Ninety-five years ago, the Detroit Institute of Arts was in deep, deep financial trouble.
It kept the doors open by turning over the building and its art to the thriving city of Detroit in exchange for annual funding.
And now it stands, poised to flip that arrangement upside down, hoping to cut Detroit's ownership of the DIA in order to protect its treasures from hungry creditors.
There's quite a long and complicated history between the DIA and the city.
And yet, despite nearly a century tied together, the reaction of Detroiters to the proposed spin-off of the DIA is pretty muted – certainly much different than the reaction when the state took over operations of Belle Isle.
Detroit Free Press writer Mark Stryker explored this in his piece for last Sunday's paper.
Listen to the full interview above.
