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 Director's Letter
People always ask me why I came to work at the DIA. My first answer has typically been the amazing art collection and the extraordinary history of the museum. Although this is a truthful answer, I now realize that I should clarify what I meant by the "amazing art collection" was that of European art, my area of expertise as a curator and scholar. Since working at the DIA, I have learned that the museum is so much more than the European art collection, and each day walking through the galleries I can discover new, astonishing art previously unfamiliar to me. Confronting ourselves with the vastness of what we do not know is both a humbling realization and an exciting opportunity for learning and connecting with other cultures and peoples. Recently I have embraced African American art as my new focus of interest. Our last exhibition, 30 Americans, was an eye opener for me, and it encouraged me to look at our contemporary African American collection with renewed attention. I try not to miss an opportunity to meet African American artists in Detroit and elsewhere, to see and read about their exhibitions, and follow the events organized by our DIA auxiliary group, the Friends of African and African American Art (FAAAA). Last month, FAAAA and the DIA celebrated the twenty-fourth annual Alain Locke Awards, and I attended the lecture by the award honoree, Jeffrey C. Stewart. As an expert on the seminal work of Locke, Stewart spoke with eloquence and passion about the Harlem Renaissance and Locke's contributions to the development of African American culture and the understanding of its art at the beginning of the twentieth century. His presentation was most inspiring, reminding us how people can transform places and how art plays a dynamic role in community building. Furthermore, the artistic talent that resides in our own city needs to be encouraged and tapped to revitalize our own neighborhoods and our own people. Stewart's specific elaboration on Locke's concept of "crucible" as applied to Harlem's racial and professional structure of the early part of the last century was what most attracted me. A crucible is a pot in which, through a heating process, different metals melt and change. So Harlem was a crucible where the interactive forces of diverse social and racial structure brought extraordinary change through the creative platform of the arts: music, dance, sculpture, painting, poetry, and the like. What an inspiring image! Can Detroit and its people also be a crucible, a melting pot of creativity and diversity in the twenty-first century? And in this context, can the DIA be the agent that facilitates the artistic Renaissance of our community? Locke would expect no less from us. As sounds and ideas of Stewart's lecture crackle in my mind like wood burning in a fire, I think about the dynamics of art and community, its power to make a place come alive, and the responsibility of the DIA to engage in and enable that environment. The European collection brought me to Detroit, but the DIA and our community, taken together, have opened new horizons in my understanding of the arts. I am happily reminded of this each day when I arrive at the DIA and see the late Detroit artist Gilda Snowden's powerful painting Twin Tornados "presiding" in my office. 
Salvador Salort-Pons
Director
Detroit Institute of Arts Back to top |
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Exhibitions DANCE! AMERICAN ART 1830 TO 1960 MARCH 30-JUNE 12
SPECIAL EXHIBITION GALLERIES, SOUTH
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La Carmencita, 1890, oil on canvas; John Singer Sargent, American. Paris, musée d'Orsay. RF7 46
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The visual and the performing arts come together in this exhibition of more than ninety paintings, sculptures, and photographs celebrating and explaining the importance of dance in American culture. Included in the exhibition are works by George Caleb Bingham, John Singer Sargent, Aaron Douglas, Diego Rivera, Faith Ringwald, and Jasper Johns.
American artists were captivated by the personalities, expressiveness, and ideas represented by dance performance. The exhibition explores these ideas through several themes: dances that trace back to Indigenous Americans, Africans, and Europeans; dances that morph and endure through generations; artists who represented dance to point to societal changes; people dancing together in social settings like nightclubs and parties; dances during distinct eras, like Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Swing, and Charleston from the 1920s and '30s; dancers as celebrities; and collaborations between visual artists and dancers.
A fully illustrated exhibition
catalogue provides the first major investigation of the visual arts related to American dance, offering an interdisciplinary overview of dance-inspired works from 1830 to 1960. The
Dance! exhibition
shop also features postcards, framed prints, magnets, mugs, and t-shirts. An exhibition ticket is not needed to enter the shop.
Member Preview Days for
Dance! American Art 1830-1960 are Friday, March 18, from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Saturday, March 19, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Members see the exhibition first and free, but admission is on a timed basis. Tickets should be reserved in advance by calling 313.833.7971, visiting
DIA.org, or stopping by the box office at the museum. There are no ticket handling fees for members. And don't forget the members-only lecture by exhibition curator Jane Dini on Saturday, at 2 p.m.
The exhibition opens to the public on Sunday, March 20, with a 2 p.m. lecture by the exhibition curator. Tickets are $14 for adults, $10 for Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb county residents, $7 for ages 6-17, and $5 for Wayne, Oakland and Macomb county residents ages 6-17. There is no admission charge for school groups visiting the exhibition, but groups need to register in advance. Buy or reserve tickets
here or by calling 313.833.4005.
The exhibition is
free with museum admission every Friday.
The exhibition has been organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts. Support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support has been provided by the Marjorie and Maxwell Jospey Foundation and an ADAA Foundation Curatorial Award and the Association of Art Museum Curators.
