DIA Looks to Redefine Role of Museum as Larger Community Space

What role can and should museums play in placemaking in urban communities such as Detroit?

Detroit Institute of Arts DIA Museum 1/24/2019

Jake Neher/WDET

The Detroit Institute of Arts already sits at the center of Detroit’s cultural hub in Midtown.

But the museum wants to double down and create a much larger public space on that block of Woodward.

It envisions a large plaza anchored by the DIA, the Detroit Public Library Main Branch, the Detroit Historical Museum, the College for Creative Studies, and other buildings.

What role can and should museums play in placemaking in urban communities such as Detroit?

On Detroit Today, Stephen Henderson speaks with a DIA official and an urban planner about that question.

Felicia Eisenberg Molnar is the DIA’s executive director of strategic initiatives.

Mark Nickita is co-founder and president of Archive Design Studio in Detroit, an architect, urbanist, and adjunct professor of urban design at Lawrence Tech.

Click on the audio player above to hear that conversation.

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