Revamped DIA tells stories in new ways

Revamped DIA tells stories in new ways
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By ASHLEY WOODS Special to The Oakland Press


The Detroit Institute of Arts is poised to reintroduce itself as a world-class art museum when it opens its doors to the public Friday.
More than six years of renovation added 30 percent more gallery space to the museum, at an expense of $158 million. A new marble exterior glows in the sunshine, and a newly designed entrance on John R Street will serve tour groups. The Van Goghs and Rubenses, removed from storage, are as glorious as ever.
What’s more, the DIA staff installed more than 5,000 pieces of art in new areas of
the museum. The original theme-based galleries, with names such as “Splendour by the Hour” and “Grand Tour of Italy,” express the DIA’s hope to capture the imagination of the public.
“We’re the largest significant institution to make this kind of break,” said DIA Director Graham W.J. Beal, who led the transformation. “We’re trying to rethink those relationships between the art and the audience.”
“Splendour By the Hour” will allow visitors to picture a day in the life of 16th and 17th century Northern European aristocrats. It was life, as one sign notes, filled with fourhour lunches, feverish spending sprees and little responsibility.
Paintings, sculptures, vases, furniture, china and tapestries are collected together for perusal.
“Most of these objects were requested by someone, hundreds of years ago, for a reason,” Beal said. “There’s human reason for this artistry. Now, they can look at the stories that come from the works of art themselves.”
Visitors can imagine themselves at a languorous French luncheon when they take a seat at the virtual dining table. At the press of a button, servants in grey uniforms and caps set virtual courses in front of the viewer. A first course of steamed stuffed artichokes in butter sauce is followed by a massive roast pig. Prompts on the screen point the viewer’s attention to the porcelain dishes used for serving, identical to the dishes behind glass cases in the gallery.
The galleries also became more kid-friendly with the inclusion of new features such as “Eye Spy.” A visual clue, such as a a drum, is shown on a sign. Lifting the picture, a text clue is offered. “A young boy keeps rhythm by tapping my top/Creating sounds of rata-tat.” Kids can search through the gallery for the mysterious object, which appears in a painting of a 17th century French drummer boy.
“We made the ‘Eye Spy’ game for kids, but every adult I’ve taken through the galleries so far plays, too,” DIA Public relations Manager Pamela Marcil said.
Also new to the galleries are multiple viewpoint labels. Visitors can browse three different interpretations by leading scholars of selected pieces.
“It’s to show the general public that there are so many different ways to access art,” Marcil said. “If you’re a connoisseur, and you’re here to look at art, it won’t get in your way.”
“It’s the kind of thing that makes specialists cringe,” Beal said of the user-friendly galleries. The DIA staff teamed up with curators and educators from around the country to rewrite explanatory labels for visitors; most of whom, as Beal noted dryly, “lack an art history degree.” Signs showing art words, like “neoclassicism,” include phonetic pronunciations and simple definitions. “It’s one more way to bring art to the masses,” Beal said.
That visitor-friendly approach also extends to the museum’s architecture.
The DIA was “an astonishingly difficult place to get around,” Beal said. The original museum was built in 1927, and the north and south wings had not been renovated since the 1960s. Architect Michael Graves and the Smith Group in Detroit teamed up to make the museum walkable. The construction includes “spines,” as Beal called them; two massive corridors running north-south through the building, which serve as concourses for museum guests.
“If we make the building easy to get around,” Beal said, “we’re bringing the art and the people together.”
The architects removed the black granite, some of which was falling off the walls, from the north and south wings. Insulation, vapor barriers, and triple-pane glazing on windows were added to protect the art.
“People used to say that we were heating the Cultural Center in the winter, and cooling it in the summer,” Beal joked. He said he hopes the innovation will result in lower energy bills for the building.
The Kresge Court, once home to the DIA’s cafeteria, is now revised as a space for groups and events. DIA staff said it will be available for weddings in the future. A new cafeteria space will serve up museum favorites such as soups and sandwiches, along with Mediterranean fare and sushi. The museum shop also was expanded.
The DIA will open with an official grand opening ceremony at 10 a.m. Friday at the Woodward entrance. For 32 hours, the museum will offer free admission to visitors. Dancers, live jazz, local artists, and a basket weaver will be on hand to complete the experience, as well as griots, which are traditional African storytellers.
Yoga classes and fencing demonstrations also will be offered. “Art After Hours” kicks in from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. with DJs, Coney dogs and slider burgers.

Chicks for Charity hatch plans to help out others

The Oakland Press/JOSE JUAREZ
Don Woodward, left, and Sheryl Kossick stand in front of a home which will be used by recovering addicts.Woodward works for the Grace Centers of Hope. Kossick is co-founder of “Chicks for Charity,“a group that is helping with decorating the interior of the home.

