Last weekend, Amber and I visited the DIA because, shockingly, I hadn’t been there in years. It’s difficult realizing all of the things I have missed out on just because of my peers’ prejudices surrounding Detroit. I guess the positive way to view that is, at least I’m experiencing it now!
One thing that I really enjoyed about the DIA was that it acknowledged the fact that it was in Detroit. Not only was the Diego Rivera mural beautiful, but the museum pieces were curated to not just be a tribute to the white european pieces that are so popular in many museums. Though these pieces have importance, they probably would not mean much to many people living in Wayne county, and certainly don’t mean much to me.
It reminded me of a TED talk I saw at U of M about stereotyping in cinema. The TED talk covered how negative portrayals of Arabs as terrorists or rich oil sheikhs aren’t necessarily the problem, but the concentration of incidences of this being their only portrayal in movies is what is wrong. The solution to this problem is that any race, religion, orientations, etc be portrayed as both the good guy and the bad guy in equal measure in cinema.
So back to how this relates to the DIA.
Normally you find an abnormally high amount of white, european, renaissance art and if there is another color of person presented, it is in the form of savagery or slavery. That is not to say that there is anything wrong with the art that was made in a different time with values quite different than our own, but that art should represent the many roles people in this day and age occupy. I’m also not saying that there is an overwhelming amount of art that has, for example, a black woman as the elegant centerpiece, but that museums such as the DIA should try to collect art that shows the diversity of the world in which we live.
I love the pictures and format of this blog post. I agree that there is an over representation in cinema of certain ethnicities or cultures being the “bad guy.” Hopefully one day this will change. I love the DIA because it probably has more cultural art then any other museum I have ever been to in the US. I’ve been to a lot of museums and DIA has character that many museums do not. I could be biased since European Art is something I truly cannot identify with, but I love the selection at the DIA. I find my latino, Arab and even Detroit heritage being represented quite well there. Most museums have nothing at all that represents me.
I also agree that there should be more diversity in the arts at the DIA, but that also applies to all museums. I do truly hope that we could collect more representatives arts from all cultures in the DIA…someday.
I’m glad I saw this! I’m planning on checking out the DIA next weekend, and I never would have known about this aspect of the museum otherwise. Hopefully, the talk of the DIA liquidating its assets to help pay off the city’s debt never comes to fruition…