Events

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Visiting Freer House

WSU, Freer House is home to Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute faculty offices and meeting rooms. The Freer House is open periodically to the public for lectures, receptions, exhibits, and guided tours.

Freer House events are held in the Spring and Fall and open to the public. Make a donation today to become an annual Freer House member. Freer House members receive priority invitations and a discounts to events.

Take a virtual tour of the Main Hall of the Freer House. Our sincere thanks to John Boros and Flythroo for producing this 3D tour!

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Event Archive

November 19, 2023

Still Making Waves: Charles Lang Freer and Sotatsu’s Waves at Matsushima
This programming honors the Detroit origins of the Freer Gallery of Art, National Museum of Asian Art on its centennial. This program will also highlights the Canon Tsuzuri Project, a Cultural Heritage Inheritance Project.

Frank Feltens, PhD, Curator of Japanese Art, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution Lecture: Sunday, November 19, 2:00 pm at the Detroit Institute of Arts

VIP Reception: Sunday, November 19, 3:30 pm at WSU, Freer House
This programming honors the Detroit origins of the Freer Gallery of Art, National Museum of Asian Art on its centennial.
Co-hosted by:
Japan America Society of Michigan and Southwestern Ontario
Freer House/Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute/Wayne State University
Friends of Asian Arts & Cultures, Detroit Institute of Arts

Edo Avant Garde
Film Viewing and Q&A with Filmmaker and Producer: Linda Hoaglund
Loaction: Detroit Film Theater, DIA
Moderators:
Elliot Wilhelm, Curator of Film, Detroit Film Theater
Katherine Kasdorf, Associate Curator of the Arts of Asia and the Islamic World, Detroit Institute of Arts 

October 19, 2023
Seven Samurai
Film Viewing at Detroit Film Theater, Detroit Institute of Arts

October 20, 2023
Edo Avant Garde

K-12 Educators' Workshop at Detroit Institute of Arts
Presenter: Linda Hoaglund, Filmmaker and Producer

October 21, 2023 
Charles Lang Freer, Chinese Art, and the Making of Global Detroit
Presenter: Dr. Ian Shin, Assistant Professor of History and American Culture, University of Michigan
Moderator: Katherine Kasdorf, PhD, Associate Curator, Arts of Asia and the Islamic World, Detroit Institute of Arts
 

March 23, 2023
Women of Ferry Street: Then and Now

Co-hosted by WSU, Freer House and the Division of Government and Community Affairs at Wayne State University. This Women's History Month program, honored the lives and achievements of six contemporary women of Detroit, including Ann Nicholson, a long-standing Freer House supporter and Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute board member. The event was co-sponsored by BasBlue, a new women's leadership and mentorship club on Ferry Street. 
 
February 23, 2023
Speaker: Diana Greenwold, PhD, Lunder Curator of American Art, Freer Gallery of Art,
Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art
Guest Host: Kenneth Myers, PhD, Curator of American Art, Detroit Institute of Arts

December 8, 2022  
 
May 24, 2022
Speaker: Frank Feltens, PhD, Japan Foundation Associate Curator of Japanese Art, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art
Moderator: Katherine Kasdorf, PhD, Associate Curator, Arts of Asia and the Islamic World, Detroit Institute of Arts
 
Hiroko Lancour was the DIA's featured artist for May, 2021 and Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! Hiroko has long been inspired by the legacy of Charles Lang Freer, a Detroit art collector who had a deep understanding and appreciation for the art, culture, and people of her native land of Japan. Hiroko is an active volunteer for the Freer House and has made significant contributions to researching and documenting Freer's travels and exceptional connections to Japanese art and artists. In 2017, the Freer House hosted a solo exhibition of Ms. Lancour's artwork, the first-time original art had been displayed in the house since Freer's passing in 1919. A video about Hiroko and her extraordinary artwork was filmed by Gary Watts and edited by DIA staff. 
 
