Art of the Deal

The “Grand Bargain,” an $820 million plan to save the vast collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts from creditors during the City’s historic bankruptcy proceedings, has proven — a decade later — to be one of the most consequential adversary proceedings in municipal history. // Photos courtesy of the DIA
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iego Rivera’s "Detroit Industry" mural at the DIA was among several pieces on the potential chopping block during Detroit's bankruptcy.
Diego Rivera’s “Detroit Industry” mural at the DIA was among several pieces on the potential chopping block during Detroit’s bankruptcy.

One of the most valuable and treasured pieces of “art” that graces the Detroit Institute of Arts on Woodward Avenue hangs on a wall outside of public view within the third-floor lobby of the museum’s administrative offices, high above the African American and
Modern Art galleries.

The framed ink-and-graphite sketch and its accompanying notes, drawn on a cardboard backing from a legal pad, is named the “Grand Bargain Doodle.” It was created by former Judge Gerald Rosen, who, in 2013, as the Chief U.S. District Judge in Detroit, was named the lead mediator in Detroit’s bankruptcy proceedings — the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Grand bargain doodle
A thank you plaque for the donors who helped make the Grand Bargain possible.
Right: The original “Grand Bargain Doodle” that former Judge Gerald Rosen created in 2013 hangs in a private area of the DIA.

The sketch and notations represent an early vision of his innovative plan, which ultimately secured $820 million from charitable foundations, the State of Michigan, and the DIA (gifts from individuals and corporations) in an unprecedented partnership that saved the museum and its art, reduced City employees’ pension cuts, and helped resolve Detroit’s 2013 bankruptcy in just 17 months.

In addition, two property tax millages passed by voters in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties in 2012 and 2020 represent nearly two-thirds of the museum’s $39.3 million annual operating budget. With a growing endowment from philanthropic support, the DIA is now on solid financial ground.

“When I arrived in 2008, the DIA was trying to survive, but today we’re in a very stable financial situation,” says Salvador Salort-Pons, who’s been the director of the DIA since 2015.

The original Detroit Museum of Art was privately founded in 1885 and opened its first building along East Jefferson Avenue in 1888. In 1919, after running into funding problems, it was rechristened the Detroit Institute of Arts and became a City department. In 1997, the City transferred all museum operations to the Founder’s Society, although it retained ownership of the art and the current building, which opened in 1927.

The DIA’s collection, which consists of 65,000 works and artifacts, is among the top five in the United States and is represented by exceptional American, European, Modern and Contemporary, and graphic art, while its hallmark is its diversity with significant works of African, Asian, Native American, Oceanic, Islamic, and Ancient art.

Among the famous artists represented are Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Rodin, Van Gogh, Picasso, Giacometti, Warhol, Rothko, Whistler, Rubens, Cezanne, Matisse, Gauguin, Seurat, Monet, Kehinde Wiley, Mickalene Thomas, Eric Thomas, Maria Blanchard, and Artemisia Gentileschi.

During the 2013 Detroit bankruptcy proceedings, widely disparate estimates of the value of the collection ranged from $454 million to as high as $8.5 billion.

Exterior of DIA
With more than 100 galleries and thousands of works of art, the DIA, built in 1927, has one of the most significant collections in the United States.

The museum encompasses 658,000 square feet and houses more than 100 galleries, lecture spaces, and a 1,200-seat theater that has hosted the Detroit Film Theatre for half a century. Every year, dozens of workshops and events take place at the museum that Salort-Pons has called “the region’s town square.”

One of the crown jewels of the institution is Diego Rivera’s “Detroit Industry” murals, completed in 1933. The monumental frescoes, highlighted by two main panels on the north and south walls depicting workers at Ford Motor Co.’s massive Rouge Plant in Dearborn, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2014.

Modern painting
“Officer of the Hussars” by Kehinde Wiley (2007) is one of 65,000 works of art at the DIA.

And to think that all of this could have been lost nearly 10 years ago, if not for the “Grand Bargain.”

The story of how the Grand Bargain was accomplished could serve as a master’s course in innovative thinking, negotiations, fundraising, “crucial conversations,” and governance.

