Lessons From the New DIA – Detroit, Michigan
Detroit has a well-deserved reputation internationally as being a blank" >target="_blank" >capitol of innovation. From the much touted innovations of glossary/industrial/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="fc4fd597cf53f0a565d149e79cc1cbf4" target="_blank" >industrial pioneer Henry Ford and his architect Albert Kahn, to serving as the “Arsenal of Democracy” helping America get through World War II, to the innovative sounds of Motown singers and other performers to follow like Madonna, Eminem, and others – this is what Detroit is known for.
To this list may be added efforts to reposition the Detroit Institute of Arts – an institution which throughout its history has been a ceiling-medallion/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="557374c3eebbede5d82414433d1f21e7" target="_blank" >center of innovation in its own respect, located in a city whose reputation is so tied to the concept of innovation.
The original 1927 Paul Cret designed museum was notable for its blending of classical beaux-arts-classicism-2/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="2a9609919cae9a10d27e2d356dd16d1f" target="_blank" >Beaux Arts design with a new arrangement of the collection around a series of “period rooms”. Previously museums had installed complete rooms or had been built around whole structures that had been moved, such as the Pergammum altar in Berlin, or galleries of the Louvre which had been actual rooms in the royal palace, but to have art from the period installed in period rooms was a Detroit innovation.
Addition of a south wing in 1966 and a north wing in 1971 expanded available display space by another eleven acres. Size isn’t everything though. Challenges associated with managing and maintaining environmental conditions inside the museum (art has very specific requirements in which to be displayed) and the inherent complexity of the floor-plans/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="ad9aafa3fd5343a9b76d14dc64f2ad79" target="_blank" >floor plan demanded a new solution.
Museum director Graham Beall, not satisfied with simply redoing the building, led his staff and outside experts on a process to fundamentally adjust the way that the rich collection of Detroit’s museum may be viewed by visitors.
Instead of reinstalling exhibits more or less as they were before, in the new building accommodations were made to organize work around themes that had greater meaning and significance for visitors. For each object in the collection – two basic questions were asked: 1) why was this created, and 2) why is it in the DIA?
The end result of this process is the total transformation of the visitor experience. Instead of experts interpreting and displaying works for other experts chronologically, a genuine effort was made to make these same works accessible to a general audience. Whether the Detroit Institute of the Arts is successful in this venture remains to be seen once the museum opens. But in the few remaining days before this happens, it is worthwhile to consider what lasting effect the reorganization of the Detroit Institute of Arts has for the whole city and region at large?
Innovation in Detroit
A clear and decisive shift has occurred from business as usual, to what can only be described as the ethos of a new Detroit. Lofts in historical buildings, with fixtures and furnishings by leading designers with the Detroit Design Center, and furniture from shops like Mezzanine, are helping to create a new Detroit which is unlike any previous version of Detroit that came before.
The origins as a frontier metropolis, industrialization and production of the automobile, and even the past several decades as structural economic change has occurred are all well known and documented. This is not the same Detroit that loft owners, visitors to Campus Martius Park, and those coming in increasing numbers to sporting events and casinos are experiencing. While one Detroit knows of scarcity, limitation, dirtiness, and often outright industrial ugliness, the new Detroit is youthful, clean, and a place where people increasingly want to be.
Despite these advances, a group of people saw how it was still the earlier negative image of Detroit that was being presented in regional and national media and press, so a group of innovators came together and sought to present this new Detroit. Whereas the DIA today is trying to make its rich collection of artifacts accessible to a general audience, Model D is attempting to make the whole city accessible to visitors who are unaware of what is happening here or who may have written the whole place off.
Lasting Lessons
There may be certain lessons to learn from the DIA experience of re-branding and re-packaging their museum and collections that might also inform and guide efforts to re-position and re-brand the region.
1. Appealing to specialists is not enough. Instead, thoroughly understanding the interests of a general audience and then tailoring and targeting messages and stories directly to them is a more effective approach.
2. Start where people are at and build from there. The closest followers of Model D and similar publications are those who are in the know. For many people their knowledge of Detroit is fairly limited. They may have visited the new Comerica Park or attended other events in the city, and it is there where the educational process must begin.
3. Interpret familiar objects (or places) in a new and innovative way. Do not accept the conventional wisdom as it has been passed down. Instead, seek breakthrough insights by looking at the same place from a different angle or in a different light (i.e. Detroit is not a struggling place, but a laboratory of experimentation and a place on the rise thanks to the passion and commitment of innovators).
4. Tell a story that people enjoy. There are so many stories to be told. Authentic stories tie in with actual lived experiences of folks in different places. So telling these “people stories” along with “place stories” can only help.
5. Finally, just let yourself go. Let your self go to the DIA. Let your self go to Detroit. The city is a feast for all of the senses and one where all people will want to be in the early decades of this new century, nearly a century after industrial pioneers created the place as we more or less know it today.
The Results
The next few months may be among the most exciting in the history of the DIA and Detroit for that matter. As the museum recreates itself the city all around it is recreating itself too. The potential these two phenomena have if carried out to their logical conclusion is that a rebounding city will provide the much sought after but little realized goal of a financially stable museum. The logic could not be simpler though – stronger city, stronger DIA. And to the extent that the new DIA provides a model for how this transformation may be done and helps to mediate this effort, makes the investment made in this venerable institution through the decades worthwhile. This potential may be captured best in the words of Robert Browning, “the best is yet to be.”