The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) today announced the receipt of a $150,000 grant from the William Davidson Foundation and a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Our Town program to support the development of a conceptual plan to reimagine the museum’s Woodward Avenue grounds.
“We want to be a gathering place for everybody,” says Salvador Salort-Pons, DIA director. “Vital to this plan is a museum-wide push to engage in public dialogue, to talk with our neighbors and enlist their suggestions on how best to connect the museum grounds to our surrounding community.”
Creating a conceptual plan for the DIA’s front grounds is the first of a three-phase project. Following the plan’s completion, the DIA will begin raising additional funds to finance phase two, the development of architectural schematics for the town square’s exterior design, and phase three, breaking ground on an exterior capital project.
With support from the William Davidson Foundation and the NEA, the DIA will cultivate a team of local representatives, consultants, and experts to develop a conceptual plan for the museum grounds that brings the collective vision for the town square to life. The plan will reflect the involvement of metro Detroit residents, other area cultural institutions, the City of Detroit Planning and Development Department, and the William Davidson Foundation.
“By converting its front grounds into a town square, the DIA is opening wide its arms to embrace its surrounding neighborhoods and offering Detroit a new public gathering place,” adds Darin McKeever, chief program and strategy officer at the William Davidson Foundation. “We wholeheartedly support this effort and believe benefits to residents and visitors alike will flow for years to come.”
The DIA is home to more than 60,000 works of art from ancient times to the 21st century.