Four months after then Gov. Rick Snyder declared a financial emergency and appointed Kevyn Orr as Detroit’s emergency manager on July 18, 2013, with estimates of a debt level as high as $18.3 billion, 60 percent of which was tied to unfunded public employee pension and health care benefits, the City filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

A month later, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes named Gerald Rosen, U.S. District Chief Judge for the Eastern District, as the chief judicial mediator for the bankruptcy case. In turn, Rosen appointed other mediators, including the late attorney Eugene Driker, and several members from his court, to help settle the case.

Rosen first kept a long-standing Florida golf trip with his 15-year-old son, Jake, and departed with court reading materials that disclosed an assetless bankruptcy except for the DIA’s art collection and building.

“I thought, Oh, great, my legacy will be selling one of the great art collections in the world to the sheiks of Dubai and oligarchs in Russia; what did I get myself into?” says Rosen, who today serves as a mediator with JAMS, a judicial arbitration and mediation services organization.


Exhibit A
The Detroit Institute of Arts drives significant revenue, notoriety, and tourism from exhibitions large and small, including the Masterpieces of Early Italian Renaissance Bronze Statuettes, which includes four bronze figures from the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence, Italy. The show, which runs through March 3, is the first time the Italian statuettes have been on display in America.

Greek Statue
Hercules and Anteaus, Antonio del Pollaiuolo, c. 1470-75 from “Masterpieces of Early Italian Renaissance,” on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts through March 3.”

To complement the exhibit, the DIA reached into its own collection of Italian Renaissance sculptures, paintings, and period furniture.

Among the museum’s most popular exhibits was a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the DIA’s 1922 purchase of Vincent van Gogh’s 1887 painting “Self Portrait” (the DIA was the first American museum to acquire a Van Gogh), which ran from Oct. 2, 2022, to Jan. 22, 2023.

The event drew rave reviews, international media coverage, and a quarter of a million visitors from around the world who came to see Van Gogh in America, which featured 74 original paintings, drawings, and prints by the Dutch post-impressionist artist.

Salvador Salort-Pons, the director of the DIA, says two other recent successful exhibits, Star Wars and the Power of Costume (2018) and Detroit Style: Car Design in the Motor City, 1950-2020 (2020-2022) also attracted many first-time visitors to the museum.

Cubism painting
Le Cirque, Henri Matisse, 1947 from “After Cubism: Modern Art in Paris.” Currently on display.

“The work we did 10 years ago with the renewed millage and the Grand Bargain has brought a great return on our investment because the DIA and the entire cultural community are thriving,” Salort-Pons says.

Paired with the exhibitions was a $158-million renovation and expansion of the DIA in 2007, led by Eugene Gargaro, who stepped down last May after serving for 20 years as the chair of the museum board. The work helped maintain the fiscal health of the institution during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, initiated the two property tax millages, and achieved the DIA’s $100 million commitment to the Grand Bargain in 10 months, while securing its art collection and independent status for generations to come.

Mills Brothers dancing
The Nicholas Brothers,
Stormy Weather, 1943 from”Regeneration:
Black Cinema, 1898–1971,” opening Feb. 4.

The overall results are impressive. The DIA was chosen as the No. 1 art museum in America as part of USA Today’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards in 2023
(in a nationwide poll, experts selected the top 20 nominations and readers made the final decision by casting their votes).

In addition, the DIA’s success was recognized in 2022 by the American Alliance of Museums when it renewed the museum’s accreditation — considered the gold standard of museum excellence — stating, “the DIA is on a very strong footing overall, and has the capacity, leadership, organizational culture, and structure to thrive over the next 10-year period.”

According to Salort-Pons, 2023 annual attendance at the DIA approached 700,000 visitors (near pre-pandemic levels), while more than half a million K-12 students and 9,000 senior groups have toured the museum in the past 10 years, thanks to the partnership with the three millage-supporting counties (Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb), whose residents receive free admission.

— By Bill Dow


 

“One of the creditors had talked about cutting up pieces of the Diego Rivera murals and selling them, and even though I wasn’t a DIA person, I thought liquidating the DIA would have been like dropping a hydrogen bomb in Midtown, one of the few areas being revitalized at the time. Litigation would have taken years, and there would have been nothing left but dust and legal fees, so a fight over the art was a non-starter. It would have been the exclamation point of Detroit’s obituary.”

