LMich
Feb 12, 2007, 7:00 AM
New Contemporary Art Museum Puts Down Roots In Detroit
February 7, 2007, Associated Press
From its home inside a gutted former Dodge dealership, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit is working to fuel artistic collaboration as a place to reflect on the city and talk about the world.
The lifts that mechanics used to hoist cars for repairs are gone. But much remains as it was found in the museum's raw, cavernous galleries, such as the brown tiles that once covered the showroom floor.
Instead of shiny new cars, gritty art sits on that floor -- and covers the walls and spills outside.
"The building has the character of the city and the city has this wonderful rawness and the urban soul, from all this history," said Marsha Miro, one of the museum's founders. "And we don't want to erase this."
The museum, which opened in October, is the latest addition to the city's cultural center and was a decade in the making. Miro, a longtime art critic for the Detroit Free Press, and gallery owner Suzanne Hilberry first envisioned it as a satellite of the venerable Detroit Institute of Arts, located a few blocks away.
The Richard and Jane Manoogian Foundation bought the old car dealership, which had been used for storage by a nearby hospital, as a possible site. And while opening the museum with the DIA didn't work out, a deal with the foundation allowed MOCAD, as it's known in short, to get its start.
Andrew Zago, an architect with offices across the street, renovated the 21,000 square-foot building. Some walls are painted, but many bear the marks of past changes and repairs.
The building offers flexibility. Speakers hang from the ceiling of one gallery, allowing musicians to play at museum events, and chairs stacked along one wall can be brought out for such shows or arranged as a cafe. After winter passes, an outside wall of the building may be used to show films.
For now, the exterior is spray-painted in bold, black and silver letters -- the work of graffiti artist Barry McGee.
"It's more like a work in progress," Miro said. "It will continue to accumulate history and add to the history that's here. What's really important to us is not for it to feel so defined that when you come here you always know what you're going to find, but that we are constantly reinventing and changing."
Susan Mosey, president of the University Cultural Center Association, said MOCAD should help raise the profile of area artists. The association is a nonprofit planning and development group for Midtown, where MOCAD is located along with Wayne State University, the College for Creative Studies and the DIA.
"It complements some of the traditional museums we have here," Mosey said.
MOCAD opened with an exhibition titled "Meditations in an Emergency," which explores the unsettled conditions of modern life. This month, MOCAD brought in "Shrinking Cities," a project by the German government's Federal Cultural Foundation that examines struggles of urban areas including Detroit.
After premiering in Berlin in 2004, the exhibit traveled to Halle and Leipzig, two German cities examined by artists, architects, filmmakers and sociologists for the project. Manchester and Liverpool, England; and Ivanovo, Russia, are included along with Detroit in "Shrinking Cities," which is making its U.S. debut.
To bring "Shrinking Cities" to the area, MOCAD partnered with Cranbrook Art Museum, which is part of the more than century-old Cranbrook Educational Community in the suburb on Bloomfield Hills. Cranbrook is hosting part of the exhibit examining urban decline, while the part at MOCAD focuses on strategies for change.
For decades, Detroit has tried to deal with the effect of declining population, first because of whites who fled for the suburbs and more recently among blacks who have followed. According to recent U.S. Census estimates, Detroit's population of 836,056 is down 55 percent since peaking at more than 1.8 million in 1950 -- and continues to slide, down 7 percent from 2000 to 2005.
During the "Shrinking Cities" exhibit, which runs through April 1, a bus will take visitors on the about 20 mile ride between MOCAD and Cranbrook. It's one more example of how MOCAD hopes to collaborate with existing cultural institutions.
And MOCAD hopes to help showcase the city's strengths, which Miro said often are overlooked.
"We feel like Detroit's always lumped into this category as a failing city, Miro said. "Despite our problems, there's a kind of vitality and energy and a courage here that I don't think you find in a lot of cities."
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/10954623/detail.html?rss=det&psp=news#
February 7, 2007, Associated Press
From its home inside a gutted former Dodge dealership, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit is working to fuel artistic collaboration as a place to reflect on the city and talk about the world.
The lifts that mechanics used to hoist cars for repairs are gone. But much remains as it was found in the museum's raw, cavernous galleries, such as the brown tiles that once covered the showroom floor.
Instead of shiny new cars, gritty art sits on that floor -- and covers the walls and spills outside.
"The building has the character of the city and the city has this wonderful rawness and the urban soul, from all this history," said Marsha Miro, one of the museum's founders. "And we don't want to erase this."
The museum, which opened in October, is the latest addition to the city's cultural center and was a decade in the making. Miro, a longtime art critic for the Detroit Free Press, and gallery owner Suzanne Hilberry first envisioned it as a satellite of the venerable Detroit Institute of Arts, located a few blocks away.
The Richard and Jane Manoogian Foundation bought the old car dealership, which had been used for storage by a nearby hospital, as a possible site. And while opening the museum with the DIA didn't work out, a deal with the foundation allowed MOCAD, as it's known in short, to get its start.
Andrew Zago, an architect with offices across the street, renovated the 21,000 square-foot building. Some walls are painted, but many bear the marks of past changes and repairs.
The building offers flexibility. Speakers hang from the ceiling of one gallery, allowing musicians to play at museum events, and chairs stacked along one wall can be brought out for such shows or arranged as a cafe. After winter passes, an outside wall of the building may be used to show films.
For now, the exterior is spray-painted in bold, black and silver letters -- the work of graffiti artist Barry McGee.
"It's more like a work in progress," Miro said. "It will continue to accumulate history and add to the history that's here. What's really important to us is not for it to feel so defined that when you come here you always know what you're going to find, but that we are constantly reinventing and changing."
Susan Mosey, president of the University Cultural Center Association, said MOCAD should help raise the profile of area artists. The association is a nonprofit planning and development group for Midtown, where MOCAD is located along with Wayne State University, the College for Creative Studies and the DIA.
"It complements some of the traditional museums we have here," Mosey said.
MOCAD opened with an exhibition titled "Meditations in an Emergency," which explores the unsettled conditions of modern life. This month, MOCAD brought in "Shrinking Cities," a project by the German government's Federal Cultural Foundation that examines struggles of urban areas including Detroit.
After premiering in Berlin in 2004, the exhibit traveled to Halle and Leipzig, two German cities examined by artists, architects, filmmakers and sociologists for the project. Manchester and Liverpool, England; and Ivanovo, Russia, are included along with Detroit in "Shrinking Cities," which is making its U.S. debut.
To bring "Shrinking Cities" to the area, MOCAD partnered with Cranbrook Art Museum, which is part of the more than century-old Cranbrook Educational Community in the suburb on Bloomfield Hills. Cranbrook is hosting part of the exhibit examining urban decline, while the part at MOCAD focuses on strategies for change.
For decades, Detroit has tried to deal with the effect of declining population, first because of whites who fled for the suburbs and more recently among blacks who have followed. According to recent U.S. Census estimates, Detroit's population of 836,056 is down 55 percent since peaking at more than 1.8 million in 1950 -- and continues to slide, down 7 percent from 2000 to 2005.
During the "Shrinking Cities" exhibit, which runs through April 1, a bus will take visitors on the about 20 mile ride between MOCAD and Cranbrook. It's one more example of how MOCAD hopes to collaborate with existing cultural institutions.
And MOCAD hopes to help showcase the city's strengths, which Miro said often are overlooked.
"We feel like Detroit's always lumped into this category as a failing city, Miro said. "Despite our problems, there's a kind of vitality and energy and a courage here that I don't think you find in a lot of cities."
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/10954623/detail.html?rss=det&psp=news#