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 Director's Letter
At about 11 a.m. on Thursday, March 17, I came down to our John R entrance to welcome a group of middle school girls. My daughter, Piper, was among the students who had come to the DIA to admire Shakespeare's famous First Folio, which we had installed in our galleries. On loan from the Folger Library in Washington, D.C., this book is the first compilation of William Shakespeare's plays, published in 1623. We had it on view next to Othello and Desdemona Dagger and Scabbard by Félicie de Fauveau and other art with literary themes to emphasize a special moment: the 400-year anniversary celebration of the death of the great English writer.
On my way back to my office, I walked through the gallery where the folio was displayed and noticed how packed it was with our young visitors. Some of them used their iPads to take photos (no flash!) of the folio and the surrounding works of art. It was fulfilling to see the students engaging with the art. The DIA was bursting with nearly 1,000 of them that day, most on free field trips with complimentary bus transportation. They spent their time admiring the folio, taking tours, and finding works of art through scavenger hunts, among other activities.
I like seeing the DIA be an educational resource for our schools, and I am very curious to discover what kind of impact we have on the lives of those students. Do these visits, for example, improve their ability to think critically, be imaginative, or be creative? Creativity is the ability to make new things or to think of new ideas. Discovering innovative ideas helps an individual, for instance, to solve problems. The more creative we are the better equipped we are to address any difficulty or challenge life brings us.
We can all agree that artists have creative minds and the ability to make new things, such as sculptures and paintings, and the DIA has one of the best art collections in the world. Our museum is a house of creativity, and visitors to the DIA experience the possibilities of inspiration and imagination. The big question, therefore, is how do our art programs and our collection help improve creativity in the lives of our visitors, and how can we measure our success? We are already addressing this relevant question internally as we assess the role we want the museum to play, both in society and in the daily lives of visitors. We will keep you posted on our progress.
In the meantime, I know my daughter's class had a very good time in the museum, according to her report about the visit at the dinner table that evening. They read the famous question "to be or not to be?" directly from the folio, which was open to that page of Hamlet. As they remember Hamlet's soliloquy and grow personally, I hope their visits to the DIA will continue opening their minds and imaginations to new ways of thinking and understanding the world. The DIA is much more than an art collection--it has the power to change our lives and better our community.
Salvador Salort-Pons
Director
Detroit Institute of Arts
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Exhibitions DANCE! AMERICAN ART 1830 TO 1960 Through JUNE 12
SPECIAL EXHIBITION GALLERIES, SOUTH
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Ruth St. Denis in the Peacock Dance, 1919, oil on canvas; Robert Henri, American. Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Gift of the Sameric Corporation in memory of Eric Shapiro
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Josephine Baker
, 1926, gelatin silver print; Stanislaus Julian Walery, Polish, born England.
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
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Major nineteenth- and twentieth-century American artists--Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and others--are well represented in this exhibition. In turn, they have captured some of the premiere professional dancers of the same time period.
The late-nineteenth-century Spanish dancer Carmen Dauset Moreno, known as La Carmencita, appears three times in the exhibition. Both
William Merritt Chase and
John Singer Sargent captured her likeness in 1890. The two portraits are juxtaposed with a 1894
film by Thomas Edison's company that shows the popular performer in motion.
Isadora Duncan and
Ruth St. Denis were pioneers of modern dance and both are pictured in the exhibition: Duncan by John Sloan and St. Denis by Robert Henri. Both women made their mark on dance in the early years of the twentieth century, but while Duncan looked to the natural rhythms of the body as the basis for her style, St. Denis turned to music and other cultures for inspiration, as evidenced by the exotic peacock dress she wears in her portrait.
Three photographs of American dancers who became international celebrities depict them with the attributes of their style:
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson with a staircase, a reference to his tap dance routines up and down steps;
Fred Astaire looking debonair in a top hat; and
Josephine Baker in a fringed dress dancing the Charleston, a popular 1920s dance craze. Years later, sculptor Richmond Barthé captured Baker's timeless elegance in a performance in Cuba.
Members see the exhibition 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.
For the general public, 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:
Ruth St. Denis in the Peacock Dance, detail.