PONTIAC
Chicks for Charity hatch plans to help out others
By ASHLEY WOODS Special to The Oakland Press


Standing in a dilapidated, turn-of-last-century home at 70 Seneca St. in Pontiac, Sheryl Kossick sees the possibilities.
“This will be the boys’ room,” she says, gesturing to the blue and white walls. “We’re going to give it a Detroit Lions theme.”
Kossick, owner of Ivy Hill Interiors and a resident of Commerce Township, spends many Saturday mornings repainting and furnishing homes on Seneca Street. As co-founder of Chicks for Charities and president of its Oakland County chapter, she convinced 27 women to donate their free time..
“Anything that comes up as a charity event,” she said. “We did a bowling tournament for breast cancer in Novi last week, and we raised $10,000. We sent 2,100 pairs of shoes to Guatemala, we’ve made welcoming baskets for immigrants in Ann Arbor. We may work with companion dogs for the handicapped soon.
“We have no limits,” Kossick said. “Whatever comes along, we’ve decided to do.”
But the Seneca Street residences, owned by the Pontiac recovery and rehabilitation center Grace Centers of Hope, are her most immediate priority.
“I had gone to a fashion show at Grace Center last year,” said Kossick. “They had acquired 14 homes for graduates to move into after they leave the shelters.”
Kossick thought the homes needed a decorator’s touch. The homes were unpainted and unfurnished.
“They were in desperate condition,” she remembered. “I thought, being an interior decorator, that I could help.”
Kossick met Don Woodward, who directs the rehabbing of the Seneca Street homes. Six years before, Woodward was a prescription drug addict with a twodecades-old habit. “I was dying,” he said. He entered the Grace Centers of Hope two-year rehabilitation program in 2002.
“You learn life skills here,” he said of the program. “And then you move to Seneca Street, and you’re part of a community.”
Woodward remarried and began a second career at a reconstruction company. He also lives on Seneca Street, where his free time is spent preserving the century-old residences.
“We do the rewiring, we bring in master plumbers, and the city of Pontiac works with us to get all of the permits,” he said.
He calls Kossick and the Chicks for Charities, “our heroes.”
“I think it means so much to the women who live here ... that someone would reach out to them, without even knowing them,” he explained.
The homes house about 80 people, including 27 children whose mothers attend the rehabilitation program.
“The mothers really need to learn how to be mothers,” said the Rev. Kent Clark, who runs Grace Centers of Hope.
“It’s not just the women who need help. These children have moved every six months of their lives, they’ve been sold to the crack man for sex, they’ve been left alone, and they’re disattached. And we need to teach them how to attach again.”
He said the presence of the Christian nonprofit organization changed the neighborhood for the better.
“This place was a hotbed of crackhouses, prostitution, and it was falling apart,” he said, gesturing to the row of immaculate, brightly painted homes. “Now, it’s one of the safest streets in Pontiac.”
At 70 Seneca St., where two mothers and their children will soon move, volunteers installed drywall and began painting the banister. Members of the community donated appliances, furniture and computers.
Kossick said she was surprised by the “overwhelming response” of Chicks for Charities.
“We donate our time — it’s not about money. Big corporations can give checks. And we have fun painting and redecorating!” she said.
Men and women must keep jobs and pay rent in order to stay in Seneca Street .
“They deserve it as much as anyone else,” said Kossick. “Our goal is to make them proud ... to make a place they can be proud to come home to.”
FYI
Grace Centers of Hope is accepting volunteer applications for its projects. Call (248) 334-2187, Ext. 16, or visit www.gracecentersofhope.org.

Parade of Pink Offers Hope

FARMINGTON HILLS
Parade of pink offers hope
Breast Cancer 3-Day walkers come from near and far to honor those who’ve battled the disease
By ASHLEY WOODS Special to The Oakland Press

