Thursday Late Night
To provide patrons with more time to experience the Flint Institute of Arts, each Thursday, the FIA is open late. In addition to the art galleries, the Museum Shop and The Palette Café are open. On select nights, enjoy special programs as highlighted below. It’s a great way to wind down the week.
March 23
6:00p | Isabel Hall
Book Discussion Part 2: The Personal Librarian
The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths to which she must go—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.
March 30
6:00p | FIA Theater
FIA Film: Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power
(U.S., 2022) Directed by Nina Menkes, 107 min., not rated
“If the camera is predatory, then the culture is predatory.” In this eye-opening documentary, celebrated independent filmmaker Nina Menkes explores the sexual politics of cinematic shot design. Using clips from hundreds of movies we all know and love—from Metropolis to Vertigo to Phantom Thread—Menkes convincingly makes the argument that shot design is gendered.
COMPLIMENTARY ADMISSION | Celebrating Women's History Month
April 13
5:30p–8:30p | Galleries
Art School Activity: Sketching in the Galleries
Copying work by established artists is traditional practice to help artists better understand how a work of art was created and the decisions the artist made when creating it. Join faculty member Gwen Darling as she shows visitors some essential techniques for observing and sketching from artwork in the FIA galleries. Drop in any time. Bring your own sketchbook and pencil or borrow one from us.
April 20
4:00p–8:00p | Hot Shop/Contemporary Craft Gallery & Lobby
Exhibition Reception: Torched: Glass Pipes
6:30p • Lobby
Drink with the Director
Please come and join me for the first “Drink with the Director.” Enjoy a mocktail or cocktail inspired by a work in the FIA’s Lobby, while I give a short presentation on Dale Chihuly’s Persian Chandelier in celebration of National Glass Month.
(Talk is free, but there is a charge for drinks).
April 27
6:00p | FIA Theater
The Sheppy Dog Fund Lecture
This talk will explore the history of two unique sets of tapestries on view at The Met Cloisters, The Hunt for the Unicorn and the Heroes Tapestries. The Unicorn Tapestries are among the most beautiful and complex works of art from the late Middle Ages that survive. Luxuriously woven in fine wool and silk with silver and gold threads, the tapestries vividly depict scenes associated with a hunt for the elusive, magical unicorn. The Heroes Tapestries, representing the Hebrew heroes (Joshua and David), the Christian hero (King Arthur), and the pagan heroes (Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar), are thought to have been made around 1400. Once part of a larger ensemble featuring Nine Heroes, these remarkable tapestries are among the earliest large-scale tapestries to survive from a moment when these ensembles were part of princely collections. The talk will explore how these works were made, their meaning, and the conservation work essential to their long-term preservation. The lecture will also highlight the role of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in creating The Met Cloisters and consider his involvement in the acquisition of these remarkable works of art. Dr. C. Griffith Mann is the Michel David-Weill Curator in Charge of the Department of Medieval Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Cloisters. Dr. Mann received his B.A. in art history and history from Williams College, and his Ph.D. in medieval art from The Johns Hopkins University. A specialist in the arts of late medieval Italy, he has published on civic patronage, painting, and devotion in Tuscany.
