January 31, 2017 (Detroit)—This April, the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) presents a plethora of films for all ages, including the classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” to the rare “Inland Empire,” a film by David Lynch. Special drop-in art-making activities for spring break, along with puppet performances and more are also featured. This is the final month to see “The Edible Monument: The Art of Food for Festivals” and the popular photography exhibition “Detroit After Dark.”

Programs are free with museum admission and free for residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties unless otherwise noted. For more information, call (313) 833-7900 or visit www.dia.org.

Exhibitions:

“The Edible Monument: The Art of Food for Festivals” on view through April 16

“Detroit After Dark” on view through April 23

Detroit Public Schools Student Exhibition on view April 29 through May 28

General Guided Tours: Tuesdays–Thursdays, 1 p.m.; Fridays, 1 & 6 p.m.

Enjoy a guided tour of select galleries for an overview of the collection.

General and Family Guided Tours: Saturdays & Sundays, 1 & 3 p.m.

Enjoy a guided tour of select galleries or enjoy family and kid-friendly tours.

55+ Thursdays: 1 p.m.

The first Thursday of the month features a guided gallery tour; the second a talk; the third an art-making activity; and the fourth a film. In months with a fifth Thursday, a second gallery tour will be offered.

Detroit City Chess Club: Fridays, 4–8 p.m.

The club’s mission is to teach area students the game and life lessons. Members have won state, regional and national competitions. People wanting to learn to play chess should show up between 4 and 6 p.m. There will be no teaching between 6 and 8 p.m., but visitors can play chess.

Drawing in the Galleries (for all ages): Fridays, 6–9 p.m.; Sundays, Noon–4 p.m.

Spring Break Drop-In Workshops (for all ages)

Books: Tuesdays, April 4 &18, Wednesdays, April 5 & 19 and Thursday, April 6, 11 a.m.–3 p.m.; Fridays, April 7 & 21, Noon–9 p.m.

Create your own book.

Drop-In Workshops (for all ages)

Stabiles: Saturday, April 1 & Sunday, April 2, Noon–4 p.m.

Use scissors and colorful cardstock to make a unique, freestanding geometric sculpture.

Kites: Saturday, April 8 & Sunday, April 9, Noon–4 p.m.

Decorative Egg: Friday, April 14, Noon–9 p.m., Saturday April 15 & Sunday, April 16, Noon–4 p.m.

Scrolls: Saturday, April 22 & Sunday, April 23, Noon–4 p.m.

Scrolls used in ancient Eastern Mediterranean and Egyptian civilizations were the first form of record keeping. Use paper, wooden dowels and markers to create a version of your own.

It’s a Zoo in Here: Friday, April 28, 6–9 p.m., Saturday April 29 & Sunday, April 30, Noon–4 p.m.

Draw inspiration from animal themed works of art throughout the museum, then create your favorite animal.

Saturday, April 1

Detroit Institute of Awesome: Puppet Performance: “Squirrel Stole My Underpants”:  2 p.m.

A squirrel turns a lonely, awkward girl's simple chore of hanging laundry into an adventure through strange lands where she learns to trust her inner strength in this show blending puppetry, dance and theater.

Detroit Film Theatre: Freep Film Festival: TBA

Documentaries with strong connections to Detroit and Michigan are the main focus for this year’s Freep Film Festival. To see the full lineup visit freepfilmfestival.com, @freep_film_fest, Freep Film Festival on Facebook, or dia.org/dft. Tickets: $9.50 for general admission and $7.50 for members, seniors and students.

Sunday, April 2

Sunday Music Bar: Cecelia Sharpe: 1 & 3 p.m.

Cellist Cecelia Sharpe demonstrates the versatility of string instruments, especially the cello.

Detroit Institute of Awesome: Puppet Performance: “Squirrel Stole My Underpants”:  2 p.m

See April 1 for description.

Detroit Film Theatre: Freep Film Festival: TBA

See April 1 for description.

Friday, April 7

Detroit Institute of Awesome: Puppet Performance: “Shank’s Mare”: 7 p.m.

“Shank’s Mare” combines Japanese traditional puppetry, video projection of miniature sets and a haunting score on the hammer dulcimer, Japanese shamisen and flute to tell the stories of a proud samurai and an aging astronomer as they take their long walk through life. Recommended for families with children eight years and older. 

Saturday, April 8

Detroit Institute of Awesome: Puppet Performance: “Shank’s Mare”: 2 p.m.

See April 7 for description.

Detroit Film Theatre: “After the Storm”: 8 p.m.