At 5 a.m. one day, over coffee, Rosen — who likes to doodle conceptual ideas — ran out of paper on his legal pad and began to sketch on the cardboard backing. He drew a protective square around the word “art,” which he placed between the words “state” and “pensions,” and scribbled questions on possible funding sources including “private donors,” “foundations,” and “the DIA.”

Suddenly, Rosen had formed what became known as the “Grand Bargain Doodle.”
“The original idea was to get the state to kick-start the funding, put the art in a trust, lock it off from all the other creditors, and flow any money we could raise from the State and any other resources to the retirees, because they were the largest single group of creditors,” Rosen recalls. “This triangular bank shot would reduce the pension debt, get them off the runway, and then use whatever was left to address the other creditors.”

After being told by Gov. Snyder that there would be no money from the State, especially with a Legislature not inclined to bail out Detroit, Rosen had a chance meeting at a downtown deli with Mariam Noland, then president of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

Soon after, on Nov. 5, Noland helped form a gathering of 15 foundation leaders from around the country to hear Rosen’s compelling pitch that “the bankruptcy was the most consequential event in the city’s history in our lifetime” and that the “missions of cultural preservation, the city’s revitalization, and human needs (the retirees’ pensions) were worthy of support.”


Pictures of Value
Below are a selection of artwork from the DIA appraised by Christie’s –in late 2013.

The Wedding Dance Painting
“The Wedding Dance” Bruegel the Elder
ca.1566, oil on panel Est. value: $100M-$200M

 

 

 

 

 

 

Van Gogh self portrait
“Self Portrait with straw hat” Vincent Van Gogh 1877, oil on artist board Est. value: $80M-$150M

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Van Gogh Portrait
Portrait of Postman Roulin” Vincent Van Gogh
1888, oil on canvas Est. value: $80M-$120M

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rembrandt painting
“The Visitation” Rembrandt van Rijn
1640, oil on panel Est. value: $50M-$90M

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picassso
Melancholy Woman” Pablo Picasso
1902, oil on canvas Est. value: $60M-$80M

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matisse
“The Window” (Le Gueridon)
Henri Matisse 1916. oil on canvas
Est. value: $40M-$80M

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picasso
“Woman Seated in an Armchair” Pablo Picasso
1923, oil on canvas Est. value: $40M-$60M

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frederic Church painting
“Cotopaxi” Frederic Church 1862, oil on canvas
Est. value: $40M-$60M

 

 

 

 

 

Van Gogh painting
“Bank on the Oise at Auverse” Vincent Van Gogh
1890, oil on canvas Est. value: $40M-$50M

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Degas dancers painting
“Dancers in the Green Room” Edgar Degas1879, oil on canvas Est. value: $20M-$40M

 


A month later, Darren Walker of the Ford Foundation in New York (founded by the Ford family) told Rosen that his organization would provide a conditional gift of $120 million, the largest in its history. The Kresge Foundation in Troy followed with a commitment of $100 million, the Knight Foundation provided $30 million, and nine other foundations contributed even more ($370 million in total), with the condition that the State and the DIA would also have to ante up. Rosen was told that each charitable organization had given the largest single grant in their respective histories.

Armed with the pledges, Rosen and Driker, who early in his career was a lawyer under Attorney Gen. Robert F. Kennedy and went on to become a founding member of the multifaceted business law firm Barris, Sott, Denn, and Driker in Detroit, drove to Lansing to sell Snyder on the plan.

Rosen says the governor was stunned when he heard the contributions were expected to be $350 million and that the State needed to match it, with the understanding that another $100 million would be needed from the DIA and private donors.

“I told Rick that there was no Plan B, and that he had made a very difficult decision to put the City in bankruptcy, and it was the right decision, but he couldn’t throw his arms up now and say, ‘Not my problem,’ ” says Rosen, who, along with Driker and others, lobbied every State legislator.

The Detroit News leaked a story about Rosen’s meeting with the foundations that the mediator thought could spook the respective boards and upset other creditors, while a Detroit Free Press cover story in December of 2013 about Rosen’s efforts was the first to label the effort “The Grand Bargain.” Upon reading the Free Press article, Paul Schaap, founder of Lumigen, a prominent medical technology company in Southfield, informed Rosen that he was contributing $5 million for the effort and would conduct a news conference to announce the gift.


