One writer’s suggestion that Detroit doesn’t deserve its art treasures is offensive, elitist and idiotic.
Although she wrote an article for Bloomberg entitled “Detroit’s Van Gogh Would Be Better Off in L.A.,” Virginia Postrel has never actually set foot in the Detroit Institute of Arts. She says she has been to Detroit, though, so I’m forced to imagine she’s one of those “art lovers” who drive around struggling neighborhoods snapping photos of crumbling old buildings. Detroiters, including the DIA itself, are working to overpower the ruin porn fetish with positive images of the city. But Postrel’s article and subsequent follow-up demonstrate she’s unwilling to see or say anything good about Detroit.
Read the article for yourself because, when questioned by Alan Stamm of Deadline Detroit*, she took umbrage at any perceived misinterpretation of her piece. Funny, that, since it seems obvious that Postrel did absolutely no local research for her article. She didn’t talk directly with anyone from the DIA, or any of the artists who work in Detroit — where there’s a thriving, engaged, ever-growing creative community. One artist friend who exhibits his work worldwide lives in Detroit and always will. He gets it. Postrel clearly does not.
Not only is she blind to the high level of esteem Detroit has for the arts, she claims we’re holding treasures like Van Gogh’s self-portrait “hostage.”
Parochial interests aside, however, great artworks shouldn’t be held hostage by a relatively unpopular museum in a declining region. The cause of art would be better served if they were sold to institutions in growing cities where museum attendance is more substantial and the visual arts are more appreciated than they’ve ever been in Detroit. Art lovers should stop equating the public good with the status quo.
Postrel’s implication is that people from Detroit and surrounding areas simply aren’t cultured enough to value these works of art. Perhaps she’d like us to rewrite history and move Motown to L.A. as well.
She claims the DIA doesn’t have the support of the local community, even though she mentions the millage tax overwhelmingly approved by three counties in November 2012 to support the DIA. She did not, however, bother to note that there’s a bill being considered by the Michigan legislature to protect the DIA’s collection from bankruptcy proceedings.
Instead, Postrel uses city populations and museum attendance figures to make the case that Detroiters don’t care as much about their museum as residents of other cities. Apparently, this is why she thinks we can’t have nice things.
In the Detroit Free Press, Nancy Kaffer did a masterful job refuting the numerous inaccuracies and absurd statements in Postrel’s article. Be sure to read Kaffer’s rebuttal, but here’s a taste:
Postrel claims that LA has a greater appreciation of the arts, because, she says, the Getty had 1.2 million visitors in a year, compared with the DIA’s 526,000.
So let’s math this out. There are 12.8 million people in the LA Metropolitan Statistical Area, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, compared to Detroit’s 3.7 million. Crunch those numbers, and it’s clear that a much larger percentage of the Detroit metro area cares about art — 13% of metro Detroit’s population visited the DIA last year, compared to just 9% in Los Angeles.
Postrel’s article rightfully earned the indignation of Detroiters and supporters of the arts nationwide. She responded to the backlash with a follow-up article that, if you can believe it, is even more offensive. She suggested the DIA set up a time-share program, like the “traditionally black” Fisk University did when it needed funds. Ah, there it is. The unmistakable stink of racism. Why else would Postrel feel the need to identify Fisk University that way?
She also had the audacity to say that Detroit doesn’t attract tourism. Perhaps Postrel thinks Detroit has been sold off by the state of Michigan, where tourism is booming. People who come to Michigan also visit Detroit for its museums, concerts and sporting events. Maybe Postrel didn’t notice that this year’s Detroit Electronic Music Festival drew an estimated 100,000 visitors from around the world.
Postrel can deny her elitist, narrow-minded views all she wants, but those of us who live in and love Detroit know better. She claims she never said “Detroit doesn’t deserve” fine art, but it was clearly implied. Had Postrel bothered to check her facts she’d know that Detroit is in the midst of a renaissance. It’s happened before in the city’s history, and it’s happening again.
Does Detroit have work to do to become financially solvent and repair its struggling neighborhoods? Of course. No one’s denying that. But articles like Postrel’s from outsiders who think they’re above getting a local viewpoint or hearing our outrage as anything but ignorance is what makes people think Detroit is doomed.
Detroit doesn’t always do itself any favors, but it’s people like Postrel who really give us a bad name. They only want to see the bad, never the good. It wouldn’t occur to them to look at how hard-hit neighborhoods, businesses and people are using their creativity and ingenuity to recover. And succeeding.
Because people like Postrel don’t want to see it. They’d rather cling to their belief that Detroit is nothing but ruin porn. So my message to Postrel and others like her is this:
Keep your dirty thoughts to yourself, because you’re only making it harder for Detroit to re-establish itself in the worldview as the great city it is. And just you wait, Virginia Postrel. Detroit — and its already world-class museum — will return to glory despite your best efforts to bad-mouth us.
When that day comes, Virginia, I suspect you’ll have absolutely nothing to say.
[DIA “Thinker” image modified from CC photo by Michael Barera | Wikimedia Commons]
* Update: In my original post, this sentence referred to “Detroit reporters.” As of June 9, Postrel had only been interviewed by one Detroit-based writer, Alan Stamm of Deadline Detroit, whose piece I linked to above.