An award-winning author gambles away his salary after he struggles to find a lasting place in the life of his young son. On a summer night, the possibility of redemption seems suddenly within his grasp. In Japanese with English subtitles. Tickets: $9.50 for general admission and $7.50 for members, seniors and students.

Sunday, April 9

Sunday Music Bar: Bill Meyer: 1–4 p.m.

Detroit-based jazz pianist Bill Meyer performs Motown and jazz standards.

Detroit Institute of Awesome: Puppet Demonstration: Bunraku Puppetry: 1­–3 p.m.

Get an up-close look at the traditional Bunraku puppets used in the performance of “Shank's Mare.” Puppeteers will demonstrate techniques used to manipulate these traditional Japanese puppets and let you try your hands (and feet) to bring these puppets to life. 

Detroit Film Theatre: “After the Storm”: 2 & 4:30 p.m.

See April 8 for description.

Friday, April 14

Friday Night Live: Nessa: 7 & 8:30 p.m.

Nessa, a Detroit area ensemble led by flutist/vocalist Kelly McDermott, combines classical, jazz  and Celtic influences with accents of world music and soul.

Detroit Film Theatre: “Cameraperson”: 7 p.m.

Filmed over the span of 25-years, Kirsten Johnson explores the relationships between image-makers and their subjects and the interaction of reality and narrative. Tickets: $9.50 for general admission and $7.50 for members, seniors and students.

Detroit Film Theatre: “After the Storm”: 9:30 p.m.

See April 8 for description.

Saturday, April 15

Detroit Institute of Awesome: DFT Animation Film Club: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”: 2 p.m.

Walt Disney Studio's first animated feature film remains one of its most beloved. Based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, the handcrafted visual detail of this masterwork is breathtaking and the musical score still enchants audiences of all ages. Tickets: $5 for general admission, free for DIA members.

Detroit Film Theatre: “Cameraperson”: 7 p.m.

See April 14 for description.

Detroit Film Theatre: Afrofuturist Cinema: “United States of Hoodoo”: 9:30 p.m.

Author Darius James explores the continent from New York to New Orleans, discovering the spiritual roots behind African American creative practice. Introduced by guest curator and Afrotopia founder Ingrid LaFleur. Tickets: $9.50 for general admission and $7.50 for members, seniors and students.

Sunday, April 16

Detroit Institute of Awesome: DFT Animation Film Club: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”: 2 p.m.

See April 15 for description.

Detroit Film Theatre: “Cameraperson”: 4:30 p.m. 

See April 14 for description.

Friday, April 21

Arts + Minds: Paul Durand-Ruel, Dealer of the Impressionists: 6 p.m.

The success of the artists now known as the Impressionists was largely due to the foresight and conviction of one art dealer in 19th-century France: Paul Durand-Ruel. In anticipation of the Fall 2017 exhibition highlighting the DIA’s “Gladioli” by Claude Monet, Jill Shaw, associate curator of European Art, 1850–1950, explores how Durand-Ruel risked his career to champion avant-garde artists and how his efforts forever changed the nature of the art market.

Friday Night Live: Mr. B’s Blues and Boogie Festival:  7 & 8:30 p.m.

Mr. B, originator of an annual Blues and Boogie Piano Celebration in Ann Arbor, hosts an evening of Boogie Woogie piano with an assortment of guests.

Detroit Film Theatre: “David Lynch: The Art of Life”: 7 p.m.

Through interviews recorded over three years, artist and filmmaker David Lynch reveals the experiences that forged his imagination, from his birth in Missoula, Montana in 1946, to the release of his 1977 film “Eraserhead,” as well as the less-well-known paintings and sculptures he  continues to create. Tickets: $9.50 for general admission and $7.50 for members, seniors and students.

Detroit Film Theatre: “Eraserhead”: 9:30 p.m.

Henry Spencer and Mary X, residents of a surreal industrial planet, have a relationship that results in an unusual offspring. They also manage to discover another universe within the confines of a radiator. Tickets: $9.50 for general admission and $7.50 for members, seniors and students.

Saturday, April 22

Detroit Institute of Awesome: Art Demonstration: Calligraphy—Letter Art Harmony for the Soul: Noon–4 p.m.

Calligrapher Vera Smith demonstrates how giving words and letters the beauty of flourish, color, size and placement can be a masterful work of art and discusses how to transform four words that  describe yourself into an artistic creation.

Detroit Film Theatre: Pioneers of African-American Cinema: “The Bronze Buckaroo”: 3 p.m.

