April at Detroit Institute of Arts Brings Movies, Music and Family Fun

Thomas P. Campbell, director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York, is the keynote speaker of the DIA's Dr. Coleman
Mopper Memorial Lecture at 2 p.m., Saturday, April 16.
Director of Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to speak at annual Dr. Coleman Mopper lecture

Detroit, MI – Family performances, classes and art-making are just part of the fun in April at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). Don’t miss the exhibitions Fakes, Forgeries and Mysteries and An Intuitive Eye: André Kertész Photographs, 1914–1969, which both end April 10. It’s a Zoo in Here! Prints and Drawings of Animals is also on view.

Programs are free with museum admission unless otherwise noted. For more information call (313) 833-7900 or visit www.dia.org.

Guided Tours: Wednesdays–Thursdays, 1 p.m.; Fridays, 1, 6, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays–Sundays, 1, 3 p.m.

Detroit City Chess Club: Fridays, 4–8 p.m.
The club’s mission is to teach area students the game and life lessons. Members have won state, regional, and national competitions. People wanting to learn how to play chess should show up between 4–6 p.m. There will be no teaching between 6 and 8 p.m., but visitors can play chess.

Drawing in the Galleries (for all ages): Fridays, 6–9 p.m., Sundays, Noon–4 p.m.

Drop-In Workshops (for all ages)
Wednesday, April 6, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. – Book Arts: Chinese Slat Books: In ancient China, before the invention of paper, documents were written on bamboo or wooden slats. Make your own book using this ancient technique.
Thursday, April 7, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. – Book Arts: Origami Star Book: Create this simple book using folded squares of paper. When assembled, the unfolded pages resemble a star.
Friday, April 8, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. – Book Arts: Japanese Stab Binding: Create a simple book using a traditional form of stitching.
Fridays, 6–9 p.m. – Scrolls: Make your own scrolls using paper, wood dowels and markers.
Saturdays, Noon–4 p.m. – Paper Marbling: Create beautiful marbled patterns on paper that are similar to those found in books from the late Renaissance.
Sundays, Noon–4 p.m. – Milagros: The Spanish word milagro means miracle and refers to a small item offered to saints. Use clay to make one of your own.

Friday Night Live, April 1
Music: Alash: Throat Singers from Tuva: 7 & 8:30 p.m.
Members of Alash are masters of Tuvan (Tuva is part of the Russian Federation) instruments and the art of throat singing, a technique for singing multiple pitches at the same time. Alash accompanies this unique style of singing on a variety of Tuvan instruments rarely heard in the west.

Detroit Film Theatre:  Idiots and Angels: 7 p.m. — This animated feature is the story of Angel, a morally bankrupt creep who spends his time at the local bar berating other patrons. That changes when he grows a pair of wings; even more alarming, the wings inspire him to do good deeds. For more details, visit www.dia.org/dft/schedule.asp.Tickets: $7.50; DIA members, seniors and students, $6.50.

Detroit Film Theatre: Twelve Thirty: 9:30 p.m. — Twelve Thirty explores the emotional dynamics of relationships, the roles of its characters as manipulators and seducers and the exact point at which the lines between right and wrong begin to blur. For a detailed description, visit www.dia.org/dft/schedule.asp. Tickets: $7.50; DIA members, seniors and students, $6.50.

Saturday, April 2
Detroit Film Theatre: DFT 101: Children of Paradise: 3 p.m.
This witty tale of a woman loved by four men resurrects the tumultuous world of 19th-century Paris. The movie was filmed mostly in secret, practically under the noses of France’s Nazi occupiers. In French with English subtitles. For a detailed description, visit www.dia.org/dft/schedule.asp. Free with museum admission and for DIA members; $5 for general public without museum admission.

