The DIA to the Rescue...

Unlike most modern day museums which stand on their own as a non-profit entity, the Detroit Institute of Art has been a city run and endorsed institution. Following the ups and downs of the city, the DIA has constantly faced challenge after challenge head on in the pursuit to stand as a landmark not only for the city and state, but as an international epicenter of culture and preservation. With Detroit now facing a bankruptcy in the tens of millions of dollars, the emergency manager is looking to the DIA as a potential source of revenue. By selling of a plethora of the museum's collections, the EM hopes to come closer to balancing the cities budget and put Detroit back on track. But could saving the city be killing one of it's most valuable entities?

The DIA has always bridged the gap of technology and "higher" education with the rough, urban culture of Detroit. Working hard with the numerous neighborhoods that make-up Detroit, the DIA has become a center of gathering. Not only do people come to see the museum and it's esteemed collections, but people come as a refuge. Kids who after school have no place to go can find a safe, comfortable environment within the museum walls and participate in numerous activities and events the museum is consistently sponsoring. Music fills the halls of masterpieces during the evenings making the museum almost the "hip" place to be.

By selling of the collections and treating them as just anonymous collateral, the city of Detroit is demeaning the reputation and purpose of the museum, as museums are established as a cultural preservation and learning tool, but only truly survive and grow through the partnership of their communities. "Sold" could be the new label under the 18th century China pieces as if nothing more than a piece of salvage metal. "For Sale" Pieter Bruegel the Elder's "The Wedding Dance" waiting to be moved to an anonymous home and lost in records. It is crucial that these culture pieces be preserved, not only for research and curatorial purposes, but for the pure enjoyment of the public masses. To privatize a collection through it's dismantling among elite buyers would be archaic and petty.

Why not have a night of profit from a Detroit Tigers game be donated to the city to improve the budget? Or perhaps fundraiser evenings at the DIA or the Detroit Symphony Orchestra with proceeds going to balancing the budget and preserving the great culture of Detroit? Have the Motown Museum host such Michigan natives as Jack White, Bob Seger, Alice Cooper, Tim Allen, Eminem and/or Diana Ross (to name a few) to help save the city from a corporate, totalitarian demise?

Much can be done to save Detroit, but parting out culture institutions like a gutted animal is the most barbaric means possible.

http://www.freep.com/article/20130908/ENT05/130905007/DIA-in-peril-museum-s-relationship-Detroit-politics-finances
#DIACollections #SavetheCity #ArtisCulture #DetroitHistory #SavetheMuseum #PureMichigan