Dennis Hollingsworth

Detroit Institute of the Arts

A highlight of our holiday trip to Michigan (second of course to having kids crawl all over you like monkey bars) was a visit to the Detroit Institute of the Arts (DIA) in the heart of Detroit's city center. Newly renovated and recently reopened, the architecture both in the restoration and addition was wonderful and the collection is impressive. Here's a blurb from the DIA website:

The DIA has been a beacon of culture for the Detroit area for well over a century. Founded in 1885, the museum was originally located on Jefferson Avenue, but, due to its rapidly expanding collection, moved to a larger site on Woodward Avenue in 1927. The new Beaux-Arts building, designed by Paul Cret, was immediately referred to as the ?temple of art.? Two wings were added in the 1960s and 1970s, and a major renovation and expansion that began in 1999 is scheduled for completion in 2007.

The museum covers 600,000 square feet that includes more than 100 galleries, an 1,150-seat auditorium, a 380-seat lecture/recital hall, an art reference library, and a state-of-the-art conservation services laboratory. The current renovation and expansion will add 77,000 square feet.

This is definite must see and I look forward to returning and studying the collection in depth next year.

The primary draw for me was the Detroit Industry murals by Diego Rivera. Here are a panoply of images culled from our trip...