The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), one of the foremost art museums in the United States, is home to more than 60,000 works that comprise a global 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. The museum offers a wide range of special exhibitions, public programs, and education initiatives for the Detroit community and visitors from around the globe.
The DIA’s collection comprises approximately 60,000 objects, and spans from 25,000 BCE to the present. It represents a significant part of the art-making world and includes paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, furniture, ceramics, tapestries, photographs, drawings, prints, mixed media, and films.
The collection’s particular strengths are in European painting, Italian Renaissance sculpture, French decorative art, African art, American painting, and Islamic textiles. The DIA’s holdings also include the Detroit Industry (1932–33) fresco cycle by Diego Rivera. The murals are considered to be the finest example of the Mexican muralist’s work in the United States, and Rivera regarded Detroit Industry as the most successful project of his career.
Museum programs range from DIA Fridays, which offer live music and hands-on activities for all ages every Friday from 6–10 p.m., to storytelling, lectures, and behind-the-scenes tours, among other activities. Family-friendly guided and self-guided tours are available daily. A Speakers Bureau offers presentations on the collection given by trained volunteers to adult groups in the metropolitan Detroit area.
The DIA offers a diverse array of student and teacher programs and resources including tours, classroom presentations, lesson plans and lectures that complement school curricula, and printed teacher resources. For some Detroit Public Schools that do not include art as part of the curriculum, the DIA offers “Art Discovery,” in which over the course of several weeks, students take guided tours in the morning, then spend the afternoons in the museum Studio making an art project.
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