The old DIA paper membership cards have been replaced with scannable plastic cards with the barcode on one side and a classic work of art on the other. I would be curious to see how many new memberships the grand three week preview process will inspire. It is fairly difficult to see and appreciate all the artwork currently on display, where prior to the expansion, one could feel fairly satisfied of viewing everything in one trip. So, I became a statistic and purchased my own membership.

Designing exhibit halls ain’t easy. You have to take into account the type of art being show, the time period of its creation, a theme the curatorial staff is trying to convey to the visitor, and the tones of the artwork.

That said, your DIA has done an terrific job of creating spaces for the art. Galleries incorporate historical interior design features that take you to the time and place of the art’s creation. Take, for example, the entrance to the Italian Art gallery on the second floor/Farnsworth Street side. The Corinthian capitals and Ogee-arched entrance way takes you into the seventeenth-century Italy portrayed in the paintings.

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After a six-year and $158-million-dollar renovation, the Detroit Institute of Arts will re-open its doors to the general public this Friday, November 23. ADMISSION IS FREE and the museum will be open for 32 consecutive hours of special events, music, and open galleries.

The DIA has been re-thought, re-structured, re-vitalized, and is ready to be revealed.

Metroblogging Detroit got a sneak peak at the new museum and will be posting about it every day up until the Grand Opening on Friday. We’ll help you to get an idea what to expect out of the new DIA. Most importantly, we hope you will join in the discussion about the museum–what it means to the city, the community, and to you.

Feel free to comment and tell us what you like or dislike about the museum. What left you amazed? What left a little something to be desired? In its new form, does DIA stand for the Detroit Institute of Awful or the Detroit Institute of Awesome?

The picture above is an original piece of art made by me, on leather skin, at the museum’s Family Room on the second floor. Examine it closely. You can tell by the Realist mode in which I attempted to capture the Penobscot Building and One Detroit Center, by the Post-Impressionalist perspective with which I captured antelope being hunted by boatsmen, and by the play of color on a dark canvas, that I am a sucky artist.

Q: Hey, are you going down to the Dream Cruise this weekend?
A: meh

If you’re like me and your answer to this question is also “meh,” then you may be more interested in a couple of activities that are more aesthetic than automotive in nature.

Joe’s 13th Annual Art Party

It’s that time of year again, the time that Joe goes out of his way to throw an art party. To be honest, I’m not sure who this mysterious Joe is. Apparently, said Joe has no artistic talent at all but really, really likes the stuff and likes when people get together to look at it. He hosts this party every year and asks local artists and performers to share their art. So who is this Joe? Well, he’s our art party man. And if he can’t do it, no one can, I suppose.

Highlights for this night will include the performance of excerpts from the new play “A Chinaman’s Waltz” by local playwright John Karabetsos (music by Colton Weatherston), which one performer involved described a “vanguardy cabaret musical.” Sounds pretty cool. There will also be a live jazz band, a DJ to keep you dancin’ into the wee hours, and plenty of local art to “hmmm,” and “Oh wow,”and “Now, that’s interesting” to your heart’s content.

But art snobs beware. Joe’s Art Party is for the proles. Leave snubbed noses and airborne pinkies at home.

Joe’s 13th Annual Art Party takes place at the Iodent Building, Centaur Lounge; 2233 Park Avenue, Detroit, Michigan; Downtown behind the Fox Theatre
Doors open at 8 pm, free admission, cash bar

Last Tourist CD Release Party

Detroit band Last Tourist had this awesome idea recently. You see, they’re releasing a CD called “Portrait of a Marathon,” which I hear is pretty darn good. In order to celebrate the new release, they decided to book a show at Small’s in Hamtramck, get a couple of other bands to play, and have a party! A CD Release Party!

Their MySpace profile, which includes two sample tracks, saith: “If Detroit has become synonymous with “Garage Rock” in your mind, Last Tourist will confound all of your expectations.” Confounding of expectations? Yes please.

Doors open at 8:00. $7 cover. Porchsleeper and Deastro open

And if you’re walking the streets of Detroit or Hamtramck on Saturday and are still feeling wistful for some car-lookin’, I promise I’ll slow down a bit so that you can get a good look at my Ford Focus. She’s a real beaut, Clark!

Unlike the ‘Body’ exhibit at the Detroit Science Center, the Ansel Adams exhibit at the DIA will end on May 27, and the museum will close its doors that evening for five months while the final leg of its expansion and restoration is completed.

‘The Thinker’ will be missing from its normal spot in front of the museum, too; on May 21, it heads to Frederic Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids so work can be done around the DIA’s Woodward Avenue entrance.

But, the staff at the DIA wouldn’t leave us with nothing to do this summer; they provide these fun summer activities to tide us over during the construction and renovations.

I haven’t had a chance to go over and see the controversial “Body” exhibit at the Detroit Science Center yet, so I was glad to hear that it won’t be ending on May 28 after all. The Science Center has extended the exhibit through September 3. The exhibit includes 20 human bodies and 135 anatomical positions.

On February 3rd the Cranbrook Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) open its doors to the public for the Shrinking Cities exhibit. Cranbrook will focus on the urban decline of three European cities in “Shriking Cities: International Research”, while MOCAD will focus on the urban decline in Detroit in “Shrinking Cities: Intervention”. Admission for adults is $6 at Cranbrook; however, if you arrive from the MOCAD on the free shuttle your admission too will be free. Admission to the MOCAD is free to the public. I am really looking forward to this.

Today is the final day of the Annie Liebovitz American Music exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

My husband and I went over to see the exhibit on Friday and were shocked when we arrived at 6:45 pm and the tickets were completely sold out! Sure, it was disappointing, but I was so happy to see the DIA packed on Friday night. We ended up just enjoying the rest of the art there instead.

If you still want to see ‘American Music’, you better act fast – the DIA closes at 5 pm today. If you plan on going, do yourself a favor and call ahead because tickets may already be sold out. The main line for the museum is 313.833.7900.

Leroy – aka Roy – and Julia Richie of Birmingham gave Plowshares Theatre Company something to smile about this holiday season: a $30,000 charitable donation. A portion of the donation will be used to establish an endowment for Plowshares, which opened in 1989.

Kudos to the Ritchie’s for giving away some of their hard-earned money to Plowshares, a non-profit arts organization that seeks to “produce plays and programs that inspire, exhibit, and affirm African American life.”

I’m not a huge fan of contemporary art per se but if you are, you might enjoy the brand new Museum of Contemporary Art that is having it’s grand opening this weekend. It’s pretty pricey before 9:30 but after 9:30 the cover is $10 bucks. I suspect there is a cash bar and a DJ. I might go. I haven’t made up my mind yet.

They’re located on Woodward Ave next to the Garfield building north of downtown nearby the Majestic Theatre. It doesn’t really look like a museum at all. It kind of looks like an abandoned storefront. Supposedly, they have some cool renovations that are going to happen though on the exterior.