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Workshops

Drop-In Workshop: Wire Sculpture

Find inspiration in the galleries, then head to the Artmaking Studio and create your own sculpture using colorful wire — a portrait, an animal, something to hang on the wall or in the window, or even something to wear!

Films

I’ll Be Your Mirror: Queer Documentary Shorts

Inspired by the themes of this year’s Mighty Real Queer Detroit biennial, I’ll Be Your Mirror: Reflections of the Contemporary Queer, is a program of LGBTQ+ documentary shorts curated by filmmaker Adam Baran. Drawn from films produced during the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ll Be Your Mirror assembles an intergenerational portrait of queer lives in these increasingly perilous times. You’ll visit the sites of early rights rebellions in Los Angeles and San Francisco, experience a punk rock fairytale in Florida, observe three elders grappling with their place in the world, and witness firsthand lives filled with beauty, joy, and hard-fought freedoms, balanced against backgrounds of isolation, climate catastrophe, racism, and transphobia. Out of the Corner of Our Eye USA/2023 — directed by John Ira Palmer (11 min.) Out of the Corner of Our Eye asks what queer space looks like—and might mean—today. This poetic documentary reflects on seven iconic, formerly queer spaces in Los Angeles that are no longer what they were, including a lesbian community haven, a research center funded by a pioneering trans man, and the custom-built home of America's first well-known drag performer. How to Carry Water USA/2023 — directed by Sasha Wortzel (16 min.) This punk rock fairytale doubles as a portrait of Shoog McDaniel—a fat, queer, and disabled photographer working in and around northern Florida’s freshwater springs. For over a decade, McDaniel's photographs have transformed how a fat-phobic society views fat bodies. The film immerses audiences in a world of fat beauty and liberation, in which marginalized bodies—including bodies of water—are sacred. Compton’s ‘22 USA/2022 — directed by Drew de Pinto (16 min.) In August 1966, three years before the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, sex workers and drag queens in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood rioted against police violence at the all-night diner Compton's Cafeteria. There was no news coverage, and the arrest records no longer exist. Decades later, trans historian Susan Stryker interviewed the surviving Compton’s Queens, including professional drag performers and those who identified with terms like girls, queens and hair fairies. Queenie USA/2020 — directed by cai thomas (20 min.) Queenie is a 73-years-young Black lesbian who has lived in The Marcy Projects in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood since 1988; now, she’s ready to move to a building that meets her mobility, safety, and social needs as an aging elder. She applies to Stonewall Residences, New York's first affordable housing for LGBT elders, hopeful she’ll be able to live out her final days in a place she can call home. The Girl That Got Away USA/2023 — directed by Lauren Veen & Ephi Stempler (14 min.) After four decades playing tough guy roles, a Mexican American actor in San Francisco must choose whether to continue presenting as male or come out as female and risk losing job security and family acceptance. Merman USA/2023 — directed by Sterling Hampton IV (10 min.) A 58-year-old Black queer man speaks about his life as an emergency nurse, leather titleholder, and civil rights advocate. Bigger on the Inside USA/2022 — directed by Angelo Madsen Minax (11 min.) From an isolated wooded cabin, a trans man stargazes, Scruff-chats with guys, watches YouTube tutorials, takes drugs, and lies about taking drugs—feeling his way through a cosmology of embodiment. Bigger on the Inside probes the boundaries between interior and exterior, to consider bodily insides as passageway and portal to the immensity of longing. Presented in partnership with Mighty Real/Queer Detroit.

Films

Freep Film Festival: Luther: Never Too Much

USA/2024 — dir. Dawn Porter The signer Luther Vandross started his career supporting David Bowie, Roberta Flack, Bette Midler, and many more. He was nicknamed "the Velvet Voice," and despite having multiple platinum albums and top 10 hits, he struggled to break out of the R&B charts. “Considering the stamp he put on the American music industry, it feels strange there hasn’t yet been a documentary about his legacy until Dawn Porter’s Luther: Never Too Much … after experiencing her loving portrait you can’t imagine Vandross’ story being told by anyone else.” — Tomris Laffley, Indiewire Tickets for all Freep Film Festival screenings hosted at Detroit Film Theatre are available in advance at freepfilmfestival.com. Produced by the Detroit Free Press, the Freep Film Festival focuses on documentaries, especially those with connections to Detroit and Michigan. Screenings include in-depth discussions with directors, film subjects, and community members. Freep Film Festival also presents live events at venues throughout metro Detroit, with activities centered in the downtown core. 

