentary tickets call 313.833.7971 or click here. There are no handling charges for ordering member tickets. General tickets are $14 for adults, $10 for Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb county residents, $7 for ages 6-17, $5 for Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb county residents ages 6-17.
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| Class of 2007, 2007, acrylic on canvas; Nina Chanel Abney, American. Courtesy of Rubell Family Collection, Miami |
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Numerous events have been scheduled in conjunction with this exhibition. Two members-only lectures are scheduled for opening weekend: visual artist and photographer Hank Willis Thomas discusses his most recent work in "After Identity, What?" on Friday, October 16 at 6 p.m., and painter Nina Chanel Abney takes on "Explorations into the Complexities of Identity and Narrative," Saturday, October 17, at 2 p.m. Donal and Mera Rubell discuss "Building and Exhibiting a Collection of African American Art," along with the curator of their collection in a talk open to the general public on Sunday, October 18, at 6 p.m. The DFT launches a series of "Afrofuturism" films, a literary and cultural aesthetic combining elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, Afrocentricity, and magic realism with non-Western philosophies to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of people of color but also to revise, interrogate, and re-examine historical events of the past. The series opens with Drylongso, on Thursday, October 22, at 7 p.m.
Friday Night Live performances related to the exhibition include Tunde Olaniran's (left) mash-up of hip-hop and electronica, featuring observations about his Nigerian-American background and his younger days in Germany, England, and Flint on October 16, and the hip-hop/neo-soul, Michigan-based Mama Sol & Tha N.U.T.S. (New Under The Sun), a band with a vision for a world that prioritizes education, responsibility, and art, on October 23. Performances both days are at 7 and 8:30 p.m. In partnership with Ditto Ditto, a small bookshop and publishing house in Detroit that focuses on literary and visual arts, the DIA offers an afternoon of acclaimed local poets reading works that reflect the ideas and themes of the exhibition on Saturday October 24, at 3 p.m. A film of the Rubells in conversation with several 30 Americans artists can be viewed in the Family Room outside the exhibition entrance at 2 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays; Fridays tit is shown at 2 p.m., 5 p.m., and 8 p.m. The film is nearly two hours long, but visitors should feel free to sit in on one conversation or stay for the entire screening. While photographs are generally not allowed in special exhibitions, with permission from the Rubell family, visitors are able to take photos in 30 Americans provided that no flash, tripods, or selfie sticks are used. The Exhibition Shop, located at the end of 30 Americans, carries postcards, notecards, and other stationery items; collectible plates, trays, and décor items; and books, including the exhibition catalogue, related to artists in the exhibition. In addition, artists from the Detroit-area African American art scene are represented by decorative art objects, textiles, jewelry, and sculpture. Thanks to generous support from the Ford Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, admission to the exhibition is free on opening and closing day and the first Saturday and Sunday in November, December, and January: Sunday, October 18; Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8; Saturday and Sunday, December 5 and 6; Saturday and Sunday, January 2 and 3; and Monday, January 18. Above: Bird on Money, 1981, acrylic and oil on canvas; Jean-Michel Basquiat, American. Courtesy of Rubell Family Collection, Miami This exhibition has been organized by the Rubell Family Collection, Miami. Funding for Free First Weekends has been provided for visitors by the Ford Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Support for the exhibition has been provided by the Friends of African and African American Art and DTE Energy Foundation. Additional support has been provided by MGM Grand Detroit, Dickinson Wright PLLC, Richard and Jane Manoogian Foundation, Siebert Brandford Shank & Co., L.L.C., Reuben & Cheryl Munday, The Skillman Foundation, Lorna Thomas, M.D., P.C., BLAC Detroit Magazine, Comerica Bank, Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, Global Automotive Alliance, Roy S. & Maureen Roberts, Mark & Tiffany Douglas and Avis Ford, St. John Providence, Fifth Third Bank, Greektown Casino, U.S. Trust, and other generous supporters. 
