Friends of Modern and Contemporary Art Annual Meeting, Artist Conversation, and Reception

Presented by the Detroit Institute of Arts’ Friends of Modern and Contemporary Art and Michigan Central Art

Schedule

5:30–6 p.m. | FMCA Annual Meeting, Marvin and Betty Danto Lecture Hall

• For FMCA members only; advance registration required.

6–7:30 p.m. | Artist Conversation: Ash Arder & Kevin Beasley, Marvin and Betty Danto Lecture Hall

• Free and open to the public; no registration required.
• Join contemporary artists Ash Arder and Kevin Beasley for presentations on their work, followed by a conversation moderated by Kelly Kivland, Director and Lead Curator at Michigan Central, and Katie Pfohl, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the DIA.

7:30–9 p.m. | FMCA Member Reception, Rivera Court

• For FMCA members only; advance registration required.

Artist Bios

Ash Arder (she/they) is a Detroit-based artist whose work explores ecology, industry, and labor through installations, sound, and material experimentation. Their recent solo exhibition Flesh Tones was presented at Cranbrook Art Museum in 2023.

Kevin Beasley (he/him) is a New York-based artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans sculpture, sound, photography, and performance. His recent installation PROSCENIUM | Rebirth / Growth: The Watch / Harvest / Dormancy: On Reflection is on view at Storm King Art Center until November 2025.

Join Ngoc Minh Ngo (author and photographer) and Ivan Shaw (Corporate Photography Director at Condé Nast) for a conversation about her career and lifelong engagement with flowers and gardens. Ngo’s work has appeared in The World of Interiors, T Magazine, Vogue, and Architectural Digest, and she is the author of three books: Bringing Nature Home, In Bloom: Creating and Living with Flowers, and Eden Revisited: A Garden in Northern Morocco, each featuring her own photography.

Ngo will also discuss her latest publication, Roses in the Garden. The inspiration for this series and book came from her father, a former colonel in the Vietnamese army and avid gardener who settled with their family in California in the 1970s. In his final days, Ngo tended his garden in hopes he would see his roses bloom one last time. After his passing, she returned to Brooklyn, New York, where she lives, volunteered at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and began photographing rose cuttings. What started as a personal meditation grew into a series exploring the rose’s cultural and historical significance, culminating in a book celebrating the iconic flower and the renowned gardens where it thrives.

Image: Ngoc Minh Ngo, Ninfa Garden, Italy, 2022. Courtesy of the artist. (c) Ngoc Minh Ngo, 2025.

Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment

Dr. Mary Morton, Curator and Head of French Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Last year marked the 100th anniversary of the groundbreaking 1874 exhibition in Paris, widely regarded as the birth of Impressionism. In this lecture, Dr. Mary Morton will share new insights from her recent scholarship, examining the social, political, and cultural forces that shaped this pivotal moment in France. She’ll explore how the artists we now call Impressionists responded to the world around them — and how their work fit within a broader, dynamic artistic landscape, where they exhibited alongside the official French Salon.

The Lecture is presented as Bonnie Ann Larson Modern European Artists Series Lecture.

Image: Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872, oil on canvas, Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.

Join the DIA and the Friends of Asian Arts and Cultures in celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

To honor the significance of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month to the community, our Opening Ceremony features special guest speakers and three music performances that span genres and cultures.

Featured Performances:

• Mongolian Tribute Songs to Genghis Khan | Performed by The Throat Singer
• Champa Mueng Lao | Performed by Team Sitthideth
• The Drinking Song (茶花女－饮酒歌) and Altar Rendezvous (敖包相会)| Performed by Jie Wang & Jinsheng Zhang

For families with children of all ages. This program is free with museum admission. Seating is limited – arrive early as seating begins 30 minutes prior to the performance.

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPIHM) programs are developed in partnership with the DIA’s auxiliary group Friends of Asian Arts and Cultures (FAAC) with support from Michigan Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission (MAPAAC).

Weekend Family Programs at the DIA are generously presented by the MSUFCU Desk Drawer Foundation.

Bring your funny bone and thinking cap as Master Storyteller Ivory D. Williams shares his trademark wit, wisdom, and humor in a fun, interactive celebration of Juneteenth.

This program is free with museum admission.

Weekend Family Programs at the DIA are generously presented by the MSUFCU Desk Drawer Foundation.

Featuring puppets, games, special guests, stories, drawings, music, and dance parties, The Rainbow Beard Show celebrates curiosity, play, and shared human experiences. Join host Ricky Rainbow Beard and their friends as they explore the fun of dressing up! What does it mean to dress up? When do you do it? Why?

This participatory live theater performance is inspired by classic children’s programming like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Sesame Street, and is designed for kids ages 4–8 (and their grownups).

For families of all ages.

Pride Themed docent-led guided gallery tours will be offered one hour prior to event start time, meeting at the DIA Woodward lobby entrance. The tours will be approximately 45-minutes in length.

Weekend Family Programs at the DIA are generously presented by the MSUFCU Desk Drawer Foundation.

The DIA's Friends of Modern and Contemporary Art presents a conversation on urban renewal with scholars Esther da Costa Meyer and Lauren Hood. During the second half of the 19th century, Paris underwent a radical transformation which provided a model for urban renewal, widely accepted in its day, while at the same time dramatically increasing social inequality. Considering the urban past and present of Paris and Detroit, Da Costa Meyer and Hood will discuss how the impulse to modernize impacts local communities.

Esther da Costa Meyer is Professor emerita, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, and the author of Dividing Paris: Urban Renewal and Social Inequality, 1852–1870.

Lauren Hood is Assistant Professor of Practice in Urban and Regional Planning at University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and the Founder and Chief Visionary of the Institute for AfroUrbanism (IAU), a global think tank exploring the conditions for Black thriving.

Presented with American Sign Language interpretation.

This event is sponsored by the Friends of Modern and Contemporary Art. A private reception for FMCA members will follow the lecture. Become an FMCA member to access special members-only experiences.

Photo: Aerial view of Paris, ca. 1870

Experience the highlights of the DIA on a free guided tour with American Sign Language interpretation. Tours meet in the Great Hall at 1 p.m. and last approximately 45–60 minutes.

Experience the highlights of the DIA on a free guided tour with American Sign Language interpretation. Tours meet in the Great Hall at 1 p.m. and last approximately 45–60 minutes.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, author Nancy Nichols discusses her new book, Women Behind the Wheel: An Unexpected and Personal History of the Car. The automobile had an outsized impact on American culture and industry. Nichols will explore how car design is uniquely gendered, and the distinct role it has played in defining modern womanhood. 

Books will be available for purchase and a book signing will follow the lecture.

Presented with live American Sign Language interpretation

This event is sponsored by the Friends of Modern and Contemporary Art. A private reception for FMCA members will follow the lecture. Become an FMCA member to access special members-only experiences.