Reform School (restored)

(USA/1939—directed by Leo C. Popkin)  Louise Beavers gives a commanding lead performance as the crusading Mother Barton in this race film long believed to be lost. Beavers plays a probation officer who comes to the defense of young inmate Freddie (Reginald Fenderson) and his pals (the Harlem Tuff Kids) who are subject to constant harassment at a corrupt reform school. The film’s director, Leo Popkin, is one of the three co-founders of the Million Dollar Productions company that produced and distributed films for Black audiences. Its other co-founders were Popkin’s brother Harry and writer-producer-actor Ralph Cooper, “The Dark Gable.” This screening will be introduced by special guest Rhea Combs, Director of Curatorial Affairs, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and co-curator of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971 at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. (68 min.) Free with museum admission.  This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.    

Workshops

Drop-in Workshop: Collage Portrait

Use fabric, paper, and other materials to create your own collage self-portrait influenced by artists in the DIA collection including Benny Andrews, Betye Saar, and Mickalene Thomas. All supplies provided. Free with admission.

Films

Tótem

(Mexico/France/2023—directed by Lila Avilés)     Seven-year-old Sol (Naíma Sentíes) is helping her aunts prepare for her father’s surprise birthday party. As the house becomes increasingly boisterous, her father’s mysterious absence grows more and more concerning.  “There isn’t a false note in the tender Mexican drama Tótem With intricate staging and camerawork, and an expressionistically warm palette — along with charming appearances from the natural world — writer-director Lila Avilés creates a richly textured, deeply compassionate portrait of a family that’s falling apart as one of the youngest members comes into consciousness.” –Manohla Dargis, The New York Times.  In Spanish with English subtitles. (95 min.)  

Films

Total Trust

(Germany/2023—directed by Jialing Zhang)   For decades, China has been monitoring its citizens using high-tech security and surveillance. In this fascinating documentary, Jialing Zhang (co-director of One Child Nation) immerses us in the daily reality of half a billion cameras pointed at people as they go about their daily lives, invasive neighborhood watch programs, employees monitored for stress levels, and a ”social credit” point system that has rewards for community service and penalties for societal infractions. With the assistance of dozens of anonymous locals, Zhang focuses on three courageous women fighting for civil liberties and justice. This is a bracing portrait of a society for whom privacy is all but extinct, and a warning for democracies using surveillance in unprecedented ways.  In Mandarin with English subtitles. (97 min.)  “Absolutely vital. Remarkably balanced and journalistically sophisticated.” —Jason Gorber, POV Magazine    

Lectures

Titian, Rubens, and Heroic Portraiture at the Habsburg Courts

The European Paintings Council (EPC) will host a lecture with special guest Dr. Diane Bodart. Dr. Bodart is the David Rosand Associate Professor of Italian Renaissance Art History and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Columbia University.

Lectures

Art on the Edge: Framing American Paintings from Colonial to Modern

Join frame historian Tracy Gill, co-founder of New York’s Gill & Lagodich Fine Period Frames, who will discuss the evolution of frame styles over two centuries of American art.  Drawing on examples from DIA’s collection, Gill will survey changing tastes from 17th-century painted frames and gilded hand-carved fancies to innovative 19th-century trends and opulent models from the Gilded Age. She will discuss the artist-designed frames on James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s Arrangement in Gray: Portrait of the Painter and the monumental landscapes of Frederic Church, as well as the elegant frames designed by architect Stanford White to house paintings owned by Detroit collector Charles Freer. Finally, Gill will explore the early 20th-century transition to handcraftsmanship, when American Impressionist painters were inspired to commission custom frames from Arts and Crafts artisans, and the progression to deceptively simple surrounds conceived by modernists such as Florine Stettheimer, Arthur Dove, and Georgia O’Keeffe, who pushed the boundaries of their canvases and rejected traditional gilded frames in favor of pared-down profiles finished in white, silver, and hand-painted or textured wood.  Through this talk, attendees will join Gill in looking not just at the paintings, but the art around the art — the art of the frame.  Special thanks to the Ida and Conrad H. Smith Fund.

