Museums and Publics: Engaging Detroit, Berlin, and the Future of the City

Faculty Lead: Damani Partridge

Inspired by the Detroit Institute of Arts’ (DIA) Plaza design competition and a set of persistent concerns regarding the relationship between museums and publics, this Think-Act Tank on Museums and Publics asks: How do urban residents participate in shaping the future of the city? How do museums contribute to the possibility of this participation and re-shaping? To what extent does the curation of established museums, often in the city center, contribute to the appearance of inaccessibility? Can a re-conceptualization of the already established architecture offer new hope? The DIA’s international design competition is enlisting experts, but how do experts, Detroit’s urban, and suburban publics work in relation to each other? The story of Detroit’s “comeback” features the museum at its geographic center. It highlights the museum under the theme of “re-emergence” and the necessity for finding alternative forms of engagement. Finally, this project also examines the relationship between the histories of the museums, their collections, and the publics in related museums sites in Berlin, Germany and Cape Town, South Africa.