Cue the Lights

Man on lift
rarified view
Marc Langlois started out as an intern at the DIA in 2012. Today, he’s the museum’s lighting designer.

In 2012, as a 22-year-old intern in the Detroit Institute of Arts’ prints, drawings, and photography department, Livonia native Marc Langlois’ career unexpectedly and suddenly took off in another direction.

In the midst of framing an exhibit that needed to be lit, the museum’s lighting technician temporarily left on medical leave. Opportunity knocked for Langlois, who had obtained a degree in graphic design at Schoolcraft College in Livonia before studying art history at Wayne State University in Detroit.

“A director asked if I would try my hand at lighting the exhibit and said that Robert White, a renowned lighting designer with Iluminart in Ypsilanti, would help me. I was up for the challenge,” Langlois recalls. “I didn’t even know that a lighting designer was even a position.

“Within 15 minutes of working with him, he told me, ‘This is what you’re going to be doing forever because you’ve got the eye and the drive.’ I knew nothing about lights, but when I realized this was really something for me, I bought a bunch of books and came home every night to read about lighting.”

After first working as a lighting technician, in 2016 Langlois was named the museum’s lighting designer — a position most art museums don’t have. With more than 6,000 lighting fixtures in 100-plus galleries, in addition to the 300 to 500 fixtures that typically need to be designed and installed for special exhibits, Langlois thrives with the challenge and responsibility.

“My job is to show the visitors all parts of the art object and how the artist wanted it seen,” says Langlois, who first creates digital renderings on a computer while testing the light level, so as not to damage the art.

“Beyond color, there are infinite textures, shapes, and mediums, so pieces of an entire story can be lost if I overlook how even the smallest detail is lit — and that can be the most important part,” he adds.

“However, we have to be incredibly careful because conservation is the No. 1 consideration. When I finish the lighting, my job is to disappear and let the art speak for itself. If we do our job right, you don’t notice the lighting.”

For the recent Van Gogh in America exhibit, which featured 74 works by the Dutch artist and drew rave reviews and thousands of visitors from around the world, Langlois worked closely with the show’s curator, Jill Shaw.

After first finalizing the exhibit layout and floor lighting to guide people through the space, each painting required a lighting plan and a fixture (with one LED bulb) that’s first modeled on a software program. It took Langlois a week to oversee and install the lighting with the help of a technician, following countless hours of planning and design.

“My goal is to design the exhibit lighting just as the curator dreamed it would be. Jill wanted it dark, which I also prefer, but we did it as safely as possible,” says Langlois, who spent at least three hours over two days lighting the painting “Starry Night Over the Rhone.”
The pressure was on, as each work of art had its own challenges.

“Van Gogh painted it in the dark and he knew how the light worked, so I didn’t light it any more than what he would have wanted — but I showed everything that he wanted you to see. The biggest challenge was that he painted with such texture that you could get different shadows from the depth of the paint, but we made it work,” says Langlois, who was later thrilled to learn that the Van Gogh Museum representatives from Amsterdam were “incredibly happy with the exhibit.”

Although Langlois says technology and materials have improved markedly since he started 10 years ago (“like night and day”), certain objects — like stained-glass windows and shiny automobiles — present challenges that sometimes require experimentation and insights from others.

For the 2020-2022 exhibit Detroit Style: Car Design in the Motor City 1950-2020, Langlois conferred with Brienne Musselman and his mentor, Robert White, whose company had lit numerous auto shows.

“I had never lit cars before and they’re challenging, particularly with prototypes, since there are so many curves, bubble windows, and reflections. But I was so excited to do it,” says Langlois, who first lit diecast cars while making miniatures on a computer. “But that only gets you so far.”

Langlois created a plan for lighting a stained-glass window when daylight isn’t available, and he’s since shared it with other lighting designers at other venues. “It was just me going down a rabbit hole, but I finally developed a flexible LED sheet,” he says.

Langlois also enjoys collaborating with lighting companies and other lighting designers.
“I love testing new products, because I want the design industry to progress. I have a great relationship with a lighting designer at the Smithsonian, and we enjoy picking each other’s brains. I also enjoy helping other designers who have contacted me for my insights,” he says.

“It’s still exciting to me and I just have this obsession with lighting. Without quality light shown from all the right angles and the right temperatures, how can one truly see the rich orange hues in a Rothko or the mesmerizing blues in a Picasso or the sunny yellows in a Van Gogh?”