Lectures

Bonnie Ann Larson Modern European Artists Series Lecture by Susan Sidlauskas

Cézanne's Other: Hortense Fiquet Cézanne, as Painted by Her Husband, Paul Speaker: Susan Sidlauskas, Distinguished Professor of the History and Theory of Modern Art at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey    Paul Cézanne painted more portraits of his wife, Hortense, than any other sitter—the Detroit Institute of Arts boasts one in its collection. But these paintings have not often received attention. Compared to the sensual appeal and beauty of his apples in his still lifes and his landscapes, the portraits were viewed as “unattractive” or “uninteresting.” Cézanne produced most of the paintings of Hortense during his period of greatest experimentation, allowing us to track the ways in which he remade the modern portrait. Indeed, this lecture will demonstrate audience that Hortense was Cézanne’s most significant “other.”  This event is part of the DIA's Bonnie Ann Larson Modern European Artists Series.

Workshops

Drop-In Workshop: Collage Portrait

The term “collage” derives from the French word for glue, and describes artwork made from a mix of materials. In this workshop, use the collage process and a mix of materials to create a portrait of someone important to you. Free with admission; all supplies provided.

Films

Return to Dust

China/2022 | Dir. Li Ruijun Two middle-aged people—Cao, a timid, frail woman and Ma, an unassuming farmer—are pushed into an arranged marriage in the poor rural province of Gaotai in northern China. Ma has little to offer beyond a small house and some barren land, but he’s a patient, skilled farmer, and over time their garden begins to thrive, as does their relationship, until their peaceful existence is threatened by encroaching urbanization, as the local government begins incentivizing landowners to uproot their lives and to move to the city. Meticulously shot over a full year, this moving, humanist work establishes director Li Ruijun as one of the most important voices of Chinese cinema. In Mandarin with English subtitles. (134 min.)  “A moving portrait of China’s disappearing rural way of life, Return to Dust, like much of Li’s work, is a triumph of indie filmmaking.” —David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter  

Workshops

Drop-In Workshop: Instant Photos and Picture Frames

DIA Studio staff will help you snap a portrait with an instant film camera then use a variety of art-making materials, including beads, markers and collage papers, to decorate a 5-by-7 inch frame made from corrugated cardboard.  Presented in conjunction with the exhibition James Barnor: Accra/London, on view through October 15. 

Films

Chile '76

Directed by Manuela Martelli / 2022 In this much-awarded movie, all seems fine in the comfortable Chilean bourgeois world of Carmen (played by Aline Kuppenheim) and her family. She has a summer house she’s renovating, and performs charitable works through her church. But when the family priest asks her to take care of an injured young man he has been sheltering in secret, Carmen is unwittingly drawn into the world of Chilean politics—with potentially disastrous consequences for her family. Building convincingly from quiet character study to gripping Hitchcockian thriller, Chile ’76 explores one woman’s precarious flirtation with political realities during the early days of the Pinochet dictatorship. In Spanish with English subtitles. (95 minutes) “A period thriller of beguiling power, energized by its portrait of one woman’s heroism.” —Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

Pop-up Portrait Studio with Capturing Belief

After exploring James Barnor’s groundbreaking portrait photography in the exhibition James Barnor: London/Accra, come be the subject of your own portrait. Photography students from Capturing Belief, a local nonprofit focused on giving young Detroiters the tools to tell their stories, invite you to experience an individual studio portrait session. Come explore your own image! Participants will get a copy of their images (while supplies last).