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A
Museum on the Verge
A Socioeconomic History of the Detroit Institute of
Arts, 1882-2000
Jeffrey Abt |
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The
Detroit Institute of Arts is one of America's largest and oldest municipal
art museums. However, even as the museum grew into a distinguished collection,
there were threats of closure. The DIA has walked a financial tightrope
since it opened just over a century ago, and was nearly closed by government
funding cuts in the 1970s and 1990s. Now Jeffrey Abt tells how the DIA has
had to struggle to maintain its fine art collection with barely enough income
to remain open.
A Museum on the Verge goes behind the scenes
at the DIA to disclose the political, economic, and social forces that shaped
the museum from its founding to the present day. Abt's account is supplemented
by a wealth of material, including legal documents and numerical data taken
at five-year intervals from the 1880s through 2000 that is presented in
both tables and graphs. The data, which comprehensively survey vital statistics
such as attendance, collections growth, and finances, provide a rich resource
for comparative research on other museums. |
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"For
those who care for museums, institutional histories are frustratingly scarce.
Worse, still, the few to be found are most often 'puff' pieces, crafted
to order for some happy occasion. In A Museum on the Verge-—[an] objective,
incisive, frequently cautionary and sometimes wry account of the Detroit
Institute of Arts' evolution since its founding in the 1880s—Jeffrey
Abt has given us an institutional history with a rare and critical difference.
Trustees, donors, foundation executives, and museum officials alike should
all find it a 'must.'"—Stephen E. Weil, Emeritus Senior Scholar, Center
for Museum Studies, Smithsonian Institution |