Ofrenda Friday, October 23-Sunday, November 1
Special Exhibition Galleries Central
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| From 2014: Steve Miller and Alex Goecke's ofrenda in remembrance of the late actor Robin Williams. |
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The popular exhibition of ofrenda altars in celebration of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) returns at the end of this month. Local artists were invited to create altars to pay homage to people, places, ideas, and events past using a mixture of traditional objects and modern art pieces. On Sunday, November 1, members of the Mexican Consulate explore the rich history and the tradition of ofrenda altars followed by conversations with the artists whose ofrendas are on view, beginning at 3 p.m. Click here for a review of last year's exhibition. The art-making Drop-In Workshops on Sundays this month feature sugar skulls, which are often seen on ofrenda altars . Learn how the skulls are used in Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexican and Mexican American communities while decorating one of your own. Back to top |
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New On View Puppets
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| Diver and Octopus, 1903, wood, paint, leather, and cloth; Walter E. Deaves, American. Founders Society Purchase, Paul McPharlin Memorial Fund |
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Some of the best examples of American "Royal Marionettes," large-scale puppets that were popular on music hall and vaudeville stages during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, fill the first-floor puppet cases this month. These intricate marionettes were feats of stage craft design; some were so complex they required two puppeteers to operate them simultaneously. All of these puppets were part of large troupes that played in well-equipped theaters, performing in variety acts that featured strange and surprising characters, like a deep-sea diver and octopus. Back to top |
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Detroit Film Theatre Orson Welles and three DFT 101 screen classics fill the DFT schedule for October. Also on tap is Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution and a rare look at propaganda films produced by the Nazis. In The Third Man, playing October 2, 3, and 4, pulp writer Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton) arrives in rubble-strewn postwar Vienna to meet up with his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles, in one of his most memorable appearances), who may or may not be dead. A dizzying universe of mystery, intrigue, and corruption unfolds in an incomparable thriller that blends novelist Graham Greene's lean dialogue with shadowy, off-kilter cinematography. (For more Orson Welles, click here). The DFT 101 films run the gamut from tough-talking private eyes to François Truffaut's love letter to filmmaking, to early Steven Spielberg. All DFT 101 offerings are matinees and free for members. Tickets for the general public are $5.
With its ultimate screen incarnation of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, Kiss Me Deadly (left) is unrepentantly nasty and highly influential and, in its own seedy way, an American classic, an apocalyptic noir-gone-mad world. The film plays Saturday, October 17, at 4 p.m.
Director Truffaut plays a film director struggling to control a cast of temperamental yet very human actors in the 1974 Academy Award winner for best foreign film, Day for Night (left). Truffaut makes the case that filmmaking is about more than the finished product; it is about the passion of everyone involved, and the delicate balancing act that's often required to get a story up on the screen. See this classic comedy Saturday, October 24, at 4 p.m. Spielberg was 24 years old when he directed Duel, his first feature-length film. But this edge-of-your seat game of road rage on a lonely stretch of California highway clearly shows early signs of the brilliance that would manifest itself with the two films that immediately followed--The Sugarland Express and Jaws. The movie remains an exciting experience, best seen on the big screen Saturday, October 31, at 4 p.m. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is an unprecedented overview of a significant and still-controversial American movement. The Black Panther Party rose out of the tumultuous 1960s, demands for racial equality and justice in the black community, and a surging awareness of self-determination and pride. The movie plays only once, Sunday, October 11, at 5:30 p.m.
The Nazis considered movies to be their most powerful political propaganda tool, and during Hitler's reign more than a thousand feature films were made. Of these, more than forty are considered so odious that to this day, they cannot be legally exhibited in Germany without scholarly context. Director Felix Moeller's Forbidden Films (left) uses sequences from these films--together with interviews with film historians, archivists and moviegoers--in this disturbing, eye-opening, and thought-provoking portrait of the power and potential danger of unbridled cinematic propaganda. The film shows Sunday, November 1, at 2 p.m. For more DFT information, click here.
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Films and Music The DFT mixes film and music twice this month.
On Sunday, October 18, at 3 p.m., is Hope Dies Last (left), a multimedia performance celebrating the resiliency of the human spirit as reflected through the lens of the Armenian Genocide. This collaboration between Detroit-based photographer Michelle Andonian and composer Alexandra du Bois blends a live performance by cellist Ida Kavafian and Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings with spoken word, film, and still photography that sheds light on some of the darkest moments of the twentieth century. Tickets are available at here. On Friday, October 30, just in time for Halloween, is Shadows Choose Their Horrors, a dark and melodic twist on the original Dracula movie, Nosferatu, but set on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Music performed by Marc Ribot and Ikue Mori accompany this tale of sinister forces surrounding Madame G, who lives on the edge between the mortal world and the realm of lost souls. In addition to the film, which runs at 9:30 p.m.in the DFT, Ribot and Mori perform at 7 p.m. for Friday Night Live. Both the events are free with museum admission. Back to top |
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Let's Talk Learn more about the DIA collection in particular and art and culture in general in one of the DIA's Arts and Minds lectures. In addition to the talks given in conjunction with the opening of 30 Americans, there are lectures commemorating the new gallery of ancient Middle Eastern art and the seventy-seventh anniversary of Orson Welles's Halloween radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds. Lectures are free with museum admission.
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Four brief talks mark the opening of the new Ancient Middle East space (left), located across from CaféDia. On Friday, October 2, at 5 p.m., learn about the art and technologies of the time from a curator's perspective with Geoff Emberling, assistant research scientist, Kelsey Museum, University of Michigan, and curatorial adviser for the new gallery. At 5:30 p.m., the topic changes to "Miniature Masterpieces: The Art and Culture of Mesopotamian Cylinder Seals" in a talk by Wayne T. Pitard, director of the Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. On Saturday, October 3, two University of Michigan professors look at ancient Mesopotamia. Piotr Michalowski looks at the stories inscribed in cuneiform, the world's oldest writing system, on Sumerian and Babylonian tablets in the the new gallery at 2 p.m. Norman Yoffee uses the ancient city of Kish as a means to provide context for objects on view at 3 p.m. The following week, on Sunday, October 11, at 2 p.m., the Kelsey Museum's Emberling moderates a panel discussion on the current state of protecting the cultural heritage of Syria and Iraq, providing a historical perspective on the artwork of the region and an overview of the effectiveness of current efforts to protect it. A question-and -answer session follows the presentations.
