Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit reopens, with the local community front and centre

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (Mocad) reopened on 25 April after being closed for more than a year, unveiling upgrades to its 22,000-square-foot Midtown building in time for the institution’s 20th anniversary. Renovations to the former car dealership-turned-kunsthalle include a new learning space, the installation of air conditioning, and a large street-facing window intended to better connect the galleries to the surrounding neighborhood; the main building was renamed for co-founder Julia Reyes Taubman. Co-directors Marie Madison-Patton and Jova Lynne said the redesign supports Mocad’s goal of functioning more explicitly as a civic space, with an emphasis on local artists and community participation. The museum is also using Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), a discussion-based method associated with research by cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen and museum educator Philip Yenawine, to shift interpretation toward dialogue and visitor observation.

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