DIA Members: Exclusive 20% Savings!
November 8-17

DIA Members are invited to enjoy an exclusive 20% discount on all purchases from November 8-17. Plus, take advantage of free holiday gift bagging for all gift purchases!

Double Discount Kick Off Event: Friday, November 8, 3-6 PM
Kick off your holiday shopping with an exclusive evening event just for members! Stop by the Museum Shop from 3-6 PM on November 8 to:

• Browse new arrivals and unique finds
• Meet local vendors Onzie Norman and Bevel Designs
• Enjoy a pop-up experience with Halie & Co., offering permanent jewelry bracelets

Don’t miss this chance to shop, connect with artisans, and enjoy member-only perks!

Shop now at the DIA Shop! https://diashop.org/ 

The Friends of African & African American Art (FAAAA) will honor Andrew Camden & the late Gayle Shaw Camden with its 2024 Margaret Herz Demant Award for African Art. A program in the Danto Lecture Hall highlighting the Camdens' past and ongoing contributions will conclude with a reception in the FJC Dining Rooms. 

This event is free and open to the public, registration is required. 

• Demant Awards: 2:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.
• Reception: 2:45 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.

The exhibition The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World, is on view through January 5, 2025 and features works of art from a broad geographical expanse, including Arab, Turkish, Persian, and South Asian regions—and beyond. In this VCESDA-sponsored lecture, Dr. Katherine Kasdorf, DIA associate curator of Arts of Asia and the Islamic World, will highlight the exhibition’s European objects, exploring their connections to artistic and culinary traditions from the Middle East.

This lecture is free with registration. 

Image: Islamic, Spanish, Pharmacy Jar, 1440-1480, tin-glazed earthenware with cobalt and luster. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of K. T. Keller, 63.358.

Artist photographer Cara Romero will share a body of work and offer her perspective on conceptualization, process and experiences making photographs for the last 25 years. Looking at the spirit of capturing light and time, Romero brings together intricately woven stories of both individual and collective heritage, intertribal identity and human experience. Pressing for intercultural understanding of contemporary lived experience, Romero’s photographs often check preconceived notions of what Native art is and counters stories of monolith culture and stereotypes perpetuated by mainstream society. Sometimes serious and sometimes whimsical, her work involves magical realism, untold American history, and contemporary visual dialogues of Native peoples and ideas.

Join us for an opportunity to understand how Romero’s art serves as a powerful medium for preserving and evolving indigenous narratives in the contemporary world.

Event is free with registration, and open to the public.

• Lecture (Marvin & Betty Danto Lecture Hall): 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
• Reception (FJC Dining Rooms): 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. 

Tour the DIA’s new contemporary exhibit, 7 Mile + Livernois, by artist Tiff Massey. Then, at 7:30 PM, join DJ Shaun J. Wright for dancing and a cash bar in Rivera Court and the Great Hall.

7 Mile + Livernois is Tiff Massey’s new gallery installation, featuring sculptures commissioned by the DIA in conversation with works by other artists from the museum’s collection. Massey’s work reimagines art’s role in the community, offering a vibrant, inclusive view of Detroit. Her art invites us to celebrate collective identity, ancestral flyness, and beauty.

Raised in suburban Chicagoland, Shaun J. Wright spent their teen years immersed in the sounds of house music. During their undergraduate years at Morehouse College, they developed skills as a dancer in the vogue ballroom scene. As a DJ, Wright steadily exhilarates dance floors by weaving live vocals throughout their sets, performing internationally in Berlin, London, Stockholm, Barcelona, and in their hometown of Chicago at the Smart Bar.

This program is free with registration. Capacity is limited, and registration is recommended. DJ Shaun Wright’s set will not be a seated performance.

• Gallery experience: 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. 
• DJ experience: 7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. 

Join us to celebrate the MC5’s upcoming induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with two events (information below) and the release of MC5: An Oral Biography of Rock’s Most Revolutionary Band. Variety hails the book as “definitive,” and Rolling Stone calls it “worthy of the band’s legacy.” Meet the authors Brad Tolinski (Guitar World) and Jaan Uhelszki (Creem) for a book signing and a brief discussion about the band moderated by WDET host Liz Warner. The evening will be capped off with a dynamic set from the Motor City’s legendary garage rock band, The Detroit Cobras.

• MC5 Book Release hosted by Liz Warner: 6:30 p.m. 
• Friday Night Live! featuring The Detroit Cobras: 7 p.m

MC5: An Oral Biography of Rock’s Most Revolutionary Band will be available for purchase during the event at the DIA Shop. 

Event is free with museum admission.

BRITISH ARROWS 2024

The ingenious “adverts” of British TV continue to dazzle and delight, earning annual recognition with the prestigious British Arrows awards (formerly the British Television Advertising Awards). The winners are curated into a celebratory compilation that has become a cult favorite in cinemas worldwide, including the DFT. These brief films, often only a minute or two long, showcase the compact storytelling that allows creators to stretch their imaginations to new heights. The result is a display of quirky inventiveness, playfulness, and a distinctive British wit that brings a sincere yet off-center charm to each product, service, or public service message.

A door-busting phenomenon for years at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where over 20,000 attendees enjoy sold-out shows annually, the British Arrows have now become a beloved December tradition at the DIA as well. The screenings offer a satisfying blend of eccentricity and creativity, making them a standout event in the world of advertising. (approximately 80 minutes)

(India/France/Netherlands/Italy/2024—directed by Payal Kapadia)

Moving effortlessly from urban bustle to seaside tranquility, this new fiction feature is a heartfelt and exquisite film. All We Imagine As Light is the first Indian film to screen in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 30 years.

Directed by Payal Kapadia, the film is both elegant and visually sophisticated, and it transports viewers emotionally. It follows the lives of two nurses in Mumbai: one with an ex-husband and the other with a new boyfriend. As they navigate their professional and personal lives, they face turning points and private decisions filled with the potential for romance.

Starring Kani Kasruti and Divya Prabha, the film offers one of the year’s most satisfying emotional journeys. It won the Grand Prize at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. All We Imagine As Light is in Malayalam, Hindi, and Marathi with English subtitles. (110 minutes)

“So delicately felt and sensuously textured that it’s a cause for outright celebration.” –Justin Chang, The New Yorker

(Senegal/Benin/France/2024—directed by Mati Diop)

In November 2021, 26 treasures stolen by French colonial troops in 1892 from the African Kingdom of Dahomey were prepared for their return to the present-day Republic of Benin. These artifacts were inspected and packed in crates in Paris, marking the beginning of their journey home.

The restitution of these artworks has ignited a rich and urgent discussion among students at the University of Abomey-Calavi. They are exploring how to view the return of these stolen artifacts in a country that has evolved significantly in their absence.

Acclaimed director Mati Diop presents this dialogue through a poetic and immersive documentary, incorporating multiple perspectives, including the imagined voice of one artwork.

The film addresses themes of colonization, appropriation, self-determination, restitution, and human creativity. Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival, Dahomey is both spellbinding and essential. The film is in French, Fon, and English, with English subtitles. (68 minutes)

“A superb, potent documentary… Striking, stirring and exquisite.” –Jessica Kiang, Variety

Join us for our Annual Meeting to review the events and programs of the 2023-2024 year. The evening will also feature a special viewing of the new exhibition, "The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World," with Curator Katherine Kasdorf.