— By Bill Dow


 

“Paul told me the idea of a Grand Bargain was inspiring, and that everything he had done he owed to Detroit,” Rosen says. “It was the first of many individual gifts that soon followed, and I thanked him profusely. That was a tonic for our mediation team.”

Meanwhile, Rosen and Driker met with Eugene Gargaro, a longtime executive with Masco Corp. and chairman of the DIA board, who had just come off fundraising and millage campaigns. Initially Gargaro thought he could raise $25 million, and then slowly committed to a “soft” $50 million.

When Rosen told Snyder about his discussion with Gargaro, Snyder invited the DIA leader to join him in Washington, D.C., where the governor was being honored by Americans for the Arts with a leadership award. The two met for breakfast, and Snyder gave Gargaro an update on the legislative status before telling him that he needed the DIA to participate.

“I said ‘Rick, I don’t have it yet, and I’ll need your help, but I have wonderful news, I’m here to offer $50 million to help get this past the goal line.’ Without blinking he said, ‘Gene, I know how hard that’s going to be, but the number needed is $100 million.’ I said, ‘I don’t know where $50 million is coming from, so I certainly don’t know where $100 million is coming from, but we’re in.’ ”

Gargaro called Rosen and told him, “that was the most expensive breakfast I’ve ever had,” then promptly held an emergency meeting with his board to inform them of the new commitment.

“You could hear a pin drop, but when I made a motion for a $100 million commitment, every hand went up in support,” says Gargaro, who started receiving donations before he even made a pitch to the Big Three automakers and others about the importance of saving the pensions, helping Detroit exit bankruptcy, and preserving a great cultural institution.

Gargaro says one gift that sticks out came following a 30-minute meeting with Roger Penske, chairman of Penske Corp. in Bloomfield Township.

“He said, “Gene, I’m not an arts guy, but I know that to have a great city you need arts and culture so I’m in for $10 million, but the only ones you can tell are Bill Ford Jr., Mary Barra, and Sergio Marchione.’ I could have hugged him and knew that would set the floor for what the auto companies would contribute,” Gargaro says.

In June of 2014, the Big Three announced a $26 million contribution to support the Grand Bargain, with $10 million from Ford Motor Co., $6 million from Chrysler Group, $5 million from General Motors Co., and $5 million from the General Motors Foundation. Gargaro says following that major announcement, other companies followed and began making major gifts to the effort.

“The whole experience is something you just cannot forget about — how so many people came through” Gargaro says.

Remarkably, Gargaro and the DIA secured $100 million in commitments in just 10 months, while Gov. Snyder and the Legislature committed $350 million.

“I’ll never forget sitting with Gene Driker in the Capitol gallery when, just before the House bill passed, a Tea Party legislator from northern Michigan stood up and said, ‘Today we are all Detroiters,’ ” Rosen says.

In November, Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes approved the City’s Plan of Adjustment and described the groundbreaking Grand Bargain, in particular, as the “cornerstone” of the plan that provided for the contribution of $820 million over the next 20 years from the State, certain charitable foundations, and the DIA for the benefit of Detroit’s pensioners.

At the same time, the city irrevocably transferred all of its title in the DIA art collection and building to a perpetual charitable trust. The move served to protect the City from any claims during the bankruptcy proceedings.

Five weeks later, on Dec. 10, the City exited bankruptcy in just 17 months — a remarkable feat in the world of municipal bankruptcies.

“There are still some folks angry about the bankruptcy and some of the cuts the pensioners did take, but is Detroit better off now compared to 10 years ago?” Rosen asks. “It would be hard to say that it isn’t, and the Grand Bargain was at the core of it. There were a lot of heroes.”

Snyder, who is now the CEO of SensCy Inc., an Ann Arbor-based cybersecurity company, says the deal was successful due to “Judge Rosen and his team, the Legislature, Kevyn Orr, and Judge Rhodes, along with the significant gifts from the foundations, individuals, and corporate donors that made it happen.

“There were also sacrifices made by the pensioners, and that should not be forgotten. The DIA is a world-class asset that legally had to be on the bankruptcy table, so it was great that we were able to save it. I’m very proud for what we all did for the city and it was one of my biggest accomplishments as governor.”