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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Baptism #1
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1992,
monoprint; Vincent Smith, American. Founders Society Purchase, Charles L. Freer and Elizabeth P. Kirby Funds, Summer Soirées 2000
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There are many ways works in this exhibition have entered the collection, but those purchased with the proceeds of the Friends of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs' biennial Summer Soirées fundraising events count among some of the finest. They include Erich Heckel's woodcut
Self-Portrait; Jacques Villon's drypoint
Portrait of an Actor, and Robert Frank's photograph
Belle Isle-Detroit.
Although the DIA has excellent works in all mediums by German expressionist artists, the museum lacked a monumental color woodcut until the acquisition of Heckel's work with funds raised by the first Summer Soirées in 1996. While painters, most notably Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, were the best-known proponents of cubism, prints are rare. The selection of Summer Soirées 2006 was Villon's cubist portrait, which dates from early in the movement's history and demonstrates his importance as a major French artist. Frank's
Belle Isle photograph, from his iconic publication
The Americans, was chosen from that compilation of images as the 2010 Summer Soirées acquisition because of its local, historical significance and relevance.
While usually one image is the target acquisition,
Summer Soirées 2000 was dedicated to adding multiple works by African American artists. In addition to a monotype by Vincent Smith (above), prints by Willie Cole, Renée Stout, and Charles Wilbert White were also added to the collection.
The FPDP's Summer Soirées 2016 will raise funds toward the acquisition of
Mirror: Don't Look Back, a limited-edition portfolio of ten mixed-media prints by Hurvin Anderson, a contemporary British painter-printmaker. Anderson often explores notions of memory, perception, reflection, the passage of time, and the place of the individual in life in his works. The acquisition is being made to mark Nancy Sojka's retirement as curator of prints, drawings, and photographs.
Information on the 2016 program will be available in mid-April.
Back to top 79th Annual Detroit Public Schools Student Exhibition April 30-June 5
Kirby Door Galleries
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Mask, ceramic; Angel Granados, Grade 6, Academy of the Americas.
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This year's Detroit Public Schools Student Exhibition features more than 270 imaginative works, ranging from paintings, prints, drawings, photography, to mixed-media, ceramics, videos, and jewelry, created by Detroit Public Schools students in grades K-12, in the galleries on the Kirby Street side of the building. Twenty-two schools have works by some 230 student artists in the show.
New this year is family programing following the 1 p.m. awards ceremony in the DFT auditorium on April 30. Ceremony attendees are welcome to stay the afternoon at the DIA, taking advantage of free tickets to the
Dance! American Art, 1830-1960 exhibition (good April 30 only), a drop-in art-making workshop, and family tours. Visit the exhibition's
Facebook page for more information.
The 79th Detroit Public Schools Student Exhibition was organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Detroit Public Schools and is made possible with support from the Ruth T. T. Cattell Education Endowment Fund. Additional support was provided by the Detroit Public Schools Foundation.
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New on View: Puppets
Some of the best examples of American avant-garde marionettes and rod puppets from the DIA's Paul McPharlin Puppetry Collection are now on view in the cases across from the museum's lecture hall, through October 2. In 1929, collector and puppeteer Paul McPharlin demonstrated the ability of marionettes to express serious themes by performing Maurice Bouchor's symbolist play Noel (The Mystery of the Nativity) at the DIA. The original rod and shadow puppets from this production are included in this installation, including The Angel Gabriel, which was constructed with wings made of bird feathers. Marjorie Batchelder, a friend and colleague of McPharlin, produced a puppet version of Maurice Maeterlinck's play The Death of Tintagiles (above left) at the DIA in 1937. Her innovative technique of combining rod and hand puppet controls was later adopted by Jim Henson when he created the Muppets. Influential British theater designer Gordon Craig collaborated with the American painter Michael Carmichael Carr in 1914 to create experimental puppets modeled on Bronze Age statuary, such as the Queen marionette in this exhibit. Back to top |
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Detroit Film Theatre The DFT wraps up its season this month with a screening of Orson Welles's favorite among his films in a role he was born to play as Shakespeare's Falstaff and two Animation Club offerings.
