Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Art for art's sake

"Since 2003, attendance at The Flint Institute of Arts has increased 41 percent, soaring to 120,000 visitors in 2007-2008," according to a story by Carol Azizian in The Flint Journal.

"The museum's exhibitions have been drawing record crowds -- including people from around the state -- since the FIA underwent a $20-million redesign and expansion from 2004-2006.

"This year, the museum received the 'Governor's Award for Arts and Culture.' It's the second largest art museum in Michigan."



2 comments:

  1. Thank you for providing the link (which I followed to another link, on the Cultural Center). My husband and I drove past the Buick Gallery on our recent trip to Flint, and if we had known what it was, we would have stopped! I always liked the FIA. I remember the glass paperweight collection... was that at the FIA?

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  2. Yes, I remember the fabulous paperweight collection. Funny, that's the one thing that really stands out about the museum in my memory.

    I also remember an installation they had at one time and you crawled into a dark space and there were various fabrics and things stuck to the walls. Very fun and mildly scary.

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Thanks for commenting. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.