The Detroit Institute of Arts has put on its share of blockbuster exhibitions, highlighting painters like Van Gogh, Rembrandt and its showpiece, the murals depicting the auto industry completed by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera in 1933.
In recent times, it has bused in thousands of area schoolchildren, shown classic and independent films in its theater and started one of the country’s first centers of African American Art, as befits a city with a majority Black population.
But the Institute, also known as D.I.A., had never focused on another big population in its backyard: the deeply rooted Arab American community, said to be one of the largest in the United States with roots that go back to the 1870s.
That changed this fall. On Sept. 22, the museum inaugurated “The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World.” Running through Jan. 5, the exhibition brings together 230 works from the Middle East, Egypt and Central and South Asia. It explores connections between art and cuisine from ancient times to the present.
“It’s our first effort” to reach the Arab American community “and we will do more in the future,” said Salvador Salort-Pons, who has led the museum since 2015.
The Arab American population around Detroit is estimated to be 300,000 to 350,000 people, according to Arab America, an information website, not all of whom are Muslim. The first wave of Arab American settlers began arriving there from Syria and Lebanon, predating the museum’s founding in 1885.
More waves of immigrants from Yemen, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Iran followed throughout the 20th century, with immigrants joining others worldwide to work in auto plants. Many congregated in Dearborn, next door to Detroit, and have since expanded farther west to suburbs such as Dearborn Heights and Canton, as well as Hamtramck, an enclave in Detroit.
For the show, the galleries are painted deep blue and trimmed in intricate gold designs to echo the grillwork found across the Islamic world. But rather than a showing of fine art, “The Art of Dining” aims to tie cultural traditions to present day practices, like communal dining, coffee service, dressing up for dinner and washing hands.
In the center of one gallery sits a large, round, low table with an elaborate embroidered cover, known as a sufra. The table is set with paper menus, pieces of pita bread and what looks like large dinner plates, but which are screens onto which different menu items are projected.
A sufra is the subject of one of the oldest works in the show, an Iranian watercolor in ink with gold on paper, called “A Banquet Scene with Hormuz,” from a manuscript that dates from 1485 to 1495. A dining scene is also depicted in another Iranian piece, called “An Old Man and a Young Man and a Woman Having a Picnic,” from the mid-1600s.
All manner of serving pieces are found throughout the galleries, including ewers — jugs used to pour water for hand washing — and richly colored jade and ceramic bowls. There are cookbooks with traditional recipes that have been updated for the present, which can be obtained through a QR code.
One long case contains luxurious garments, such as full-length gowns, tunics and underclothes, reflecting what might have been worn for a banquet, while sparkling silver coffee service pieces sit nearby. The objects span the Islamic world from Spain and Middle Eastern countries to Africa, India and South Asia.
“The food and pleasures of dining are universal,” said Katherine Kasdorf, the associate curator for arts of Asia and the Islamic World, who oversaw the exhibition.
Such opulence might give the impression that the exhibition reflects the Muslim elite. In fact, when it was originally staged by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, it was called “Dining With the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting.”
In 2021, the Los Angeles County museum contacted the Detroit Institute of Arts to see if it would like to host the exhibition.
“We thought it would be great for us to do the exhibition” because “we have one of the most vibrant Arab American communities in the country,” Salort-Pons said.
Since the museum had never staged an Islamic show, Detroit officials sounded out local leaders for input.
Diana Abouali, director of the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, was among those who suggested changing the title — something that frequently happens when shows move between museums, Salort-Pons said — fearing it might alienate area residents.
Though the Arab American community in the area is prosperous, filling blocks of avenues in Dearborn with restaurants, small businesses and professional offices, it is not as established as older, wealthier suburbs in the Detroit area.
But Dearborn, and nearby suburbs, have become a center of innovative local dining that has earned recognition from the James Beard Foundation Awards. Coffee houses owned by Yemeni proprietors have sprung up, as well as bakeries, barbecue spots and supermarkets featuring imported foods, fruit, vegetables and halal meats.
The mayor of Dearborn, Abdullah Hammoud, 34, a food lover and promoter of his city’s business scene, said he was excited at the opportunity to advise Salort-Pons and Kasdorf on ways to make the exhibition more locally relevant.
When Hammoud and his wife were dating, he said, they often prowled the galleries and attended events at the museum. “I give them credit for reaching out,” said Hammoud.
His help will be valuable, because the exhibition is an expensive venture for Detroit. Salort-Pons estimated that it is costing in the millions to stage (he did not provide an exact figure), and the museum hopes to attract up to 100,000 visitors during the run. By comparison, its “Van Gogh in America” exhibition, which closed in January 2023, drew 250,000.
The museum has scheduled weeks of events around the dining exhibition this fall, including discussions of the artworks and cultural dining traditions. On opening day, the museum featured a discussion between Abouali and the multimedia Iraqi artist Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, whose animated film, “A Thread of Light Between My Mother’s Fingers and Heaven,” is projected on the wall of the final gallery.
The film was commissioned especially for the exhibition. It poignantly explores Alfraji’s memories of his mother, her homemade bread and family meals shared in his native Baghdad.
Memories aside, it’s a complicated time to feature anything connected to the Arab world. Dearborn has been a center of protests of the yearlong war in Gaza. Demonstrations large and small take place almost continuously, and there have been extensive fund-raising efforts for Palestinian and Lebanese charities.
The exhibition was in the works long before the Middle East conflict, Salort-Pons said, “and we understand the situation is difficult.” Asked if he thought the museum might be drawn into the debate, he replied, “I don’t know the future.”
But Salort-Pons said he wanted Dearborn residents and others in the local Arab American community to view the museum’s efforts. “We want to engage the community and make sure they feel the museum is here for them and to reflect their culture.”
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