Maxwell Feinberg
Pronouns: he/him
Research Mentor(s): Damani Partridge
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Department of Anthropology and Department of Afroamerican and African Studies / LSA
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Oral5
Session: Session 1 – 10am – 10:50am
Room: Breakout room 2
Authors: Damani Partridge, Maxwell Feinberg, Justin Mason, Brendan Cameron
Presenter: 6
Abstract
Museums and Publics: Engaging Detroit, Berlin, and the Future of the City questions how everyday citizens engage in shaping their city. The project answers this question with a series of short films analyzing how Detroit citizens interact with and influence the Detroit Square project. My team’s film, titled Where is the D in the DIA: Community Engagement and the Future of the City looks directly at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), the principal institution affiliated with the Detroit Square project. My partners and I seek to determine how the Cultural Center Planning Initiative addresses a divide between Detroit citizens’ views of the DIA’s obligation to the community, and the Institute’s present initiatives. Without engagement with the Detroit community, this plan for the Detroit Square serves as a tourist attraction, not a public space meant to empower the community. Through interviews with Cultural Center Planning Initiative administrators, and Detroit citizens outside of the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, we hope to seek out residents of Detroit interested in the arts and understand varying levels of engagement with different institutions in the Cultural Center of Detroit. These interviews will offer insight into the genuine opinions of arts-engaged citizens of Detroit and lay the groundwork for the DIA to improve its service to the community. The final product will be a short documentary. What use is the “comeback†of Detroit if it does not enhance the lives of its citizens?
Arts and Humanities, Interdisciplinary
