DIA "INSIDE / OUT" ART DISPLAYS HEAD TO NORTHERN MICHIGAN FOR THE SUMMER MONTHS

Six years ago the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) began a community outreach campaign to expand the awareness and appreciation of the museum with local residents.  The DIA placed weather-proof, high-quality reproductions of artistic masterpieces from its collection outdoors in a few select cities within the three counties surrounding Detroit for people to enjoy.  The goal of the displays was to bring the art IN its galleries OUT into communities for people who may not normally visit the downtown Detroit museum to enjoy. These representations were so accurate that police departments in these communities began to receive calls from concerned citizens that stolen artwork from the DIA may have been put up as a prank.  Rave reviews from the public about the displays have made INSIDE/OUT an annual on-going program since its inception.

The INSIDE / OUT program selects several local cities and townships each year to host these art displays. The nice thing about the program is that seven to twelve images are clustered within walking or bike-riding distance so you can have a fun family outing searching for the artwork and exploring the community where it has been placed.  I've gone on an art hunt with my kids in at least one of the INSIDE/OUT communities hosting the displays each year since the program began.  It is nice too that they've rotated the participating cities and townships during the life of the program so the displays aren't always hosted in the same places and new artwork is regularly introduced year to year keeping going on art hunts fun and exciting.  Metro Detroit locations hosting INSIDE/OUT in 2016 include Eastern Market and the Dequindre Cut greenway trail in the City of Detroit, plus the communities of Hamtramck, Ecorse, New Baltimore, Pontiac, and Warren, among other locations.

Because of the popularity of INSIDE/OUT  the displays will also be included over the summer in three northern Michigan towns popular with summer vacationers -- Alpena, Traverse City and Mackinac Island.  If you are planning on going on an Up North Michigan adventure this summer these INSIDE / OUT exhibits will be on display until September.  I hadn't realized that the INSIDE / OUT artwork was going to be on display in Northern Michigan until we stumbled upon one of the portraits during a family trip to Mackinac Island while walking to our hotel.  Because of our family's past art hunts we instantly associated it with being INSIDE/OUT artwork.

 Mackinac Island is known for prohibiting motor vehicles so walking, bike riding and horse drawn carriages are the primary means of getting around while visiting the Michigan state park which is filled with historical buildings, scenic landscapes, and lots of fudge shops and souvenir stands. The INSIDE / OUT artwork is sprinkled throughout the island's downtown and the grounds of the historic Grand Hotel.  Some of the artwork really stands out along the island's thoroughfares while others are a bit more subdued so they are not so easy to discover without looking out for them.  Of course we went on an art hunt to our Mackinac Island activities once we realized the DIA reproductions were there searching for all the INSIDE/OUT displays adding an extra element of fun to our trip.

I've shared a few of the Mackinac Island INSIDE/OUT portraits we discovered.  If you visit can you find them all?  If so let us know!  Plus if you make it to Alpena or Traverse City this summer, have some Pure Michigan fun and go on an art hunt!  Of course we'd enjoy seeing your INSIDE/OUT art hunt photos.  Please share your pictures by tweeting them to @Geekdad248 so we can share in your fun!

If you are planning a Metro Detroit art hunt be aware that they switch up the locations and displays in August with the new exhibit locations staying up through October.  Upcoming locations include Belleville (Wayne County), East English Village (Detroit), Beverly Hills (Oakland County) and Romeo (Macomb County).   For more information, visit www.dia.org.

Our Trip to Fort Mackinac

We recently took a road trip up to northern Michigan and a boat trip over to Mackinac Island to explore its historic fort.  The fort was built by the British during the Revolutionary War to defend the strategic island of Mackinac which is located where the great lakes of Michigan, Huron and Superior meet.  At a time when boats were the primary transportation and lakes and rivers were the speediest avenues for getting around, controlling this island meant controlling access to a large portion of the Midwest and Canada.  Fort Mackinac was voluntarily turned over to the United States by the British at the end of the Revolution.  U.S. custody of the island was short lived though as the British launched a sneak attack against the garrison at the start of the War of 1812 and the fort's commander surrendered when realizing his soldiers were surrounded and grossly outnumbered.