Support for the catalogue has been provided by the Ida and Conrad Smith Fund.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Above:
Dances
, 1914 or 1915, oil on canvas; Arthur Bowen Davies, American. Gift of Ralph Harman Booth
Back to top FIRST FOLIO: THE BOOK THAT GAVE US SHAKESPEARE MARCH 7-APRIL 3
THIRD FLOOR, Era of Revolution GALLERY
In honor of the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, the DIA is exhibiting First Folio, the first printed collection of Shakespeare's plays, on loan from the
Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. Published seven years after the playwright's death, the folio contains thirty-six scripts and is the original source for such works as
Macbeth,
Julius Caesar,
Twelfth Night, and
The Tempest.
Many of Shakespeare's plays, which were written to be performed, were not published during his lifetime. In 1623, two of Shakespeare's colleagues compiled thirty-six of the bard's plays in a single volume, hoping to preserve them for future generations. Eighteen of the plays, including the ones listed above and also
Antony and Cleopatra,
The Comedy of Errors, and
As You Like It, had not previously been available in print. Without the First Folio, these plays would have been lost.
In Detroit, the First Folio will be opened to the most quoted line from Shakespeare and one of the most quoted lines in the world, "to be or not to be" from
Hamlet.
The folio will be on view at the DIA while accompanying exhibitions and
events will be on display within walking distance of the museum at Wayne State's David Adamany Undergraduate Library and the main Detroit Public Library, where second and fourth folio editions from their rare book collection are on exhibit.
On tour from the Folger Shakespeare Library in association with American Library Association Cincinnati Museum Center
Back to top FIFTY YEARS OF COLLECTING
DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS' FRIENDS OF PRINTS, DRAWINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION Through June 18, 2016
Schwartz Gallery of Prints and Drawings
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Which Way?, 1932, aquatint; Martin Lewis, American. Gift of Mr. Robert M. Katzman and Mrs. Lisa Katzman in honor of Sidney and Betty Katzman and their children, Ellen and Laura, from the collection assembled by Patricia Lewis
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Among the wide variety of prints and drawings included in this exhibition is Martin Lewis's aquatint
Which Way?, part of a gift from the Katzman family that has made the DIA the center for the study of the artist's graphic works.
Lewis, considered one of the great chroniclers of urban life, was born in Australia in 1881. He lived a bohemian life there and in New Zealand but by 1900, was working in San Francisco. By the end of the decade he had made New York City his home. His work includes landscapes and figure studies, but he is best known for city views and ability to capture obscure light sources and adverse weather conditions, coupled with a keen sense of composition and technical skill.
The Katzman family funded the acquisition of a master set of Lewis's prints, which contains at least one impression of the artist's 147 images (with the exception of one rare, never published etching). In addition to the prints, the DIA collection also contains more than 100 drawings by Lewis and items such as his record book, some of his tools, and many research materials and test prints.
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New on View
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| Cosmetic Box, 19th century, wood, mother-of-pearl; unknown Korean artist, Joseon dynasty (1392-1910). Museum Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund |
This intricately decorated box reflects the importance of mother-of-pearl inlay in Korean lacquer work. The ornamentation on the small container, which would have been used in women's quarters for the storage of combs and cosmetics, presents a variety of themes. On the top, peach trees and cranes among clouds are surrounded by a double circle. The inner circle contains the stylized Chinese character shou (su in Korean) symbolizing long life. On the front, four drawers are set in three tiers. The ones in the middle row feature geometric hexagon patterns. The four panels on the upper- and lowermost drawers are decorated with pairs of squirrels, deer, turtles, and mandarin ducks in landscape settings enriched with details of bamboo, pine trees, mushrooms, lotus, water, clouds, and the sun, combining on one object most of the ten symbols of longevity. The left and right side panels, which on similar examples are left undecorated, feature a gnarled plum tree and elegant bamboo, symbols respectively for purity and renewal, integrity and long life. Back to top |
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Detroit Film Theatre Free screenings of Italian cinema old and new highlight the March DFT schedule. Three recently restored classic Italian films from the annual Festival del Cinema Ritovato can be seen the weekend of March 18 and the month closes out with a selection from the 2016 Italian Film Festival USA.
The DIA is a 2016 stop for films from the annual Festival del Cinema Ritrovato, held every summer in Bologna and renowned for its presentation of classic Italian and international films newly restored by the foundation and film archive Cineteca di Bologna. The screenings begin on Friday, March 18, with Rocco and His Brothers, an epic tale of the dramatic events that befall a family traveling to Milan to begin a new life. Assunta Spina (left), on Saturday, March 19, is a rare 1915 silent film about a woman in Naples who falls in love with a jealous butcher. The weekend concludes with Federico Fellini's Roma on Sunday, March 20.
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The annual Italian Film Festival USA/Detroit opens at the DFT with a showing of the classic comedy Noi e la Giulia (lower left). It tells the story of Claudio, Diego, Elisa, and Fausto, who dream of opening a beautiful bed and breakfast in the countryside, which also turns out to be a Mafia hangout where business is never as usual. The film plays on Wednesday, March 30 at 7 p.m.  In conjunction with the exhibition First Folio: The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare, the DFT has scheduled a a high-definition showing of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's King Lear. It is the first film in an ambitious project to record full performances of all of Shakespeare's plays over the coming decade. The film can be seen Sunday, March 13, at 1 p.m.
