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Photo: Ajay Suresh, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Flint Institute of Music, also called the FIM, is located in the Flint Cultural Center in Flint, Michigan. It is ranked as the 8th largest community music school in the United States. FIM is made up of the Flint Symphony Orchestra, Flint School of Performing Arts, and Flint Repertory Theatre; as well as the Whiting Auditorium and Capitol Theatre. FIM offers lessons, classes, ensembles, and camps for all levels for ages 3 years to adults. Students perform in the dance and performance ensembles such as Flint Youth Symphony Orchestra, Flint Youth Ballet Ensemble, Flint Youth Theatre, Dort Honors Quartet, and Improv Squad, among several others. The Flint Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Conductor Enrique Diemecke, performs a full season of classical concerts as well as free Music in the Park concerts at Genesee area parks in the Summer season. Additionally, the FIM sponsors the Holiday Pops concert every holiday season, featuring the Flint Symphony Orchestra, Flint Festival Chorus, and local choirs. FIM's production of the Nutcracker ballet has been a local tradition for over 40 years.
Sloan Museum and the Buick Gallery & Research Center are an under-used treasure, devoted to the documentation and interpretation of local history. Like many local museums, the emphasis is on smart, funny, and pertinent artifacts and testimonials; you won't find the sort of technologically-driven and eye-arresting exhibits common to museums in larger cities. Sloan makes up for this quite ably with discretion and creativity in the way it exploits its collections.
The first half of the museum is given to featured exhibits, such as the current "Strange Matter" and "It's a Nano World." The second half is given over to the compelling and narratively driven Flint and the American Dream, a thoughtful exposition and discussion of Flint's long and tumultuous relationship with the automotive industry. Encompassing figures ranging from the anti-union philanthropist C.S. Mott to the muckraking documentarian Michael Moore, and events including the sit-down strike and the 1960s sit-in for the dissolution of racist housing compacts, this exhibit offers a dizzying amount of material for political, social, and cultural discussion.
Included in the admissions price, visitors should not neglect the Buick Gallery and Research Center, located one block away at 303 Walnut Street. This display permanently features several dozen classic GM cars, including several concept designs.
Sloan also periodically offers workshops and lecture series and a collection of 125,000 including the Perry Archives of historical documents and photographs. Many of the local car shows are supported and promoted by the museum. The Halfway Cafe is located at the midpoint of the main museum, but is only stocked with vending machine fare, so you may want to pack a lunch.
Considered to be one of Michigan's most impressive collections outside of Detroit, the Flint Institute of Arts was regarded as outstanding even before the $7.15-million expansion of its Charles Stuart Mott Gallery in 2006. While the permanent collection of some 7,000 works might be considered modest by some standards, this is belied by the near-encyclopedic scope of the galleries. Works representing six hundred years of art on five continents are on permanent display, with highlights being a colorful and exquisite collection of 18th- and 19th-century paperweights and 17th-century French tapestries on display in a cavernous room at the back of the museum. Paintings by Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt, and other artists of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist period are prominently displayed. The Bishop Gallery features the work of local artists, students, and Institute faculty.
The institute also offers a series of exhibitions, often with a heavy emphasis on contemporary work. Upcoming exhibitions include "Beyond the Frame: African American Comic Book Artists" and "Magic Moments: Works on Paper by Ed Fraga."
The Institute offers classes through its Art School (see below) as well as other programs and special events. Check the website for details.
Terraced waterfall thru a dam on the Flint River that looks like something out of the movie Inception.
has a large collection.