Detroit Film Theatre: Idiots and Angels: 7 p.m. (see April 1 for description)

Detroit Film Theatre: Twelve Thirty: 9:30 p.m. (see April 1 for description)

Family Sunday, April 3
Class: Potter’s Wheel for Adults & Children: (ages 5-8 must be with an adult): 10–11 a.m., 11 a.m.–noon, 1–2 p.m. and 2–3 p.m.
Try the potter’s wheel in this small class for absolute beginners, complete with plenty of individual guidance. Each person gets to use his or her own wheel with one hour of hands-on clay time. Projects will be fired for pick-up at a later date. Sessions limited to five students. Members $12, non-members $16. To register, email registration@dia.org or call (313) 833-4249.

Family Performance: Joe Reilly: 2 p.m.
Joe Reilly is a singer, songwriter and environmental educator in Ann Arbor. Reilly offers an exciting interactive musical program that helps people of all ages deepen their relationships with themselves, each other and their natural environment through fun and educational songs.

Music Performance: Gudea’s Dream: 1 p.m.
In conjunction with the 2 p.m. presentation Gudea of Lagash: Sumerian or 20th-Century Fake?, Darksounds Ensemble, directed by James Cornish & Piotr Michalowski, will perform an avant-garde jazz translation of this ancient text.

Presentation: Gudea of Lagash: Sumerian or 20th-Century Fake?: 2 p.m.
The DIA acquired an iconic statuette of Gudea of Lagash in 1982, which was believed to date from 2141-22 BCE. It was discovered allegedly in 1924 at Tello (ancient Girsu, Iraq), a site subject to illegal excavations. Scholars from around the world recently conducted a workshop to consider if the statuette came from such as excavation, or if it was made as a fake around 1925. A panel of four experts from the workshop will discuss the major issues with the public.

Detroit Film Theatre: Idiots and Angels: 2 p.m. (see April 1 for description)

Detroit Film Theatre: Twelve Thirty: 4 p.m. (see April 1 for description)

Friday Night Live, April 8
Music: Vicky Chow and New Music Detroit: 7 & 8:30 p.m.
Vicky Chow is the pianist for the New York-based contemporary sextet Bang on a Can All-Stars. Chow performs challenging and exciting contemporary music with Detroit-based ensemble New Music Detroit, featuring Ian Ding and Dan Bauch (percussion), Erik Ronmark (saxophones), Gina DiBello and Adrienne Ronmark (violins) and Rob Tye (guitar).

Detroit Film Theatre: Kuroneko: 7 p.m.
In war-torn medieval Japan, a demon haunts the Rajomon Gate, ripping out the throats of samurai. The governor sends a war hero to confront the spirit, but what the man finds instead are two women who look like his lost mother and wife. In Japanese with English subtitles. For more details, visit www.dia.org/dft/schedule.asp. Tickets: $7.50; DIA members, seniors and students, $6.50.

Detroit Film Theatre: Idiots and Angels: 9:30 p.m. (see April 1 for description)

Saturday, April 9
Detroit Film Theatre: Disco and Atomic War: 4 p.m.
This documentary recounts how the totalitarian government's power in 1980s Estonia was derived in part from its censorship of cultural life and keeping Western culture on the other side of the border. When Finland built a huge television antenna that broadcast Western signals, suddenly Disco and other pop culture became all the rage. For a detailed description, visit www.dia.org/dft/schedule.asp. Tickets: $7.50; DIA members, seniors and students, $6.50.

Detroit Film Theatre: Kuroneko: 7 p.m. (see April 8 for description)

Detroit Film Theatre: Idiots and Angels: 9:30 p.m. (see April 1 for description)

Family Sunday, April 10
Artist Demonstration: Matthew Shlian's Kinetic Sculpture: Noon–4 p.m.
Matthew Shlian will create fascinating kinetic sculptures using his skills as a paper engineer.