For more DFT information, including dates and times, or to purchase tickets, click here. Back to top |
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DANCE ALL DAY...DANCE A LITTLE LONGER A multitude of activities related to the exhibition Dance! American Art 1830-1960, including live dance performances, movies, demonstrations, and conversations about the art form, are scheduled for the run of the show.
Things get underway at 7 p.m. Friday, March 18, with Friday Night Live featuring choreographer (and exhibition catalogue author) Thomas F. DeFrantz (left) and his dance company, Slippage, performing "Where did I think I was Going? [Moving into Signal]," a fifty-minute exploration of relocation, technology, and place. On Saturday, March 19, the DFT presents a program of rare archival films from the Dance on Camera festival, founded in 1958 to document contemporary dance performances. The festival library has grown to more than 500 titles featuring iconic artists at the peak of their power. There is a members' only lecture earlier in the afternoon by exhibition curator Jane Dini. On Sunday, March 20, programing begins with a live music and dance performance by the Oakland University-based troupe Take Root, at 1 p.m, the first in the Dance Now Detroit series of performances by leading dance companies that exemplify the vitality of choreographic artists now working in Detroit. After the performance stay for the public lecture by the exhibition curator. The day concludes with the first Canvas to Dance, a series of presentations by leading Detroit choreographers who either demonstrate the many dance traditions depicted in the exhibition or freely interpret them in the context of contemporary styles. Jennifer Harge of Harge Dance Stories, a Detroit-based company that uses storytelling to strengthen community engagement and promote social change, takes the stage at 4 p.m. Detroit area cultural groups have gotten on the Dance! bandwagon, with a dozen community and professional dance organizations and cultural institutions offering a range of programs. Back to top |
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COMING UP IN APRIL
Book Group
The book for the next session of the DIA's book discussion group Art and Authors is
Shanghai Girls, by best-selling author
Lisa See, known for her deft chronicling of the lives of Chinese women.
In 1937 Shanghai, twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are beautiful, modern, and carefree until the day their father tells them he has gambled away the family's wealth, and he must sell the girls as wives to suitors from Los Angeles looking for Chinese brides to pay his debts.
A review in the
Miami Herald praises See's ability to draw "her readers into the rich history of China and providing her narrators with voices so unique that readers truly know and care about these women within a
few pages, if not paragraphs."
Shanghai Girls is available in the Museum Shop, so there is plenty of time to pick it up and read it before the book discussion and related gallery tours on Friday, April 15 and Saturday April 16, at 10:30 a.m.
In a special presentation, author Lisa See comes to the DIA on Tuesday, April 12, at 11 a.m. to talk about Shanghai Girls and her experiences as a writer. The program, a partnership between Art & Authors and Metro Net Library Consortium, is offered in conjunction with Metro Net's Everyone's Reading program.
Both See's talk and the discussion groups are free with museum admission, but space is limited, particularly for the author event, and advanced reservations are required. To register, call the box office at 313.833.4005 or sign up online.
Furniture Makers
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| Card Table, between 1780 and 1800, mahogany with satinwood inlay; unknown maker/manufacture, Boston. Gift of Robert H. Tannahill |
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The weekend of Saturday and Sunday, April 2 and 3 features a return visit of the
Society of American Furniture Makers with demonstrations of eighteenth-century construction techniques coupled with tours of the DIA's period furniture pieces and a workshop on tool-box building.
Tours run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every half hour, departing from the Great Hall; the workshop runs from noon to 3 p.m. or as long as supplies last.
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News and Notes
Senior Thursdays
Thursdays are now Senior Day at the DIA. Beginning Thursday, March 3, special programing will be offered on Thursdays, featuring a different program each week. The first Thursday of each month will feature a guided gallery tour; the second a talk; the third an art-making class; and the fourth a film. In months with a fifth Thursday, a second gallery tour will be offered. The lecture on March 10 focuses on the upcoming special exhibition Dance! American Art 1830-1960 and the film Thursday, March 24, is the Stratford Festival's King Lear (left). All programs are free and begin at 1 p.m. No advance reservations needed, just walk right in. Japanese Girls' Day
Japanese Girls' Day, or Hinamatsuri, returns to the DIA on Sunday, March 6, beginning at 2 p.m. Join members of the Japan Society of Detroit Women's Club and Ikebana International for demonstrations of ikebana flower arranging, tea ceremonies, furoshiki wrapping, and kimono sash tying. Presented by the Consulate General of Japan in Detroit. Spring Break Workshops
Looking for something to do with the kids or grandkids during spring break? Come to the DIA and check out four different weekday drop-in workshops: Rattles, Star Books, Watercolor Wax Resist Postcards, and Travel Journals. Workshops are Tuesday, March 29, through Friday, April 1, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. No registration required, just stop by. Children 12 and younger must be accompanied by an adult. 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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