Flint Institute of Arts

Being a Detroit native, and one who has visited the DIA many times, all proud that it’s a word class institution, I didn’t expect all that much from the FIA. It well exceeded my expectations. It’s more on the smallish size, which is to be expected, given it’s in a smaller city, but the FIA contains a lot of great artwork to feast ones eyes on. I could almost give it 5 stars, but that would seem somehow disloyal to my beloved DIA.
The staff was kind and welcoming. I had a roast beef sandwich from the café upon arrival, and while it was nothing earth-​shattering, it really hit the spot after my drive up.
The galleries start with primitive art and go chronologically to contemporary art at the end. They wrap counterclockwise around a film theater in the middle. My favorite galleries were the post-​impressionist and the modern. They also have this crazy medieval painting of a beheading based on some bible story that just looked like a bonkers Game of Thrones scene to me. Then there’s this uncanny statue of a high school student leaning against a wall that tricked me into thinking it was a real human when I spied it through my peripheral vision from a couple of rooms away. He looks like a somewhat sad misfit trying to fit in, and I found it very affecting.
My favorite part, and the one thing they have bragging rights over the DIA with, was their library. It’s a beautiful room, chock full of glorious art books, many of them lush and oversized. There’s comfy, classy-​looking furniture to sit and pore through them if you’re a visitor like me who’s not really in a position to check them out. And I probably could have sat in there for hours if their website wasn’t wrong about their Friday hours, leaving me with just about enough time to properly cover the galleries. I knew there was a reason I knocked them down a star.
I was able to come back to see a film in their auditorium. It was a period piece called The Experimenter and it was pretty good. Just the kind of thoughtful arthouse fare you might expect. It’s a great space, with a 70’s mod look. They have orange chairs and red carpet with a cool FIA logo incorporated into the design. The outside of the building, too, has a mid-​twentieth century funky modernistic look. Being a child of the 70’s I really like that kind of thing. Not to mention it’s such a 180 from the DIA that Icouldn’t find it lacking in comparison, as it has an entirely different style.
To sum up I found the FIA surprisingly charming and I want to go back. Especially cause, you know, they’re going through some tough times up there. There were signs above the water fountains saying not to use them, and that there’s bottled water for sale at the café. Hmm, who can I give a one-​star review for that whole debacle?

This museum was such a pleasant surprise to our Flint lay over. What a gem! It was contemporary, clean, and their Edvard Munch collection was dynamite. I couldn’t believe it was completely free of charge on Sundays. Lucky us!

Flints hidden gem, one of many to be honest! I love the art that is throughout the whole building and the museum store is packed with unique gifts for you or a loved one.

While this museum/​art gallery is on the smallish size compared to much larger ones in Detroit, Chicago, NY, and Boston, etc, it’s a high quality venue housing an excellent and extensive collection of primitive art, as well as a great display of gorgeous glass paperweights (my favorite) and a terrific graphic arts/​print section.
I love their cool little library, where you can read for hours about your favorite artists and genres. They have just about the nicest gift shop, featuring items made by local artisans and lots of art materials and books, jewelry, handbags, magnets, stationery and more. They offer free Wi-​Fi in the Palette Café. You can take art classes here as well.
FIA offers several interesting lectures and sponsors a ton of awesome events, like art receptions and the like. Sometimes they have free music on certain dates and their FIA Film Series is the best, featuring indie and foreign language films at a low price.
You can always count on their rotating displays in the Hodge Gallery to be superb, ranging from the works of Jackson Pollack and Lee Krazner to Marthe Orant and Henri de Toulouse-​Lautrec to something totally different like the Art of Video Games (a novel idea) and International Cartoons. Admission to the Hodge Gallery is always free on Saturday (and daily to museum members). Perhaps the best part of Flint…

Every time I visit family in SE Michigan I make a point of visiting this gem of a museum. They offer interesting exhibitions in the main gallery, (this time it was Point of View, contemporary African American art from the Elliot and Kimberly Perry Collection) as well as their smaller spaces and have a wonderful collection of their own. Be sure to check out their American primitives and glass paperweight collections. A nice gift shop and coffee café make this a wonderful spot to spend an afternoon.

This is a great little museum,. Collections are not large but they seem to have high quality items. We went on Saturday when admission is free, apparently due to a grant from Target. Nice people, cool sculpture courtyard, interesting travelling exhibits. You might be shocked that this gem is in the heart of Flint!

Ever since my brother started working as a guitar instructor i became a member and started attending the events… Best decision i have made for 2013. Wine tastings, gallery events, foreign films etc…

The FIA has a surprisingly extensive collection. It seems to be a little gem in Flint that everyone forgets about, as it is not usually very busy.
The tapestry room is INCREDIBLE. I know nothing about art and that room blows my mind every time. Hardcore. There’s art for almost every taste, ranging from old Native stuff to cubism to modern weirdness to awesome glassworking stuff to samurai swords to enormous tapestries to minimalist blobs to steampunky gear sculptures and stuff. Plus there is a rotating temporary gallery that constantly changes and often has very interesting stuff; the most recent exhibit was a series of (read: enormous room covered in) political cartoons, which viewers could then post notes of thoughts next to. Very cool.
Come if you’ve never been! You’ll be surprised at how much cool stuff there is.

