Dia

[Homicidalheathen]

It was fab. Oh yes.

Two Shiva Statues and a Devi and a Vishnu.

I swear I have seen two of them in art books so that means Detroit rocks. Right?

Oh and the music they had in the tent......I love me some ghetto techno.

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DIA's re-opening has many wanting more

Neal Rubin / The Detroit News

The DIA's grand re-opening weekend brought more people through the doors in 40 hours than a solid special exhibition might have done over 12 weeks.

Public relations manager Pam Marcil says 57,554 people took advantage of free admission, varied entertainment and even midnight coney dogs.

After six years of full or partial closings and a $158 million renovation, the DIA stayed open for a 32-hour burst from 10 a.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Saturday, then kept its normal Sunday schedule of 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Nearly 1 in 6 visitors -- some 9,000 -- arrived between 9 p.m. Friday and 2 a.m. Saturday.

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"It's hard to say what's a typical weekend," Marcil says, or even a typical year, given the museum's lengthy construction period. But with the exception of blockbuster shows like "Van Gogh" in 2000, which drew hundreds of thousands, attendance of 50,000-plus for a special exhibit has been counted as a success.

The weekend's boom times extended to the museum gift shop, which sold out "Let Yourself Go" T-shirts.

"The thing we kept hearing as people left," Marcil says, is the thing the DIA most hoped to hear: "I want to come back."

[Msterbeau]

I went Friday with my girls. We had fun. Then we went to ride the people mover. They're easily amused.

[ttogreh]

I am hoping to go this friday with Jadis...

[bean]

The eternal and I went around 11pm Friday night and left about 3:30 am. When we got there, the place was packed - it was insane.

I enjoyed going though, and I look forward to going again when it is less crowded (and I'm less tired) so I can enjoy everything a bit more.

The music was fucking annoying, as were some of the people.

[SuZQZ]

Glad to hear it's as good as the media was pumping it up to be. I'm waiting for the hooplah to die down to take my daughter. I don't want to go when it's super crowded. I want us to be able to walk at our own pace and take our time so we can really absorb everything and appreciate it.

[Steven]

Lola and I went to the pre opengin opening for contractors (my co. did all the sings in there) - it was a private shindig with a bunch of foo foo shi shi hours de houvers or however the fuk you spell it - anyway we loved it.

[Destroit]

I went Friday with my girls. We had fun. Then we went to ride the people mover. They're easily amused.

You sayin' people who ride the people mover for hours are easily amused? One time I spent like an hour and a half on the thing I mean, you can just stay on it and you don't have to pay again. .....(i.e. I am easily amused, that's for sure )

I want to check out the DIA now, I practically had everything in that place memorized 'cause we used to go so much, I wonder how much it's changed? I didn't even know it was closed until I read in the newspaper that they were finally opening it again.

[Destroit]

Glad to hear it's as good as the media was pumping it up to be. I'm waiting for the hooplah to die down to take my daughter. I don't want to go when it's super crowded. I want us to be able to walk at our own pace and take our time so we can really absorb everything and appreciate it.

True that, I don't go to things like that when they're just opening for that reason. Sometimes crowds are fun, like at DEMF for instance, but definately not at a museum.

[freydis]

i havent been in forever.

i should go.

[CandyQuackenbush]

I would LOVE to spend the afternoon there. I should have gone.

[Gypsyflamme]

I went after a night at Mephistos! Myself and three of my friends arrived there around 3 am rather drunk. I tell you though....art will never be the same after that. We stayed till about 6 am, and it was still rather packed. There were the most interesting people running around there, and I got yelled at by securtity a few times for being too close to the paintings! "Sorry, I said, but I just want to crawl inside some of them!" LOL! I think they need to have the DIA open once a month for the whole weekend, it was alot of fun!!

[sass_in_the_pants]

I haven't been since the Rodin exhibit.

We'll definitely be back. I'm looking forward to the changes.