Detroit Film Theatre: Kuroneko: 2 p.m. (see April 8 for description)

Detroit Film Theatre: Idiots and Angels: 4 p.m. (see April 1 for description)

Friday Night Live, April 15
Music: Uncommon Temperament: 7 & 8:30 p.m.
Uncommon Temperament is a collective of musicians that brings a bold new approach to Baroque music. They are known for their daring programming and historically accurate performances in unique venues.

Detroit Film Theatre: Le Quattro Volte (The Four Times): 7 p.m.
This dialogue-free, four-part meditation on man and nature traces the cycle of life through rituals of rural folk in the Italian region of Calabria. It is inspired by Pythagoras’s belief in “four-fold transmigration” where the soul passes from human to animal to vegetable to mineral. For more details, visit www.dia.org/dft/schedule.asp. Tickets: $7.50; DIA members, seniors and students, $6.50.

Detroit Film Theatre: Kuroneko: 9:30 p.m. (see April 8 for description)

Saturday, April 16
Annual Dr. Coleman Mopper Memorial Lecture: Past, Present and Future at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: 2 p.m.
Thomas P. Campbell, director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, looks to the Met’s 150th anniversary in 2020 discussing the ideas, ambitions and tastes that have made the museum such an extraordinary institution.

Detroit Film Theatre: DFT 101: Wings of Desire: 4 p.m.
Damiel, an angel perched atop buildings over Berlin, can hear the thoughts, fears, hopes and dreams of people living below. When he falls in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, he is willing to give up his immortality and come back to earth to be with her. In English, French and German with English subtitles. For more details, visit www.dia.org/dft/schedule.asp. Free with museum admission and for DIA members; $5 for general public without museum admission.

Detroit Film Theatre: Le Quattro Volte: 7 p.m. (see April 15 for description)

Detroit Film Theatre: Kuroneko: 9:30 p.m. (see April 8 for description)

Family Sunday, April 17
Class: Potter’s Wheel Workshop (adults only): 1–4 p.m.
This class features demonstrations and individual guidance for the absolute beginner and advanced student alike. Projects will be fired for pick-up at a later date. Class limited to 12 students. Members $36, non-members $48. To register, email registration@dia.org or call (313) 833-4249.

Family Performance: Hansel and Gretel: 2 p.m.
In the National Marionette Theater’s adaptation of this classic tale, two master puppeteers bring the most famous of the Grimm Brother’s stories to life with exquisitely crafted marionettes, scrolling scenery and the beautiful music of Engelbert Humperdinck.

Detroit Film Theatre: Le Quattro Volte: 2 p.m. (see April 15 for description)

Detroit Film Theatre: Kuroneko: 4 p.m. (see April 8 for description)

Friday Night Live, April 22
Music: Oblivion Project: 7 & 8:30 p.m.
The Oblivion Project is the foremost Tango band in the Midwest. The group features Detroit-area musicians Peter Soave and Julien Labro on bandoneon (small accordion), Gabe Bolkosky on violin, Derek Snyder on cello, Tad Weed on piano, John Holkeboer on bass and Alex Trajano on drums.

Detroit Film Theatre: Queen to Play: 7 p.m.
A repressed French chambermaid discovers a knack and passion for chess. Her obsession leads her to seek the secret tutelage of a reclusive American doctor, a liaison that transforms their lives in unforeseen ways. In French with English subtitles. For more details, visit www.dia.org/dft/schedule.asp. Tickets: $7.50; DIA members, seniors and students, $6.50.

Detroit Film Theatre: Le Quattro Volte: 9:30 p.m. (see April 15 for description)

Saturday, April 23
Detroit Film Theatre: DFT 101: Tokyo Story: 4 p.m.
An aging couple, Tomi and Sukichi, journey from their rural village to visit their two married children in bustling, postwar Tokyo. Too busy to entertain them, their children send them to a health spa. When Tomi falls ill, she and Sukichi return home, while the grief-stricken children hasten to be with her. In Japanese with English subtitles. For more details, visit www.dia.org/dft/schedule.asp. Free with museum admission and for DIA members; $5 for general public without museum admission.

