Steve Panton and Halima Cassells Challenge the Detroit Institute of Arts to Share the Control of Art Tax Money @DIADetroit
So Many in Detroit Labor to Transform the City without Access to Money or Technical Assistance
Thursday, February 9th, 2023 at 9:33 AM
East English Village
Detroit Michigan
I think of this verse when I contemplate the artists and activists making Detroit happen in small and big ways. Luke 4:24, King James Version. And he said, “Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.”
I like to listen to voices crying in the wilderness. I journey to seek them out, to give those voices a hearing. If I agree with what I hear, I amplify their message. In Detroit, Planet Detroit and the Metro Times and the Detour Detroit and Axios Detroit give me the best guidance to where those voices have taken refuge. I cannot imagine Detroit without the Metro Times, to be frank.
A movement has risen to ask the art authorities of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne County for more support of artists and art projects in the Detroit and Metropolitan area. The authorities have won public support. The arts and culture millage passed in 2012 and was renewed for ten years in 2020. It’s a good program, if you like taxes at all, and it puts us in competition with St. Louis, a region with an art and culture tax for years. I’m pretty sure our activists would be happier if our art authorities operated more like the Regional Arts Commission of Saint Louis.
Let’s briefly compare the web presences for the Detroit arts commissions and the Saint Louis Commission. It’s pretty easy to do. The web presences for Macomb, Wayne and Oakland consist of postings of minutes, audit results, meeting notices, contracts and articles of incorporation. We see a list of the appointed commissioners for each county. It seems the commissions meet quarterly, a rubber stamping cadence. We can be sure that all is proper and above board. The focus of these boring web pages centers on compliance and the need to be transparent. Without inviting too many people to the table? You decide.
The RAC site for Saint Louis focuses on engagement, invitation and opportunity. Go and take a look at it. I’m invited to events, given news to read, shown the way to public art, offered grants, guided to programs and treated to resources. A few minutes on the site, and I’m looking at Amtrak and Megabus, contemplating a long weekend. And yes, St Louis conquered its transportation game a long time ago, including a beautiful light rail system.
I love my DIA benefits. I show the ticket clerk an envelope with my Detroit address. I am given a ticket to the general collection. I go to the Kresge Courtyard and enjoy a coffee and an hour of writing. Students make the annual trip to the DIA, and the millage proceeds cover the bus and gas. Seniors get the same deal. But what more do we get for the money? The museum runs as perfectly as a hospital and citadel for art, protecting its priceless collection and, hopefully, collecting more. And money is put away for a rainy day in an endowment fund. Yet, can we get more done with what amounts to a half billion dollar collection of public money over time?
It’s not that the DIA can’t find disciplined partners to lead by time, treasure and talent. I’ve made a listing of over four hundred Detroit sites and organizations that could benefit from technical assistance and access to real money. Some of these organizations have leaders that could transition from TEDx speakers and Kresge Fellows to MacArthur Fellows with the right demonstration project. These are my voices crying in the Detroit wilderness, far from the oasis at the DIA. Maybe I am exaggerating, but we have great people accomplishing amazing projects out of pocket cash. How can we move some money into the mix?
Of course, I did some networking this morning. It all begins with networking. I can’t wait to meet these people. The two raise issues, publish Detroit art content and energize galleries and art destinations.
Hi Halima Afi Cassells, it's long been a sad case at the DIA. Detroit artists from several generations have felt ignored by the museum, which looks to LA and NYC and Europe and Asia for inspiration. The non-profit posters by Signal-Return made a good start, but more support is needed. I loved seeing them on display in the print galleries, but we need more Detroit in the galleries. Thanks for speaking out.
Hi Steve Panton. Are you also Art Detroit Now? I love the artist interviews and reviews at Essay’d. Hey, I appreciate how you are keeping tabs on what the DIA does for the community with its tax funded bounty. Generations of Detroit Artists have bemoaned the fact that the DIA has ignored Detroit artists. So let's keep the conversation going?
I’ve made my cry in the Detroit wilderness. Will my cry find an answer?
