page_title: Detroit Institute of Arts
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Detroit Institute of Arts / History
context_page_description: The Detroit Institute of Arts, located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers 658,000 square feet with a major renovation and expansion project completed in 2007 that added 58,000 square feet. The DIA collection is regarded as among the top six museums in the United States with an encyclopedic collection which spans the globe from ancient Egyptian and European works to contemporary art. Its art collection is valued in billions of dollars, up to $8.1 billion according to a 2014 appraisal. The DIA campus is located in Detroit's Cultural Center Historic District, about two miles north of the downtown area, across from the Detroit Public Library near Wayne State University.
  The museum building is highly regarded by architects. The original building, designed by Paul Philippe Cret, is flanked by north and south wings with the white marble as the main exterior material for the entire structure. The campus is part of the city's Cultural Center Historic District listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
context_section_description: The Museum had its genesis in an 1881 tour of Europe made by local newspaper magnate James E. Scripps. Scripps kept a journal of his family's five-month tour of art and culture in Italy, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, portions of which were published in his newspaper The Detroit News. The series proved so popular that it was republished in book form called Five Months Abroad. The popularity inspired William H. Brearley, the manager of the newspaper's advertising department to organize an art exhibit in 1883, which was also extremely well received.
  Brearly convinced many leading Detroit citizens to contribute to establish a permanent museum. It was originally named the Detroit Museum of Art. Among the donors were James E. Scripps, his brother George H. Scripps, Dexter M. Ferry, Christian H. Buhl, Gen. Russell A. Alger, Moses W. Field, James McMillan and Hugh McMillan, George H. Hammond, James F. Joy, Francis Palms, Christopher R. Mabley, Simon J. Murphy, John S. Newberry, Cyrenius A. Newcomb, Sr., Thomas W. Palmer, Philo Parsons, George B. Remick, Allan Shelden, William C. Weber, David Whitney Jr., George V. N. Lothrop, and Hiram Walker.
  With much success from their first exhibit, Brearley then challenged 40 of Detroit's leading and prominent businessmen to contribute $1,000 each to help fund the building of a permanent museum.  With $50,000 coming from Scripps alone, their goal was within reach.  By 1888, Scripps and Brearley had incorporated Detroit Museum of Arts, filling it with over 70 pieces of artwork acquired by Scripps during his time in Europe.
  Lasting as a museum less than 40 years, the impact the museum had on the city of Detroit was tremendous.  The Art Loan Exhibition's success in 1883 had led to the creation of a board. The purpose of the board was to raise and establish funds to build a permanent art museum in the city. Donating money to the cause were some of Detroit's biggest names, including James E. Scripps, George H. Scripps, Russell A. Alger, and Sen. Thomas Palmer. The old Detroit Museum of Art building opened in 1888 at 704 E. Jefferson Avenue (it was finally demolished in 1960).  The Detroit Museum of Art board of trustees changed the name to the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1919 and a committee began raising funds to build a new location with Scripps still at the helm. The present DIA building on Woodward Avenue debuted on October 7, 1927. While not officially declared the founder of the Detroit Institute of Arts, Scripps and Brearley were indeed the founders of the DIA's predecessor, The Detroit Museum of Art.  With the success of the arts, and the booming auto industry, families were flocking to the city; pushing for the need to expand the vision that Scripps had originally dreamed, a new building was raised and the DIA was born.
  Another decision in 1919 that would have a lasting impact on the future of the museum was transferring ownership to the City of Detroit with the museum becoming a city department and receiving operating funds. The board of trustees became the Founder's Society a private support group that provided additional money for acquisitions and other museum needs. The museum sought the leadership of German art scholar Wilhelm Valentiner. It as under Valentiner's leadership as director that, the museum flush with money from a booming city and wealthy patrons,  the size and quality of the DIA's collections grew significantly. The DIA became the first U.S. museum to acquire a van Gogh and Matisse in 1922 and Valentiner's relationship with German expressionist led to significant holdings of early Modernist art.
  Valentiner also reorganized how art was displayed at the museum. Breaking with the tradition of organizing artworks by their type with, for example, painting grouped together in one gallery and sculpture in another. Valentiner organized them by nation and chronology, this was recognized as being so revolutionary that the 1929 Encyclopædia Britannica used an illustration of the main floor plan of the DIA as an example of the perfect modern art museum.
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caption: Master of the Osservanza Triptych, The Resurrection, c. 1445
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