 On Halloween Eve, 1938, Welles's brilliant radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds (left) caused unprecedented mass hysteria--or did it? In honor of Welles's centennial year and the broadcast's seventy-seventh, A. Brad Schwartz, author of Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles's War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News, reexamines this landmark moment in media history to show that the broadcast was nothing less than history's first viral media phenomenon. Fittingly enough, the 7 p.m. lecture is October 29, just in time for Halloween.
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News and Notes Art and Authors Two books that complement the special exhibition 30 Americans have been selected for the next Art and Authors' book discussion and gallery visit. Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me and James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time explore the African American experience and examine the impact of racial injustice in the United States from two perspectives separated by more than fifty years. Participants tour the museum's African American galleries, which contain works by many of the artists featured in 30 Americans. Discussion and gallery sessions are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, November 6 and 7, at 10:30 a.m. The program is free with museum admission, but advance registration is required. Both books will be available from the Museum Shop. Art and Flowers Renowned landscape design consultant and horticulturist Rick Darke discusses "The Living Landscape--Regenerative Design for Home Habitats and Urban Spaces," as the speaker for the Friends of Art and Flowers' fifth annual Betsy Campbell Lecture on Saturday, October 10 at 2 p.m. Darke focuses on how to restore and renew both home and community landscapes with living layers. Darke served on the staff of Longwood Gardens, which consists of more than 1,000 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows, for 20 years. In 1998 he received the American Horticultural Society's Scientific Award. A book signing and reception follow the lecture. College Night Students from colleges and universities in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties can spend a night at the museum on Friday, October 23, from 6:30 to 11 p.m. By showing a valid school ID, students will have the opportunity to see the special exhibition 30 Americans, enjoy live music, and explore the collection at no cost. The evening concludes with a dance party and snacks. Complimentary transportation to and from campus is available to students from the following schools: Macomb Community College; Lawrence Technological University; Oakland University; and the University of Michigan, Dearborn. Departure locations and times can be found here. County Days DIA County Days, when residents of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties can take advantage of free transportation to and from the museum, are just around the corner. Buses leave from various locations in Macomb County on Saturday, October 10; Oakland County on Saturday, October 24; and Wayne County on Saturday, November 7. Visitors can browse in museum galleries, take part in a free art-making workshop, and grab something to eat in CaféDIA or Kresge Court. Buses will return to each location in the afternoon. To find times and locations for pick up and drop off and to make required reservations, click here. Travel Light The DIA provides complimentary attended coat check at the Farnsworth and Woodward entrances for outerwear, bags, and larger items, but you can skip directly to the admission desk by ke eping in mind what can and cannot be brought into the museum. As of October 13, the following items must be left at coat check: all backpacks, packages, umbrellas, and any bags larger than 11 x 15 x 6 inches. Umbrella-style strollers are allowed in the galleries, but oversized and jogging strollers are not. Cameras are welcome, but tripods and selfie sticks may not be used. For a complete museum policies, check here. DIA Annual Gala This year's annual fundraising gala, DIA--The heART of the City, celebrates the museum's vast collection and the DIA's vital role in the community. All funds raised from the Saturday, November 14, evening event benefit, the museum's educational initiatives that serve more than 70,000 students each year. Tickets are available at $100, $750 and $2,500. To request more information, call the Gala Hotline at 313.833.7967. Back to top |
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| Detroit Institute of Arts
5200 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48202
www.dia.org
313.833.7900 Comments or questions about the newsletter? Please contact us: [email protected] ADMISSION
$12.50 adults, $8 seniors (62+), $ 6 youth (6-17)
The museum is free for members and residents of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties
Contact the Membership HelpLine at
313.833.7971 or [email protected] For group sales (15 or more) contact 313.833.1292 or dia.org/grouptours
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HOURS
Museum
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Tue, Wed 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Thur, Fri 9 a.m.-10 p.m.
Sat, Sun 10 a.m.-5 p.m. PARKING Lighted, secure self-parking is available in the museum parking lot, between John R and Brush behind the museum, for $7. |
CaféDIA
313.833.7966
Tue, Wed, Thur 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Fri 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 4-9 p.m.
Sat, Sun 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Kresge Court
Tue, Wed, Thur 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Fri 9 a.m.-9:30 p.m.
Sat., Sun 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Museum Shop
313.833.7944 or [email protected]
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