Director's Letter

As the first anniversary of the Detroit Institute of Arts' millage vote approaches, I look back on a year of extraordinary activity as citizens of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties--many for the first time--came "pouring" into the DIA. Between July 2012 and June 2013, close to 600,000 visitors experienced not only our world-class art, but also films, lectures, dining, music, and other programs. The year closed with the opening of a completely refurbished Kresge Court, intended to be this region's most elegant, casual hang-out.

More than 60,000 school children participated in multiple educational programs, as well as guided or self-guided tours this past school year. With the millage, we now have the ability to offer free transportation in addition to our tours, thus providing the opportunity for many more schools to participate in our programs. Many students from the three counties were visiting us for the first time. Broader access to the DIA resources has also resulted in many more teachers becoming aware of and benefitting from our diverse programs. Our teacher professional-development workshops, Discover the DIA educator open houses, and Visual Thinking Strategies workshops significantly increased teacher involvement with the museum.

Our community partnerships have facilitated collaboration with area municipalities and local groups through the very popular Inside|Out program, art-making workshops in the museum studio and at local festivals. Partnerships with local art centers have created programs such as Gallery to Gallery tours, and we've expanded programs to seniors throughout the region. We also initiated the program Minds of Art with the Michigan Alzheimer's Association for people living with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias and their caregivers.

The passage of the millage was a real game changer, bringing financial stability to the DIA and enhancing our ability to serve our many audiences. To all who supported our efforts last year and in the time since, thank you for your help in making the DIA an institution of undoubted relevance in the region's social, civic, and cultural life.

Graham W. J. Beal

Exhibitions

Ellsworth Kelly Prints

Through September 8
Schwartz Galleries of Prints and Drawings and Special Exhibition Galleries: Central

White House photo

This has been quite the year for Ellsworth Kelly--he turned ninety, had major exhibitions in four cities, including the print retrospective here in Detroit, and was awarded the National Medal of the Arts. President Barack Obama, when presenting Kelly with the medal, praised the artist for "his contributions as a painter, sculptor, and printmaker. A careful observer of form, color, and the natural world, Mr. Kelly has shaped more than half a century of abstraction and remains a vital influence in American art."

Meanwhile, museums around the country are showing his work: Kelly sculptures, prints, and paintings are on view in New York and Philadelphia and, in Washington, D.C., the Phillips Collection is featuring his flat geometric canvases, layered to create wall sculptures. At the DIA, nearly fifty years of art are featured in a two-part retrospective of prints. His iconic color abstract prints, created from the mid-1960s through to the present, are on view in the first-floor Schwartz Galleries. Upstairs, in the Special Exhibition Galleries, off Rivera Court, are his black-and-white prints that continue the same explorations of highly refined geometric shapes.

Related books are available in the museum shop or online.

Above: Ellsworth Kelly, American; Blue Black Red Green, 2001; lithograph on Lanaquarelle 640 gram paper. © Ellsworth Kelly and Gemini G.E.L., LLC, Los Angeles

Ellsworth Kelly Prints is drawn entirely from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation in Portland, Oregon. Support for this exhibition is provided by Jordan D. Schnitzer and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, Portland, Oregon, with additional support in Detroit provided by Dede and Oscar Feldman, Marjorie and Maxwell Jospey Foundation, Lisa and Robert Katzman, Marianne and Alan Schwartz, Marc Schwartz, Lori and J. Patrick Stillwagon, Ileane and Bruce Thal, and the City of Detroit. The exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Detroit Film Theatre

The DFT rounds out the 2013 summer season with four more of the Saturday matinee Animation Club shows, popular with both kids and adults, and five feature-length films.

Two of the animation films come from Japan: Laputa: Castle in the Sky on August 3, about a young girl and an engineer's apprentice who hunt for a legendary floating castle, and Whisper of the Heart on August 17, about the connection between a student spending her summer vacation translating foreign music and an aspiring violinist. Mia and the Migoo, playing August 10, is an adventure tale evoking the works of Van Gogh and Cezanne through its 500,000 hand-painted frames. In Azur and Asmar, two brothers, long separated, join forces to set free the imprisoned Djinn Fairy. All showings are at 3 p.m.