Our visit marked the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Mackinac Island where in 1814 a U.S. force of 700 soldiers fought the British in an attempt to retake the isle.  It turned out to be a devastating loss with 22 American soldiers being killed, including the second in command Major Andrew Holmes, and 55 wounded resulting in a retreat from the battlefield by the United State's forces.  The fort's military cemetery contains the remains of the soldiers killed in that battle and is one of only four national military cemeteries where the Stars & Stripes always flies at half mast....the other three being Gettysburg (Pennsylvania), Arlington (Virginia), and the Punchbowl (Hawaii).  In 1815, the British returned control of the fort to the United States as part of the Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812.  Fort Mackinac remained an active army base for the U.S. military from 1815 to 1895.

In 1875, Mackinac Island was named the second national park in the United States, Yellowstone was the first, and the soldiers at the fort served as park rangers.  In 1895, the army decommissioned Fort Mackinac and turned the island over to the State of Michigan.  Mackinac Island became Michigan's first state park in 1896.  Mackinac Island State Park over the years had become a popular tourist destination in the Great Lakes region.  In addition to Fort Mackinac as an attraction, the island also features a policy that no motorized vehicles are allowed on it so transportation is primarily by horse drawn carriages and bicycle, which provides a quaint charm...oh and a multitude of fudge shops also dot the island and are popular with tourists.

Fort Mackinac has a great children's exhibit for preschoolers through elementary aged kids.  It has some great interactive features that will both entertain and educate the children who stroll through it.  Dress up as a Victorian era American soldier, pet some of the pelts that made the area the fur trade capital of the 1600s, 1700s & 1800s, play a fife, re-enact military drills on a green screen, and listen to stories about what life was like for a child whose father was stationed at the fort.  These are just a few of the features available to help you provide your child with a history lesson during a family vacation.  The Kids Zone is located in the Officer's Stone Quarters which is Michigan's oldest building constructed in 1780.

Place your hand in each of these dark boxes and try to identify the animal whose fur you are petting.  Afterward push a button and the window lights up showing you the pelt and the name of the animal it belonged to.

Dress up in reproductions of the uniforms soldiers wore while Fort Mackinac was an active military base in the 1800s.

Re-enact military drills on a green screen and have yourself projected on a video monitor with soldiers from the 19th century.

Look out a window at the modern day village below the fort than place a hand held screen over the window and see what the view from that same window looked like in 1880.

Play the giant fife! 

In addition to the Kids Zone exhibit, children can also interact with costumed staffers who are stationed around the grounds.  One costumed lady in Victorian garb demonstrated to my kids how children in the 1800s played games than pulled out a big trunk of toys from that era that she let them play with on the parade grounds.  A young man dressed as a soldier who would have been stationed at the fort in the 1880s played "Old Susana" on a harmonica for us.  We also enjoyed rifle firing and cannon firing demonstrations during our visit.

For the adults in the family, while the things I mentioned above are interesting and fun for everyone in the family, there are also things to check out at the fort that may be of more interest to an older audience.  Fort Mackinac has 14 original buildings that have been restored and filled with period antiques and historical artifacts. Check out the displays and information about how Doctor William Beaumont (the hospital down the street from our home in Metro Detroit was named after him) became known as "The Father of Gastric Physiology" based upon experiments he did at the fort on a fur trader named Alexis St. Martin who had a hole blown into his abdomen from a gun accident.  Beaumont learned how digestion worked by looking through a hole that never healed in the man's stomach during the years 1822 through 1833.  Take a look at the bath house that is filled with antique claw footed bathtubs that were state of the art when they were installed in 1885.  The original guardhouse is still standing with the "hole" that some soldiers were thrown into for bad behavior.  The post canteen is an interesting look at how the soldiers entertained themselves in the 1800s playing games like pool and drinking Schlitz beer.  The fort also has a well-stocked gift shop called the "Sutler's Store".  

If you go to Mackinac Island in addition to enjoying the horses, scenic views, and fudge shops, make sure you also visit the fort.

CLICK HERE for more information about Fort Mackinac.

CLICK HERE for more information about Mackinac Island.