IV.

Education and Culture

Detroit underwent a multimillion dollar renewal of its cultural resources in the late 20th century. The 1980s saw renewed investment in the Detroit Historical Museum, most notably in its acclaimed Motor City Exhibition that interprets the influence of the automobile industry on the city’s life and development. During the same period, a group of volunteers renovated Orchestra Hall on Woodward Avenue, which was slated for demolition. This acoustical masterpiece, once again home to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, is the centerpiece for the Max M. Fisher Music Center, a performing arts complex that opened in 2003.

The city’s center includes the world-class collections of the Detroit Institute of Arts, in particular its signature murals by Diego Rivera, titled Detroit Industry (1932-1933). The nearby Detroit Science Museum with its IMAX theater and hands-on exhibits cooperates with area schools to promote science. The Museum of African American History, also located near the Institute of Arts, is devoted to African American history, art, and culture. Slightly to the north, in the New Center area, is the Motown Museum, formerly the headquarters of Motown Records. Motown Records became famous in the 1960s as the world headquarters and recording studios for an array of popular black soloists and musical groups, including Stevie Wonder, Temptations, and the Supremes.

Ethnic festivals at Hart Plaza on the waterfront draw crowds each summer weekend. In addition, Detroit has two traditional events that bring more than one million people downtown. One is the Thanksgiving Day Parade; the other is the fireworks display in early July cosponsored by the United States and Canada.

Outside the city limits, two key cultural institutions consistently attract international attention to the metropolitan area: Dearborn's Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, which house a vast assemblage of technological and historical artifacts and buildings, and Bloomfield Hills’ Cranbrook Academy. Founded in the 1920s and principally designed by Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, Cranbrook is a unique cultural center composed of five separate educational institutions. Outstanding collections are housed in the library and galleries of the Cranbrook Academy of Art and in the museum of the Cranbrook Institute of Science.

The metropolitan area is home to over a dozen institutions of higher learning, from two-year programs to major research institutions. These include Wayne State University, the University of Detroit Mercy, and Marygrove College in the city, and Madonna University, Oakland University, and the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor and Dearborn campuses in the surrounding area.