Orr, the partner in charge for the U.S. Offices of Jones Day, remarks: “There were a lot of leaders in this process who were courageous and creative, and I think the Grand Bargain was essential and unprecedented. The ability to bring in more than three-quarters of a billion dollars in commitments from the private sector, the foundations, and the State of Michigan was unprecedented and it allowed us to move forward without having to engage in a significant amount of litigation.

“That process was crucial. Providing the Grand Bargain to preserve the DIA was a gift that allowed me as a receiver to meet my fiduciary obligation.”

Still, had the 10-year tri-county property tax millages to support the DIA in 2012 not passed, Gargaro says the museum would have likely failed even before the bankruptcy.
During the period of the national financial crisis in 2008, Gargaro says then Gov. Jennifer Granholm had cut the DIA’s annual State support of some $7 to $8 million a year to “maybe a quarter of that,” while the City of Detroit had cut funding completely. During the same period, the costs of running the museum continued to mount.

After meeting with officials from the Detroit Zoo on how it was able to successfully pass a millage in 2010, Gargaro and his team led the effort that convinced voters in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties that the museum needed tax support to remain open and to allow it to raise a large enough endowment so that in the future public subsidies wouldn’t be necessary.

“If the millage hadn’t passed, we didn’t believe the DIA would survive,” Gargaro says. “We could have employed some drastic options, but it really would have restricted the DIA to the point that it could have easily closed.”

This past June, Julie Schima, 33, of Roseville was admiring the Diego Rivera “Detroit Industry” murals.

“I’ve been coming here for 25 years and I love the DIA and the mixture of art styles in different parts of history,” she says. “When I was first able to vote (for the measure), I supported the millage, and I did a second time because I think it’s very important that it’s shared with younger generations.”

In March 2020, voters in the tri-county region overwhelmingly approved renewal of the DIA millage for another 10 years, while separately the museum increased its endowment.

“The current value of the unrestricted operating endowment is around $350 million, which is quite amazing because when I started as director in 2015 the value was around $120 million,” Salort-Pons says.

“Through our strategic plan we set a goal for raising our endowment to $500 million by 2027. Right now, we’re supported by the very generous millage, but we would like to achieve our independence in the future. I’ll let the people who run the museum in the future determine whether it will still be necessary to ask for another millage in 2032, when this millage ends. Ten years from now is a long time.”

Claude Molinari, president and CEO of Visit Detroit, says when trying to attract visitors, events, and conventions, “the DIA is a huge differentiator for us.”

“We’re not going to have our many venerable institutions without a very strong philanthropic community, and we’ve been blessed in this region that people have stepped up for years,” Molinari says. “I’m also really proud that when it came to the ballot initiatives, the tri-county residents decided it’s worth it.”

A DIA visitor in front of “Union I,” a 1966 work by Frank Stella. The vast collection of the museum is a major tourist draw, and helps Visit Detroit attract conventions to the city.

Although Gargaro is proud of the way the DIA and donors came through on their part of the Grand Bargain, and that ownership of the building and its art is in a perpetual trust insulated from the ups and downs of municipal administrations, he says the two millages have paid huge dividends — not just in the form of financial support, but also with the thousands of schoolchildren and seniors who are able to visit every year.

“The DIA is much more public today because people look at it as a gathering place, and not a foreboding place,” Gargaro says. “Once they come, they come back — and not just because it’s free admission for tri-county residents, but because they generally appreciate the experience. Education is really the veneer over the entire museum.”

Salort-Pons says the DIA sets itself apart from other art museums through visitor interactions with 160 trained volunteer docents, “who really work hard to make sure that the visit is extraordinary.

“One of the greatest competitive advantages of the DIA, when you compare it to other museums in the world, is that a visitor doesn’t need to know anything about art history,” he adds. “The museum provides an opportunity for the visitor to connect with the art in a personal and meaningful way through the stories that we tell, and that allows for a great experience. I think that’s why people come back to the DIA.”

Six months after sketching the Grand Bargain concept, Rosen was cleaning out his office when he came across his cardboard doodle and initial notes.

“Coincidentally, Gene Gargaro was coming into lunch that week, so I put it on my desk and when he came in, I said, ‘Look what I found,’ ” Rosen says. “He knew immediately what it was and asked for it, saying, ‘This has to hang in the DIA.’ ”