Chimes at Midnight, playing Saturday and Sunday, April 15 and 16, "maybe the greatest Shakespearean film ever made," according to the Christian Science Monitor. And the New York Times said the film contained Welles's "greatest role of his career, in which he gives his greatest performance." Welles drew from several of the bard's plays to craft a story focusing on the friendship between the young, soon-to-be-king Prince Hal and the apologetically rotund, irrepressibly hedonistic John Falstaff. Welles cast himself as Falstaff (left). The battle scene from the film is considered one of the best ever filmed, edited quickly to give a sense of violence and confusion, including, in the words of critic Roger Ebert, "the frightened Falstaff himself, running from tree to tree to hide from the combatants. Welles looks something like a Sherman tank on legs as he hustles his 300 pounds out of the way."
Song of the Sea and Nocturna, showing Apr. 9 and 30 respectively at 4 p.m., close out the season for the family-friendly Animation Club. The hand-drawn masterpiece Song of the Sea, based on an Irish legend of the shape-shifting selkies, is an epic journey of a sister and brother to discover the secrets of their past. Nocturna explores the mysteries of the night in a sweeping adventure. A young boy named Tim makes an unusual discovery that plunges him into the secret world of Nocturna, inhabited by a vast herd of guardian cats led by a gigantic Cat Shepherd (above). For more DFT information, including dates and times, or to purchase tickets, click here. Back to top |
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DANCING THE MONTH AWAY 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.
But in April, the DIA and Detroit's ARTLAB J (left) offer chances for people to literally join the dance in sessions exploring creative movement. All ages are welcome to participate and no experience is necessary, but a sense of humor might prove useful. During the prohibition era of the 1920s illegal drinking establishments, known as speakeasies, flourished by mixing syncopated jazz, diverse clientele, and exuberant dance steps with "artisanal"gin. For Friday Night Live's first-ever Speakeasy Dance Party, pianist James Dapogny leads a band of vintage-jazz all-stars, and dance instructors lead audience members through dance steps like the Charleston, the Shim-Sham, and the Peabody. Ballroom masters and beginners all are welcome. A cash bar, hand-out dance charts, and "fire extinguishers" (1920s slang for chaperones) are available. On Sunday, April 17, in the Great Hall at 11 a.m., explore dance created by "chance procedure," a method integral to the works of modern dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham. The class includes dance games, and audience members create their own dance compositions using dice to decide the choreography. On Saturday, April 23, come back to the Great Hall for an 11 a.m. class on dancing with scarves, which were used in dances for centuries in many different countries. It was the American Loie Fuller who popularized the magic of dancing fabric in the early 1900s. This session explores how to make scarves dance. Let sports and athletics inspire your moves at 1 p.m., Friday, April 29. Baseball, the great American pasttime, was a key element in dancer and choreographer Paul Taylor's classic Esplanade, a dance that includes running, sliding, and catching other dancers. Create your own dance inspired by sports. If you'd rather stay in your seat rather than move your feet, then the Saturday, April 16, Dance Made for Camera is for you--an afternoon of seven iconic dance shorts from filmmakers and choreographers who have transformed the field of dance in this country. Learn more about about dances in the 1920s on Sunday, April 17, during Conversations in Dance: African American Dance and the Harlem Renaissance, a panel discussion featuring faculty and staff from Marygrove College, Wayne State University, and the University of Michigan. The conversation begins at 3:30 p.m. For information on all DIA and community Dance! programming, click here. Back to top |
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OUT AND ABOUT
The DIA is busy out and about in the tri-county area this month, taking art to communities in the 2016 Inside|Out season and bringing residents to the museum to see exhibitions and the Inside|Out images up close and personal, so to speak. Installation of this year's Inside|Out images begins April 11 and continues through April 18, in the following communities: Detroit's Eastern Market and Dequindre Cut, Flat Rock, Hamtramck, New Baltimore, Pontiac, and Warren, along with first-time participants Commerce Township, Ecorse, Lathrup Village, and Springfield Township. The more than ninety high-quality reproductions of museum masterpieces remain in place through July before moving to new locations in August. Among the seven images making their debut this spring are the late-nineteenth-century still-life Irises and Calla Lilies by Maria Oakley Dewing and Hale Woodruff's study for his early 1950s mural The Art of the Negro: Artists. The DIA encourages each community to plan activities centered around its Inside|Out works, and more events will be planned closer to installation dates. Previous activities have included bike and walking tours, bus tours, talks at local libraries, and festivals. Once installation is complete, downloadable maps will