Last summer, Jane Solomar found a lump in her breast. “It was a small mass, and eventually, we learned it was benign. But that’s why I’m here.” Solomar of Warren stood in a circle with her team, the “Three-Day Dawgs,” at Pioneer Park in Farmington Hills. Her teammates came from Waterford Township, Fraser and even Houston, Texas to join the Michigan Breast Cancer 3-Day.
The Michigan Breast Cancer 3-Day is one of 11 such 60-mile walking and camping weekend events nationwide. Proceeds benefit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund.
From Friday to Sunday, the park was just one the first of many pit stops along the course, which runs from Farmington Hills through Farmington, Plymouth, Livonia, Dearborn and Dearborn Heights. To join the race, the 2,300 participants were required to pay a $90 registration fee and raise $2,200 in pledges and donations. In addition, 400 crew members commit to working round-the-clock for four days straight to support the walkers. Last year, the Michigan charity weekend raised $5.9 million to support breast cancer research and outreach. It’s also a way for cancer survivors, supporters of research, and friends of those fighting the disease to connect.
“There’s a lot of fun, and a lot of camaraderie,” said Shelley Davidson of Oxford, a registered nurse manning the First Aid/Self Care table at Pit Stop 1.
Many participants register to walk in teams. Noonie Kowalski of Oxford and five of her female co-workers formed the Wojo’s Greenhouse team in May. She said the team spent months raising money through charity events, such as card nights and a garage sale.
“We also did a fund-raiser at (bd’s Mongolian Barbeque) restaurant,” Kowalski said. “We sold tickets to the event, and they let us get behind the grill and cook the food!”
The team trained all summer on the Paint Creek Trailway in Rochester.
“It’s definitely rewarding,” said teammate Susan Bork of Oxford, “and not just because my clothes no longer fit!”
Emily Dowgiallo of Dearborn lost her godmother to breast cancer five years ago. Last year, she walked the Michigan Breast Cancer 3-day alone. This year, she has four friends, including Mary Abraham of Dearborn, her former kindergarten teacher, to help her along. All five women have relatives and close friends who were diagnosed with the disease.
“It’s not easy,” said Dowgiallo, of the three-day walk. “But it’s nothing compared to what they go through.”
Carolyn Ruge, a Toledo resident and breast cancer survivor, traveled to Michigan with her daughter and a friend to participate in the “closest walk that I could find.” Ruge, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2005, said she enjoyed the physical exercise.
“It’s not bad overall. I’m a little tired, but it’s OK. I just don’t have the stamina I used to have before I went through treatment.”
When they weren’t fund-raising, many participants spent time creating pinkthemed outfits for the weekend. Pink cowboy hats, tutus, feather boas, bandanas and Mardi Gras beads were just some of the accessories.
Teams often design their own Tshirts, many bearing the names of personal friends and family who were diagnosed with breast cancer. Noonie Kowalski said her walking team picked unusual lime -green color because the entire team works at Wojo’s Greenhouse of Oxford. “We’re giving the race a green thumbs-up for the cure,” she said, laughing.
Once they arrived at Pit Stop 1, the women were greeted with sandwiches, bananas, liquids and shade. Diane Lewey of Dearborn said she began work as a member of the crew at 5:15 Friday morning. “We set up all these tents in the dark,” she said.
Even before two of her aunts were diagnosed with breast cancer, Lewey said she was interested in volunteering.
“We all have breasts, and we all don’t want to die,” she said.

Marathon to help fight Crohn's and Colitis

Pam Barclay of Oxford, 26, who has ulcerative colitis and has had many of her internal organs removed, will be competing in The ING Half-Marathon, scheduled for January 27 in Miami.



OXFORD
Marathon to help fight Crohn’s and colitis
By ASHLEY WOODS Special to The Oakland Press


Anyone running their first half-marathon would have a reason to be nervous.
Pam Barclay of Oxford, 26, who has ulcerative colitis and has had many of her internal organs removed, said she is nervous, but remains positive about competing in The ING Half-Marathon, scheduled for January 27 in Miami.
“I’m excited to do my best,” Barclay said. “It’s just about participating — it’s not about finishing.”
Barclay will run 13.1 miles as the “Honored Teammate” for the Michigan chapter of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America team. The “Team Challenge” program brings together people with Crohn’s and colitis diseases to raise funds and awareness for the two forms of inflammatory bowel disease.
Barclay was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis disease when she was about 13 years old.
“The similarities between both diseases, the vagueness, really make Crohn’s and colitis difficult to treat,” she said.
Symptoms include weight loss, diarrhea mixed with blood, and cramping. She grew ulcers in her large intestine, which began eating through her other organs. At age 14, she underwent surgery to remove her large intestine and rectum, as well as parts of her pancreas, liver, and small intestine that were damaged by the colitis.
“It was horrible,” Barclay said of her years in high school after the surgery. “I had an ostomy bag, and my hair fell out from the steroids. I was 14 years old, I weighed 68 pounds, and I wasn’t even 4 feet tall.”
By joining “Team Challenge,” Barclay and her teammates agreed to participate in weekly training sessions with medical professionals and long-distance runners for coaches. “I still have problems with my kidneys, so I’m nervous about that,” she said. “I also have arthritis in my joints.”
Brad Kegebein, 25, is one of three coaches for the 20-person running team.
“We’re up to 60-minute runs on Sundays now,” he said, “as well as running four miles every Tuesday and Thursday.”
He said the training, which includes tips on technique, stretching and even proper footwear, is designed for the varying levels of ability within the group.
“I would say Pam is in the highest level of runners on the team,” he said. “Some of the other girls are still sick, which affects them.”
“I needed to become more of an advocate for ulcerative colitis,” said Barclay, who joined CCFA after her younger brother was also diagnosed with the disease two years ago. “It’s an embarrassing disease, and that’s why no one talks about it. Okay, so we have problems going to the bathroom.”
To fit in at school, Barclay said she pretended she wasn’t ill. “It’s not commonly known. People understand cancer and heart disease. They don’t understand ostomy bags.”
Barclay, along with the other “Team Challenge” participants, pledged to raise $3,500 in donations for the trip. So far, she’s raised less than $500.
“The worst case scenario is, I put it on my credit card,” she said. Donations are accepted through the team’s fund-raising page at http://www.active. com/donate/MI08MICH.
Nervous or not, Barclay said she’s excited to run her first half-marathon. “If you had asked me at age 14 if I would ever run a (half-marathon), I’d say no way!” she laughed. She said she’s also anxious to improve awareness of these diseases.
“In reality, Crohn’s and colitis are out there,” she said. “Over a million people are suffering. It’s time we stop living in silence, and start living out loud.”