The evening features include a startling documentary on Indonesian death-squad leaders of the mid-1960s, The Act of Killing (left); Museum Hours, about a guard who befriends a visitor to an art museum and grounds her in the history displayed on the walls; and The Hunt, a gripping depiction of how a lie becomes the truth when gossip and malice ignite a witch hunt.

For a complete schedule or to purchase tickets, click here. The 2013 fall season begins of the weekend of September 6, 7, and 8, with the new award-winning biopic Hannah Arendt.

The DFT is presented by Buddy's Pizza.

Lawn Party

The DIA throws its second Lawn Party of the summer with activities on the South lawn Friday, August 16, and Sunday, August 18. Bring a chair or blanket to sit on and make yourself comfortable.

Friday Night Live features Wild Belle, siblings Natalie and Elliot Bergman, who share a lifetime of musical experiences embracing many genres. Wild Belle marks the duo's first official collaboration, with a sound that combines rock rhythms, disco beats, and soul. Performances are at 7 and 8:30 p.m. Food trucks on the Woodward circle drive add a street-fair touch to the event.

On Sunday at 2 p.m., its Poetry, Puppetry, Music, and More! from the Cooperfly Puppet Troupe in a presentation that brings together a variety of interactive poetry, puppetry, music, storytelling, comedy, singing, and movement in a lively show. For ages five and older.

Conservation Updates

Rivera Drawings

Diego M. Rivera, Mexican; Figure Representing the Yellow Race, 1932; brown and red pigment with charcoal over light charcoal. Gift of the artist

Curators, conservators, and photographers have finished their careful examination of Diego Rivera's preparatory drawings, known as cartoons, for his Detroit Industry murals, rolling up the last of the thirteen large sheets of paper and returning them to storage.

Interesting information came to light during the study, including previously unknown sketches on the back of the drawing for the Yellow Race. An abandoned version of the figure showed a completely different orientation of the head and body. Drawings were also suspected to be on the back of Infant in the Bulb of a Plant cartoon, but after a team of eight staff members turned the 4.5 feet tall and 26 feet wide sheet, that proved not to be the case.

The examination, documentation, and preservation of Diego Rivera's "Detroit Industry" cartoons is provided by support from Bank of America's Conservation Project. The research project is made possible by a generous grant from the Bank of America.

Gracehoper

The tent covering the Gracehoper is in place on the North lawn, allowing needed conservation on the sculpture to proceed. The tent, the same type used for temporary airplane hangars, is built on steel rails that allow it to be rolled back periodically so that the project team can check the surface in sunlight and make corrections as necessary. For more on the history of Gracehoper at the DIA, click here.

The Gracehoper conservation project is funded by Friends of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, the Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation, the Dedalus Foundation, and the Marjorie and Maxwell Jospey Foundation.

Museum Shop

This August, the Museum Shop has put together a selection of gifts appropriate for the back-to-school crowd as well as some automotive-themed gifts in honor of the Woodward Dream Cruise. And, as if that weren't enough, shipping is free on all Harveys Seatbeltbags. Shop the selection at diashop.org or head to the museum and escape the heat.

Fash Bash

Art and fashion come together in the annual Founders Junior Council Fash Bash® fundraiser on Thursday, August 15, at 7 p.m, featuring a cocktail party on the front steps of the museum, a Neiman Marcus "Art of Fashion" runway show in the Great Hall, and late night dancing. Tickets are still available in several categories, including "Fashionably Late," which provides access to an exclusive late-night cocktail party. All proceeds from this year's event benefit the museum's unrestricted endowment.

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: comments@dia.org 

ADMISSION
$8 adults, $6 seniors, $4 children
The museum is free for members and residents of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties
Contact the Membership HelpLine at
313.833.7971 or membership@dia.org 

For group sales (15 or more) contact 313.833.1292 or dia.org/grouptours 

HOURS
Museum
Mon CLOSED
Tue, Wed, Thur 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Fri 9 a.m.-10 p.m.
Sat, Sun 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

PARKING
Valet parking is available at the Farnsworth entrance on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, during regular museum hours. Beginning Tues., Dec. 4, valet parking is available all open hours. The price per car is $10.

Lighted, secure self-parking is available in the Cultural Center parking lot, between John R and Brush, behind the museum.

Ford Second Sundays are generously supported by the Ford Motor Company Fund. Next Ford Second Sunday, August 11.

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 Coffee Stop
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 museumshop@dia.org
Open during museum hours or online at diashop.org 

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