be available. Social media users can follow Inside|Out updates and share their Inside|Out experiences on Facebook, Instagram (@DIADetroit #DIAInsideOut) and Twitter (@DIADetroit #DIAInsideOut). On three different days this month, the DIA offers free bus transportation to and from the museum for residents of the tri-county metropolitan area: Saturday, April 9, for Oakland County, Saturday, April 16 for Wayne County residents, and April 23 for Macomb County. Pick-up and drop-off locations are scattered throughout Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. The popular County Days, offered twice a year, are made possible by support from tri-county residents. Those who ride the bus can browse the collection; see the special exhibition Dance! American Art 1830-1960, containing 90 dance-inspired works from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by famed American artists, at no cost; view Fifty Years of Collecting: Detroit Institute of Arts' Friends of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Anniversary Exhibition; attend an art-making workshop, or grab a bite to eat. New this year, visitors can take docent-led tours of the African collection, the newly revamped Ancient Middle East gallery, the Dutch collection, or the Inspired by Italy galleries. While the transportation is free, advance reservations are required. Click here to find the departure locations for each county and secure a spot on the bus. Sign up early as some buses have already filled. Back to top |
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News and Notes
Double Discount Days
Members' Double Discount Days start Friday, April 29, at the main Museum Shop, the Dance! exhibition shop, and
online. The discount is also available . Members can use their 20 percent off to stock up on gifts for upcoming spring occasions--Mother's Day, Father's Day, and graduations. Or pick up the fully illustrated
Dance!
catalogue along with other exhibition-themed merchandise. Double Discount Days run through Sunday, May 8.
Book Discussions
There's still room in the Art and Authors discussion groups on the novel
Shanghai Girls and the related appearance by author
Lisa See, known for her deft chronicling of the lives of Chinese women.
Discussion of the book and related gallery tours are Friday, April 15, and Saturday April 16, at 10:30 a.m.
Shanghai Girls is available in the
Museum Shop.
In a special presentation, 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.
Round Up the Change
The DIA is partnering with our long-time dining and catering vendor Sodexo in asking diners to Round Up the Change. Each time you make a cash purchase at Café DIA or Kresge Court, you can round up your total to the next dollar to benefit the DIA Annual Fund, which supports educational programs, exhibitions, and the preservation and protection of the collection.
Your spare change helps provide enriching cultural experience for visitors, from children exploring the galleries for the first time to long-time museum-goers. So the next time you dine at the DIA, please remember to Round Up the Change. A similar programs exists in the Museum Shop.
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| Credit for Whitney photo in News and Notes: 7. The Whitney Museum of American Art ©Ed Lederman |
Mopper Lecture
Adam Weinberg, director of the
Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, is the guest speaker for the Detroit Institute of Arts' annual Coleman Mopper Memorial Lecture. The talk is on April 7 at 6:30 p.m. and is free.
The Whitney was founded in 1930 by sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney to support living American artists who were being overlooked in favor of their European counterparts. Eight decades later, on May 1, 2015, the museum opened a new 220,000-sqare-foot Renzo Piano-designed building in downtown Manhattan. Weinberg's presentation, "The Whitney Museum of American Art: An Idea not a Building," looks at ways in which architecture expresses the ethos and aspirations of a museum, exploring the four distinct buildings the Whitney has occupied in its history.
Healing Arts
The DIA is teaming up with the Arts and Health Michigan Committee (AHMC), made up of representatives from Beaumont Health, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Monte Nagler Fine Art, and the University of Michigan Health System, to showcase the power of art and creativity in human wellness during the Arts and Health Symposium on Thursday, April 21 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the museum.
Attendees can learn from leaders of southeast Michigan health systems and art organizations about ways to better support patients by integrating the arts into care. The symposium features a keynote address by Dr. Carrie Barron, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, followed by five panel discussions led by healthcare and arts professionals and individuals who have benefitted from art as part of their care.
The event is open to the public. Tickets, which include lunch, are $25 and $10 for students. For more information and to purchase tickets, call 313.833.4005 or visit
tickets.dia.org.
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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
Mon CLOSED
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]
Open during museum hours or online at diashop.org |
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