Arts & Apples has full weekend lineup

Art & Apples has full weekend lineup
By ASHLEY WOODS Special to The Oakland Press

Photographing crime scenes inspired Beverly Benson Wolf to begin a new career in digital photography. “I had a need to learn how to photograph, and I enrolled in adult education classes,” said Wolf, a retired captain from the Waterford Police Department. Since then, the 2006 Detroit 73rd International Salon of Photography awarded her “Best of Show” for large color print photography. Her original photograph, “Golden Morn,” will hang in the dining room of Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s residence until July 2008.
Wolf is just one of more than 250 artists appearing at the 2007 Art & Apples Festival, running Friday through Sunday at Rochester Municipal Park.
Sponsored by the Paint Creek Center of the Arts, the festival also features live music and dancing, two food courts, activities for kids and their famous homemade apple pies.
“It’s a beautiful setting, with trees, and the Paint Creek running through the park ... and there’s all kinds of events for families,” Wolf said.
For Rochester resident and full-time watercolor painter Rick Burger, the 42nd annual Art & Apples Festival is a time-honored tradition. “I’ve been involved with the fair since the mid’70s,” he said.
Burger, a former GM employee, teaches classes from his studio in downtown Rochester. He said the festival was ranked in the top 10 art fairs nationwide during the mid-1980s, but the slow Michigan economy now makes earning a living difficult for some artists.
“People do buy more traditional artwork at the festival versus contemporary, and I do traditional watercolor,” he said.
To Barbara Markham, selling her watercolor paintings at the Art & Apples Festival is just one more blessing in a series of miracles. On her birthday, five years ago, the former Utica art teacher suffered an aneurysm.
“It took 6 1 /2 hours of brain surgery for them to save me,” she said.
She spent the next 18 months relearning how to talk, walk, count — and paint. In 2003, she presented her first art show. Markham said she has now sold more than 200 watercolors.
“I feel they are very fresh ... they use a lot of bright colors: red, yellow, green,” Markham said.
Exposing children to art is another mission of the festival. The Kids Art Zone, created especially for youngsters, includes “make-and-take” art projects and a life-size Kids Art Maze. Back by popular demand is the My First Art Purchase tent. For $5, budding aficionados can purchase their first pieces of art, which are donated by art vendors and Detroit Institute of Arts resident artists. A special artist demonstration by the DIA also is planned.
There’s more to the festival than painting and sculpture. The new Interactive Activity Zone will include a rock climbing wall and the Henry Ford Rouge Motor Factory, where fairgoers can view the makings of a car from scratch. Dozens of food stands will serve desserts and meals.
The first Community Apple Pie Bake-Off, at 10 a.m. Saturday, will crown one cook the Art & Apples Apple Pie Champion.
This year’s festival celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Paint Creek Center for the Arts in Rochester. The nonprofit center is funded by the Art & Apple Festival..
“The money raised by the festival goes directly to our operating budget,” said Karen Cuthbertson, special event director for the center. “It’s our largest fund-raiser. And we need it to keep the classes going, the doors open and the lights on.”
An estimated 100,000 visitors are expected over the weekend, especially as Sunshine Art Magazine recently ranked Art & Apples Festival in the top 35 art fairs nationwide, she said.
Cuthbertson said more than 25 nonprofit organizations will work with the Art & Apples team this year, creating art for a cause.
“We’re very proud that Arts & Apples can help other nonprofits, as well,” she said.

A photo by Beverly Benson Wolf called “Golden Morn” will hang in the dining room of Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s official residence.Wolf is one of the artists featured at Art & Apples this weekend in Rochester.