The Detroit Institute of Arts’ Teen Council formally invites teens, ages 13 – 19, to the Teen Gala! Enjoy a night filled with mingling with fellow teens, live musical performances, art making, dinner, and dancing. A special annual summit-style discussion with fellow youth councils in the metro Detroit area will give teens an opportunity to learn about local teen events held in their community. 

Dress Code: Formal 
 

Sponsored in part by the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation.

Please join us for this educator-exclusive morning of relaxation and refreshment. Detroit Yoga Lab will host a no-experience-necessary yoga session in historic Rivera Court. Participants will also enjoy a complimentary smoothie bar and art-making session.

All educators are welcome at this event. Dress cozy and bring a yoga mat or thick blanket.

The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival began in 1992 as a joint effort between Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings and local religious institutions. Since then, the organization has brought some of the world’s most acclaimed chamber musicians to the city for a two-week Festival that occurs in venues across the metropolitan area. In 2023 the DIA will host Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival with a special Juneteenth performance by composer Carlos Simon. 

Having grown up in Atlanta, with a long lineage of preachers and connections to gospel music to inspire him, Simon proves that a well-composed song can indeed be a sermon. His compositions span genres – jazz, gospel, and contemporary classical music are noticeable influences – and can be found everywhere from film scores to concert music.

Simon is the current Composer-in-Residence for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and frequently writes for the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera, with the 2022/23 season seeing premieres with Boston Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Art Song Society and Minnesota Orchestra – a large-scale tribute to George Floyd and the ongoing movement for racial justice. These follow recent other commissions from the likes of New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and performances from Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and American Ballet Theatre.
 

In 2023, the DIA will host Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival with performances by the Pelia and Hesper String Quartets with a program of works by Robert Schumann and Dmitri Shostakovich:

• SCHUMANN String Quartet No. 3 in A major, Op. 41, No. 3
• SHOSTAKOVICH Two Pieces for String Octet, Op. 11
• SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartet No. 15 in E-flat minor, Op. 144

The Pelia String Quartet was formed at the Emerson String Quartet Institute of Stony Brook University in 2019. The quartet received a special prize at the 2022 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, a bronze medal at the 2022 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and were winners of the 2022 Ackerman Chamber Music Competition. The Pelia Quartet served as the resident string quartet for the SUNY Artist Residency in 2020-2021. 

The Hesper String Quartet is a Korean-American chamber ensemble that was formed as a student group at Stony Brook University in 2022. Since its formation, the quartet maintains an energetic balance of performing works by Beethoven, Schumann, and Haydn, while performing works by living composers such as Joan Tower. 

The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival began in 1992 as a joint effort between Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings and local religious institutions. Since then, the organization has brought some of the world’s most acclaimed chamber musicians to the city for a two-week Festival that occurs in venues across the metropolitan area. 

DIA Members See It First!

This exhibition is a comprehensive survey of the work of Ghanaian photographer James Barnor, whose career spans more than six decades. A studio portraitist, photojournalist, and Black lifestyle photographer, Barnor was born in 1929 in the West African nation of Ghana. He established his famous Ever Young Studio in Accra in the early 1950s and devoted his early photography to documenting critical social and political changes that celebrated a nation on the cusp of independence from Britain.

Image: James Barnor (Ghana, b. 1929). A shop assistant at Sick-Hagemeyer Accra, 1971 (printed 2010–20). Chromogenic print. Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière, Paris.

© James Barnor, courtesy Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière, Paris.

See this extraordinary exhibition before it opens to the public and hear welcome remarks at 7 p.m. by Nancy Barr, the James Pearson Duffy Curator of Photography, and Nii Quarcoopome, the Curator of African Art. 

Create a pencil drawing to take home while taking a closer look at the collection. No experience is necessary. All supplies provided.

For ages 6 - Adult (children ages 12 and younger should be accompanied by an adult). Capacity is limited.

Create a pencil drawing to take home while taking a closer look at the collection. No experience is necessary. All supplies provided.

For ages 6 - Adult (children ages 12 and younger should be accompanied by an adult). Capacity is limited.

This year’s celebration show will share the journey into Bengali, Burmese, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Polynesian, Taiwanese, Thai, and Vietnamese cultures through music and dance.

Samples of Thai delicacies by James Beard Award-nominated Chef Genevieve Vang will also be shared.  

Director’s Note: America is created by people from different parts of the world. We came here bringing the threads of our culture that have been woven into the fabric of our great country, the American dream. 

Our country’s fabric is rich with color, texture, contrast, and aesthetics. Migrating to America creates a new section of our tapestry, the rich history of our ancestral thread is woven into our evolving culture. Sometimes the migration is not measured in miles but in transition of thought, from our old traditions to the ways of our new land. Our ancestor’s influences have laid a path to the present and technologies have made history more accessible, allowing us to add more depth to our rich fabric of life. 

With 150 years of Asian Americans in Michigan, we can use our resources to spread the arts as a universal language, expressing ourselves in a global community, showing our sense of beauty, and our challenges.

Featured Performances:

• Plum Blossoms | Performed by ArtLab J, Choreographed by Joori Jung
• Morning Light | Performed by J.Z Dance Studio, Choreographed by Joanne Zheng
• Blossom | Performed by Inner Action Dance Team, Choreographed by Anna Lou
• Hakka Umbrella Fusion | Performed by Wind Dance Chinese Cultural Group, Choreographed by Sharon Dow
• Thank you Mekong River | Performed by Ntxhais Tshiab Ci, Choreographed by Brea Yang
• Love the Fickle Lantern | Performed by Vietnamese American Association of Michigan-Dance Team, Choreographed by Loan Anh Pham
• Bulaklakan | Performed by Magkapuso Group of Salvation Army Farmington Hills Corps, Choreographed by Flor Penner
• Snow Plateau | Performed by J.Z Dance Studio, Choreographed by Joanne Zheng
• Dancing Stories of Bollywood Beats | Performed by Indian Rhythms of Dance - The Life Mantra Academy, Choreographed by Forem Mehta
• Joyful Nature of Bangladesh | Performed by Michigan Kalibari Nrityangan, Choreographed by Mohua Das Sarkar
• Chilugen, Revolving of Four Seasons | Performed by Eric Gantumur
• Warrior Horse | Performed by Xiao Dong Wei and Austin Liczbinski
• The Last Time | Performed & Composed by Shin Hoo Yong
• Let’s Celebrate with the Lion Dance! | Performed by Buddhist Family Youth Group of America - From Linh Son Monastery in Warren Mi (Representing Vietnamese American Association)

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage American Month programs are developed in partnership with the DIA’s auxiliary group Friends of Asian & Arts Cultures and funded in part by the Freeman Foundation.

Registration for programs in Rivera Court is highly encouraged - capacity will be limited.

Please arrive early - 5 minutes prior to performance start any open seats will be forfeit and given to visitors who are on-site, regardless of registration.

Photo Credit: 2022 AAPI Cultural Show