Artist Interventions: Defining and Disrupting the Museum Space

Speaker: James Rondeau

Museums have long served as both contested sites and sources of inspiration for artists. Reflecting on his nearly 30-year career at the Art Institute of Chicago, President and Director James Rondeau will explore how the framework of the museum—its collection and institutional structures—offers artists a methodology that is both generative and analytical. He will share examples of how American artists of the 20th and 21st centuries have used the museum as a site of intervention and a catalyst for new work, disrupting and redefining its spaces.

The Byron and Dorothy Gerson Lecture Series honors the lifelong commitment of the Gersons to the DIA, bringing to Detroit distinguished speakers who have deep and profound insights into 20th and 21st century American art to benefit the DIA and metro Detroiters long into the future. The Byron and Dorothy Gerson Lecture Series is made possible by the William Davidson Foundation.o

Join the European Paintings Council (EPC) for their Autumn Lecture! This free, public event will feature Dr. Juliet Carey, Senior Curator at Waddesdon Manor in London, speaking about her book Jewish Country Houses.

The exhibition The Shakers: A World in the Making explores the belief system and material world of the Shakers, an American religious group founded in the late 18th century, and their lasting influence on art and design today. 

This talk will examine how the Shakers’ worldview shaped their production and architecture, their 20th-century legacy, and the many ways artists and designers continue to draw on the Shakers as a framework for envisioning a better world.

The Lecture is supported by the Ida and Conrad H. Smith Fund.

Installation view from The Shakers: A Work in the Making, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany.

The DIA and Next Chapter Books are thrilled to host author Angeline Boulley for a live reading and signing during her Fall 2025 book release tour of Sisters in the Wind. 

Partners include South Eastern Michigan Indians, Inc. (SEMII), the North American Indian Association of Detroit (NAIA), and American Indian Health & Family Services (AIHFS). 

Taking place on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, this highly anticipated, once-in-a-lifetime community experience, will offer registered guests of the discussion a free self-guided tour of Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation.

Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. She is a former Director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Her debut novel Firekeeper's Daughter was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller and the recipient of numerous international accolades, including the ALA Printz and Morris Awards, the YA Goodreads Choice Award, and the Walter Award for Outstanding Children's Literature. Angeline lives in southwest Michigan, but her home will always be on Sugar Island.

Join us for an engaging Member Lecture with Valerie Mercer.

Explore works from the DIA's renowned African American art collection in a reimagined presentation at the heart of the museum, right next to Rivera Court. This fresh take on the collection celebrates the creativity, impact, and resilience of Black artists.

Lecture by Artist Anita Bates, PhD, "The Colors of Memory"

Dr. Anita Bates will be presenting selected images of her paintings and discussing her journey as an artist and how her life experiences have impacted her work. This lecture will focus on her current body of work which weaves together threads from her creative process throughout the last 30 years; references include familiar elements of past work such as implied and tactile textured surfaces as well as the introduction of new elements such as collage and other media.

Dr. Anita Bates is a 2019 Kresge Arts Fellow and a contemporary artist whose work has been exhibited in several venues locally, nationally and internationally. Currently she serves as an Associate Professor of Teaching and Program Coordinator for Visual Art Education at Wayne State University.

Image: Trilogybeats

Presented in conjunction with the focus exhibition Guests of Honor: Armor as Fashion (on view through April 26, 2026), this lecture will introduce the 17th-century knight, diplomat, and art collector Jean de Croÿ. Dr. Chassica Kirchhoff, Assistant Curator of European Sculpture & Decorative Arts, will explore Croÿ’s self-presentation within the glittering world of the Spanish Habsburg court.

In addition to Croÿ’s story, Dr. Kirchhoff will share the complex, intersecting histories of his portrait by Juan van der Hamen y Léon and the surviving elements of the spectacular, gilded armor featured in the painting.

This program, hosted by the Visiting Committee for European Sculpture and Decorative Arts on the occasion of its Annual Meeting, is free, open to the public, and presented with live American Sign Language interpretation.

Join us for a special Member Lecture with curator Denene De Quintal.

Join us for a special Member Lecture for Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation with artist and speaker Jonathon Thunder.

Join us for The Art & Culture of Eating, a special evening featuring Jamila Robinson, editor-in-chief of Bon Appétit and Epicurious and one of today's most influential voices at the intersection of food, art and culture.

A native Detroiter who grew up visiting the DIA, Robinson brings visionary leadership to food media, shaping conversations that explore how food expresses identity, tells stories, and brings communities together.

In this intimate on-stage conversation with Rochelle Riley, longtime journalist and Director of Arts and Culture for the City of Detroit, she'll reflect on the cultural influences that inspire her, the dual role food plays as sustenance and entertainment, and explore the creative overlap between food, art and community.

Audience Q&A will follow the conversation.

Presented with American Sign Language interpretation