Detroit Institute Of Arts Reopens After Major Renovation

Detroit, Mich.

:After more than six and a half years of renovation and expansion work, the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) reopens November 23, on the heels of a grand opening gala celebration that was called the "hottest party of the year." The nearly $160 million project included major infrastructure upgrades to the historic Beaux-Arts building, renovations to the South and North Wings and construction of a 31,282-square-foot addition designed by Michael Graves.

The resulting 35,000 square feet of new exhibition space — a 30 percent increase that brings the museum's total to 150,000 square feet — facilitates display of more than 5,000 works from the DIA's fine permanent collection, plus additional areas to showcase special exhibitions.

The DIA is thus now able to exhibit more of its holdings as well as offering new programming to provide insights into the arts. A complete reinstallation of galleries, in which paintings, works on paper, sculpture and decorative arts are displayed simultaneously, seeks to provide visitors with a more comprehensive and engaging experience of the museum's holdings, which total some 60,000 works of art.

The DIA's British-born director, Graham W.J. Beal, saw the building project as an ideal opportunity to reinstall the prestigious collection in new, integrated ways that help visitors better relate to and understand the art. It looks as though he has succeeded.

"The driving principle behind the reinstallation," museum officials observe, "is the primacy of the art objects themselves. The galleries are presented in a series of multiple, simultaneous exhibitions, each drawn from the extraordinary scope and caliber of the DIA's collection, to convey the history of art and the stories of world culture."

Because the DIA's aging facilities were overdue for restoration and because the museum was unable to show stellar works from its encyclopedic holdings due to a lack of space, this renovation/expansion seems to avoid pitfalls associated with some of the many similar art museum renovations going on around the country. Works exhibited are first-rate and look better in integrated galleries. Focus remains on what is in the building, not the building itself.

What a collection this museum has to show off! The centerpiece remains Diego Rivera's fascinating "Detroit Industry" mural, created in 1932–1933, a series of frescoes on the walls of the central courtyard that pay tribute to the dignity of working men of all races and the technologically advanced machines on which they worked in the 1930s.

Rivera was originally commissioned to paint just two of the largest panels, but he was so intrigued by Detroit and the Ford Motor Company's Rouge industrial complex that he suggested painting murals on all four walls. It took eight months for Rivera to complete the 27 panels. Edsel Ford, president of both the Detroit Arts Commission and Ford Motor Company, funded the project for $20,899.