Updated: Detroit’s MOCAD opens fall-winter exhibitions before it launches $10 million renovation

The contemporary art museum was expected to close for six to nine months in early 2024, but that appears to no longer be the case

Sep 26, 2023 at 12:45 pm

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Steve Neavling

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.

Updated Wednesday, Sept. 27:

This article originally reported that MOCAD planned to close for six to nine months in 2024 for a renovation project. After the article was published, a publicist for MOCAD emailed us to say that was no longer the case.

”MOCAD is currently working on its renovation plan,” the publicst wrote. “Over the next few years any relocation needed during the renovation, we will activate partnerships for continued programs and operations. More information to come.”

Originally published Tuesday, Sept. 26:

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit’s Fall 2023-Winter 2024 exhibitions open on Friday, packing in immersive experiences that inspect race, identity, and heritage. In his first museum solo show, multidisciplinary artist Mark Thomas Gibson presents A Retelling featuring a visual archive of race in proximity to American culture and identity. Kevin Bernard Moultrie Daye (who also goes by SPIRITUALS) uses 3D scans and robotic fabrication techniques to recreate African masks in shadowworking, to preserve the stories of displaced communities like Detroit’s Black Bottom neighborhood. KESSWA guides us from the Deep South to the North Star (aka Detroit) exploring Black femme freedom and joy in Transcendence. In MOCAD: Doors Open, the museum presents an exhibit of its 17-year history with archival materials, commissioned artist prints, and ephemera of past exhibitions.

For the museum’s 17th birthday on Thursday, Oct. 26 it will mount Mike Kelley’s Space for Public Good, which will host activations by Cinema Detroit, Intersectional Press, the Detroit Recovery Project, and the Progressive Art Studio Collective (PASC) for artists with disabilities. Then, MOCAD will close in early 2024 for six to nine months during a $10 million renovation project, so take advantage of this last chance to visit for a while. An opening reception is slated for Friday, Sept. 29 at 4:30 p.m. including an artist talk with Mark Thomas Gibson in conversation with Mario Moore at 5:30 p.m. Performances by Kevin Bernard Moultrie Daye, Hamzat, HiTech, and Zelooperz will follow. The exhibitions run through Feb. 4.

Location Details

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD)

4454 Woodward Ave., Detroit

(313) 832-6622

mocadetroit.org

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About The Author

Randiah Camille Green

After living in Japan and traveling across Asia, Randiah Camille Green realized Detroit will always be home. And when she says Detroit, she's talking about the hood, not the suburbs. She has bylines in Planet Detroit News , Bridge Detroit , BLAC magazine, and Model D .Her favorite pastimes are meditating on...