I visited here just a shy of an year ago. Going along with the consensus here, 4 stars.
The admission is free, and only a few more dollars for the special exhibits. It was very sparse and quiet when I was there. The securities dozed bout at their sentries. It had some very engrossing and stimulating painting that required a few hours for the whole museum. It had a mixture of classical and modern artworks, and many local artists were featured.
It is a worthy stop for a day trip in Flint. I would love to revisit here next time I am in Flint.

Came up to Flint to the FIA, to see the work of Jerry Pinkney. He’s a graphic artist primarily of children books, think the lion and the mouse. We are members of the DIA and they have a members exchange with the FIA. We still end up on Target free Saturday. It still wasn’t crowd, maybe 20 – 30 people in total for the 90 minutes we were in the museum.
The FIA has 4 galleries, a good sized theater and an outside sculpture garden. There is also an attached learning annex for all ages. So beyond the featured gallery, there is a section on modern art and then another on «Masters», and finally some interesting glass works. No real signature pieces, an interesting Singer Sargent.
The Pinkney exhibition was large and varried, besides the children book illustrations, he has also done stuff for the national parks service and a number of jazz related drawings.
So it’s an interesting place to visit, if you are in the area, it’s worth supporting the Arts.

If you and your significant other like museums and are on a budget these days like I am (unemployed), the FIA is a great place for a cheap date night full of culture. My SO and I have a date night pact where every other week we each take a turn planning a date night. We also include a DN relationship/​intimacy building activity of some sort. It was my turn last week and I saw free admission being promoted on the FIA website which was right up my alley. They have a Picasso exhibit going on through the end of Feb. 2010 and I called up to double check if the $ 7 admission price applied to this particular exhibit. The lady on the phone said everything was free till the end of the month. They also have a free admission promotion sponsored by Target. I would call ahead if you want to make you have the right ‘free’ attendance schedule.
I picked Thursday night as our DN night because the museum was open till 9pm. We arrived a little after 7pm and, as I suspected, we had the place almost all to ourselves which was very, very cool. The quiet solitude gave the evening a bit more of a romantic feel. The museum has onsite parking and is located in a cultural center that includes other museums, a planetarium and performance arts center. I liked this because I’ve had the occasion to travel around Flint and some of the locations there can be pretty/​scary sketchy during the DAY (and I was born and raised in the South Bronx). The cultural center is also conveniently located close to the Downtown Flint area near U of M. My SO had no idea where we were going and he didn’t know till we got to there. I like to add an element of surprise to Date Night. :-)
We left the house very soon after my SO got home from work and decided to grab dinner after the museum. The FIA does have a museum café that brews Starbucks and we grabbed 2 flavored coffees for a little energy before we self-​toured. They also sell cold drinks and pastry-​type items. I did see a microwave if you wanted to heat something up. The café area has plenty of seating and the museum has free Wi-​Fi available as well. After our coffee break, we checked out the museum store. A good place to grab a commemorative art magnet for $ 4 as a special DN reminder, if you feel so inclined. Then we grabbed a map at the main desk and they offered us a ‘talking stick’ of some sort that gave audio details on the artwork. We declined and took sweet our time walking around checking everything out. It was cool to see our first Picassos. The FIA art collection was diverse as well. From ancient art to sculpture to modern to old America and Europe, local artists, etc. We were done and ready to go at the FIA about 10 minutes till 9pm.
We headed to Wize Guys Pizza on S. Saginaw afterwards just under 2 miles away to grab some dinner. It’s right next door to the 501 Bar and Grill, which I would have loved to have gone to, but it was too expensive for my DN budget. I checked out the pics online on Unilocal and it seems the may be connected somehow as the décor seemed sorta similar. Wize Guys was a good choice for a cheap date night because it offered ‘pizza joint’ prices, but did not have a low-​end pizza joint look. My SO did not know we were headed to WGP to eat until we got there either.
I spent just under $ 22 + a ¼ tank of gas for this date night (2 medium coffees w/​$ 1 jar tip, free admission at FIA, a pitcher of Budlight and a Hot-​N-​Now medium pepperoni pizza + $ 1 jar tip + tax for less than $ 14). The whole evening seemed to be a hit as the SO said (unprompted, might I add), «You know, this was a good idea,» a number of times throughout the evening. I look forward to going back to the FIA to catch one of their low-​cost movie nights ($ 6) non-​members for a future date night. One Feb. 2010 movie on their list was Waiting for Superman. Per their website, the FIA also has wine and beer tasting events, a holiday walk, art fairs, etc. They also offer all kinds of child (from age 2−½ and up) and adult art classes. I got yet another date night idea when I saw the planetarium in the cultural center offers laser light shows ($ 5 ticket). I just texted my SO the selection of bands/​music and to pick one. He has no idea why. :-) So it looks like we’re going to see the Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon show. Although I would have preferred the Metallica or Tool show, but my man is not as hard rock as I am. The cultural center also offers discounted combo tickets prices for the Sloan museum and planetarium ($ 9 ticket) or back to back laser light rock shows ($ 8 ticket).
I would definitely say the FIA, and cultural center in general, are cool and unexpected Flint finds. I look forward to exploring Downtown Flint more too and their On the Bricks events (car cruise and motorcycle shows, etc.) when the weather finally gets warmer.

It’s easy to trash Flint unless you’ve been to the Cultural Center.
The FIA is a small but eclectic collection of art mostly donated by the major players at GM over the years. They continually get great touring shows and have a great film series that play on Friday, Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons. Target free Saturday is a great time to go for the cash strapped.