DIA Installs Latest Round Of Outdoor Art In Metro Detroit Neighborhoods

ROSEVILLE (AP) - The Detroit Institute of Arts is installing dozens of artwork reproductions outside in the Detroit area this summer, as its "Inside/Out" effort that it started five years ago expands to several other U.S. cities.

Installations went up Friday in the Detroit suburbs of Eastpointe, Roseville and Macomb Township, as part of the latest round of displays. Others are scheduled in the coming week in 10 Detroit-area communities and they'll be on view through October.

Supported by $2 million in funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Akron Art Museum in Ohio and the Philadelphia Museum of Art are putting up similar displays this year.The Pérez Art Museum Miami in Florida plans installations this fall.

The DIA started "Inside/Out" in 2010, and the Knight Foundation has supported the program for three years. The foundation asked the museum to compile a guide for other museums as a template, and plans call for expanding the program to other cities in 2016 and 2017.

It's "one of those rare programs that can get entire communities talking about and engaging with art," Victoria Rogers, vice president of arts for Knight Foundation, said in a statement.

As the program expands nationally, it also has continued to grow in its home state. The DIA installed dozens of pieces of artwork outdoors this spring in the Detroit area, and took "Inside/Out" on the road in Michigan with displays in Bay City and Grand Haven.

Graham W. J. Beal, who recently retired as director of the DIA, said earlier this year that the program has succeeded in engaging the community. It expanded the museum's reach as Detroit-area voters in 2012 approved a property tax to help fund the museum and as the museum more recently was the focus of debate over whether city-owned art should be sold to ease the blow of Detroit's bankruptcy.

"The program ... has become the cornerstone of the DIA's community relations efforts," Beal said.

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