DIA Thanks Supporters for Moving Southeast Michigan Forward

When tri-county voters passed the DIA millage by overwhelming fashion in November, they demonstrated their willingness to support the arts and regional cooperation.

And officials with the Detroit Insititue of Arts honored that spirit and gratitude when they recently discussed the November millage that will help cover the museum's operating costs.

"I cannot tell you what an important and critical vote that was," DIA chief operating officer Annmarie Erickson said Feb. 8. "Your help really did an amazingly critical thing for the DIA."

Erickson made her statement at the DIA's Crystal Ballroom as part an announcement of which Metro Detroit communities would host the next round of Inside|Out installations this spring and summer.

In November, voters in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties — incluing Bloomfield and Bloomfield Hills — approved a tax of 0.2 mills for the next 10 years to help cover the museum's operating costs. In return, residents from all three counties receive free admission to the DIA for the next decade.

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In the meantime, the museum's fundraisers will work to build a sustainable endowment.

"It also was an amazing statement on regionalism," Erickson said. "This kind of back and forth is going to be essential to moving forward in southeast Michigan."

The Inside|Out program is funded through a partnership with the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, one of whose goals is to foster the arts.

Have you visited the DIA since the November millage passed? What is your favorite attraction?