“The Bronze Buckaroo” features Herb Jeffries as the dashing and brave singing cowboy Bob Blake and Lucius Brooks as his comic sidekick. Also showing is a rare excerpt from Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort South Carolina, May 1940, filmed in the Sea Island community of Beaufort, depicting the religious practices of the Gullah people

Detroit Film Theatre: David Lynch: “The Art of Life”: 7 p.m.

See April 21 for description.

Detroit Film Theatre: “Mulholland Drive”: 9:30 p.m.

Eager and ambitious Betty arrives in Hollywood seeking stardom. What she finds is a mystery that carries her into a dreamlike labyrinth, which unfolds into a vision of Los Angeles unlike anything you have seen before. Tickets: $9.50 for general admission and $7.50 for members, seniors and students.

Sunday, April 23

Detroit Institute of Awesome: Art Demonstration: Calligraphy—Letter Art Harmony for the Soul: Noon–4 p.m.

See April 22 for description.

Detroit Film Theatre: David Lynch: “The Art of Life”: 7 p.m.

See April 21 for description.

Sunday Music Bar: Natasha T. Miller: 2 p.m.

Natasha T. Miller is a performance poet, author, activist, film producer, and three-time Women of the World Poetry Slam finalist who believes her purpose is to be an agent for change and forgiveness.

Detroit Film Theatre: “Inland Empire”: 4:30 p.m.

This rarely seen feature is hypnotic; it may—or may not—be the story of an actress who adopts the persona of her character with scary results. With Laura Dern, Jeremy Irons, Justin Theroux and the voices of David Lynch and Naomi Watts. Tickets: $9.50 for general admission and $7.50 for members, seniors and students.

Monday, April 24

Arts + Minds: Elizabeth Sites Kuhlman Lecture: Leaf Manipulation/Floral Art: 10:30 a.m. $

Bruno Duarte takes a sculptural approach to floral design, physically bending and shaping organic materials and other found objects to create works of art. Durate’s design techniques will intrigue the professional, as well as the amateur, floral designer.

Friday, April 28

Friday Night Live: Håkon Kornstad with Musica Nuda: 7 & 8:30 p.m.

Saxophonist Håkon Kornstad is one of a handful of Norwegian artists listed in the jazz magazine “Downbeat”’s Critics Poll and has been nominated for the Norwegian Grammy several times, most recently for his unique solo saxophone recordings. In addition to his jazz playing, he has started to sing opera.

Detroit Film Theatre: “A Quiet Passion”: 7 p.m.

Terence Davies’ film is a personal portrait of American poet Emily Dickinson (Cynthia Nixon), a woman who struggled to conquer her demons by finding solace in her art. Tickets: $9.50 for general admission and $7.50 for members, seniors and students.

Saturday, April 29

Detroit Institute of Awesome: Puppet Performance: “Cardboard Explosion”: 2 p.m.

With help from the audience, puppeteer Brad Shur transforms simple cardboard shapes into elaborate puppet characters, then brings them to life. Get ready to outsmart dragons, choose-your-own superpower and train adorable animal sidekicks in this energetic, participatory show.

Detroit Film Theatre: “A Quiet Passion”: 7 & 9:30 p.m.

See April 28 for description.

Sunday, April 30

Detroit Film Theatre: “A Quiet Passion”: 1 p.m.

See April 28 for description.

Sunday Music Bar: Gayelynn McKinney:  1 & 3 p.m.

Detroit drummer Gayelynn McKinney, a founding member of the Detroit-based, Grammy nominated all-female jazz group Straight Ahead, meshes jazz, funk, neo-soul, and Latin influences in her music.

Detroit Institute of Awesome: Puppet Performance: “Cardboard Explosion”: 2 p.m.

See April 29 for description.

Arts + Minds: Cultivating Fruit and Equality: The Still-Life Paintings of Robert Duncanson: 2 p.m.

Between 1842 and 1849, Cincinnati artist Robert Duncanson created at least seven still life paintings of fruit. He did not paint just any fruit; he depicted oranges, lemons and pineapples—fruits that were neither indigenous to the United States nor easily cultivated in Ohio. How did Duncanson gain access to so many exotic fruits, and why did he focus so intensely on them in the 1840s? Shana Klein, Global Trans-Regional Studies Post-Doctoral Fellow from Georgetown University aims to answer these questions by studying Duncanson’s ties to art patrons that were both horticulturists and abolitionists.

Detroit Film Theatre: Italian Film Festival USA: “The Stuff of Dreams”: 4:30 p.m.

A boat carrying a small acting company—and some ferocious gangsters—crashes on the shores of a Mediterranean island where a real-life comedy develops, with universal echoes of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” In Italian with English subtitles.