Detroit Film Theatre: Queen to Play: 7 p.m. (see April 22 for description)

Detroit Film Theatre: Le Quattro Volte:
9:30 p.m. (see April 15 for description)

Family Sunday, April 24
Storytelling: The Coming of Spring: 2 p.m.
In the soft light of a Michigan morning, a mother doe instructs her fawn on the ways of the forest. Flocks of birds return to the skies and the voice of the turtle is heard once again. Genot “Winter Elk” Picor presents “Stories, Songs and Dances of the Metis’ Voyageur: The Coming of Spring,” with interactive stories, puppets, sing-a-longs and a lively dance or two.

Detroit Film Theatre: Queen to Play: 2 p.m. (see April 22 for description)

Detroit Film Theatre: Le Quattro Volte: 4:30 p.m. (see April 15 for description)

Wednesday, April 27
Lecture: Mid-Century Modernism: Origins and Evolution: 6:30 p.m.
By 1955 many American artists, architects and designers broke from European precedents to develop distinctively American forms of modernism. Independent curator Susan Larsen looks at how mid-20th-century painters drew on the progressive political ideals of the 1930s, with a focus on artists in the DIA collection, including Josef Albers, Irene Rice Pereira, Mark Rothko and Vaclav Vytlacil.

Friday Night Live, April 29
Music: Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet: 7 & 8:30 p.m.
After signing to Blue Note records and the buzz created by his debut CD, Prelude: To Cora, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire returns to Detroit to deliver his hypermodern vision of contemporary jazz. Joining him are Walter Smith III, tenor sax; Sam Harris, piano; Harish Raghavanm bass and Justin Brown, drums.

Lecture: Journey to the Edge of the Channel: From Drawing and Printmaking to Sculpture: 7 p.m.
Douglas Semivan, associate professor and chair of the art department at Madonna University, speaks about the creative process behind his sculpture Edge of the Channel, which was recently unveiled on the university’s grounds. He illuminates how his many years of experience working in two-dimensional formats influenced this sculptural commission.

Detroit Film Theatre: Uncle Boonmee: 7 p.m.
Uncle Boonmee, a farmer in rural Thailand, suffers from kidney failure, and is tended to by loved ones and visited by the ghosts of his wife and son. In Thai with English subtitles. For more details, visit www.dia.org/dft/schedule.asp. Tickets: $7.50; DIA members, seniors and students, $6.50.

Detroit Film Theatre: Queen to Play: 9:30 p.m. (see April 22 for description)

Saturday, April 30
Detroit Film Theatre: DFT 101: Wooden Crosses: 4 p.m.
This 1932 masterwork depicts the travails of a French regiment during World War I. Film techniques, such as haunting background images and documentary-like camerawork, help create a pacifist work of chilling power. In French with English subtitles. For more details, visit www.dia.org/dft/schedule.asp. Free with museum admission and for DIA members; $5 for general public without museum admission.
 
Detroit Film Theatre: Uncle Boonmee: 7 p.m. (see April 29 for description)

Detroit Film Theatre: Queen to Play: 9:30 p.m. (see April 22 for description)


About the Detroit Institute of Arts
The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), one of the premier art museums in the United States, is home to more than 60,000 works that comprise a multicultural survey of human creativity from ancient times through the 21st century. From the first van Gogh painting to enter a U.S. museum (Self-Portrait, 1887), to Diego Rivera's world-renowned Detroit Industry murals (1932–33), the DIA's collection is known for its quality, range, and depth. As the DIA celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2010, it does so with renewed commitment to its visitor-centered experience and to its mission of creating opportunities for all visitors to find personal meaning in art.

Museum hours are 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. Fridays, and 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors ages 62+, $4 for ages 6-17, and free for DIA members. For membership information call 313-833-7971.

Programs are made possible in part with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the City of Detroit.