March 31, 2022  
Lillian Wilson, PhD, Humanities Career Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow, Wayne State University, and Founder and Director of Detroit Historical Consulting
 
February 10, 2022
A free, online program co-sponsored by the Freer Gallery of Art, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian, and the Freer House, Wayne State University
Gretchen Welch, Volunteer Docent, Freer Gallery of Art, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian
 
Film Viewing: May 13 - 23, 2021
Edo Avant Garde: Film Viewing and Special Live Discussion
Speakers
Linda Hoaglund, Filmmaker
Yukio Lippit, PhD, Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University
Moderators
Katherine Kasdorf, PhD, Associate Curator, Arts of Asia and the Islamic World, Detroit Institute of Arts
Elliot Wilhelm, Curator of Film, Detroit Film Theater, Detroit Institute of Arts 
Edo Avant Garde Live Discussion: May 20, 6:30PM, 2021  
 
January 11, 2020  
 
November 10, 2019  
Helen Tomlinson, PhD, Author and Scholar
 
May 19, 2019
 
December 2, 2018
Daisy Yiyou Wang, PhD, The Robert N. Shapiro Curator of Chinese and East Asian Art, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
 
November 4, 2018

 

 

October 21, 2017
Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient, Dr. Thomas W. Brunk
Citizen Award Recipient, John Douglas Peters
 
June 4, 2017
Brinda Kumar, Assistant Curator, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

 

Geoffrey G. Drutchas, Cultural Historian

 

November 30, 2016 
Kevin Murphy, Senior Curator of American Art, Williams College Museum of Art
 
May 22, 2016
Louise Cort, Curator of Ceramics, Freer | Sackler Galleries of Art, Smithsonian Institution

 

David Michener, PhD, Associate Curator, University of Michigan, Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum
Fred Knight, Principal, K.C. Runciman Landscapes
James Viste, Owner, Edgewise Forge, LLC, Adjunct Faculty, College for Creative Studies
 
January 28, 2016
The Merrill-Palmer School, 1918-1930: Its Origin in Context
Catherine Daligga, PhD, Independent Scholar and Activist
 
November 15, 2015
Beneath the Surface: A Scientific Investigation of Freer House's Original Decorative Paint Treatments
Cathy Selvius De Roo, PhD, Conservation Scientist, Detroit Institute of Arts
 
November 1, 2015
The Introduction of Japanese Art to America: The Bostonians and Japan at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Dr. Anne Nishimura Morse, William and Helen Pounds Senior Curator of Japanese Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 
 
April 26, 2015
October 10, 2014
The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887-1920
Anna O. Marley, PhD, Curator of Historical American Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
 
September 7, 2014
James McNeill Whistler: A Case for Beauty
A PBS Arts Documentary produced by Karen Thoms
 
May 4, 2014
In Attendance to the Realm: the Kano School of Painters in 17th Century Japan
Yukio Lippit, PhD, Professor, History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University
In Attendance to the Realm Luncheon Program
 
 
November 3, 2013
The Legacy of Charles Lang Freer: Detroit and Japan
William Colburn, Director, Freer House

 

October 20, 2013
A Thousand Graces: Freer's Pilgrimage to the Buddhist Cave Temples at Longmen
and his Collection of Chinese Art

David Hogge, Head of Archives,Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian
Daisy Yiyou Wang, PhD, curator of Chinese and East Asian Art,Peabody Essex Museum
 
June 2, 2013
Heels over Head: Mr. Freer, Swami Vivekananda, and the Art of Yoga
Debra Diamond, Phd,Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian
 
March 10, 2013
Harmony in Design: Freer House, the Detroit Club and the Architecture of Wilson Eyre, Jr
Jeffrey A. Cohen, PhD, Architectural Historian, Senior Lecturer and Chair, Growth of Cities Department,
Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, PA
 
October 7, 2012
Points of Contact: Freer's Vision for American and Asian Art - Past, Present, and Future
Julian Raby, PhD, Director, Freer and Sackler Galleries of Art, Smithsonian Institution
 
April 1, 2012
Painting with Pottery in the Peacock Room
Louise Allison Cort, Curator for Ceramics
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
 
October 23, 2011 
Whistler's Seriousness
Carole McNamara, Senior Curator of Western Art, 
University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA)
 
March 27, 2011 
Freer and Whistler Through Music, Art and Letters
A benefit concert event announcing the Freer House "Whistler Gallery" Restoration Project. The remarkable relationship of the famous American artist, James McNeill Whistler, and the Detroit industrialist and art collector, Charles Lang Freer, will be the focus of this special concert event.
 
January 30, 2011
Lasting Legacy: Charles Lang Freer's 1910 "Exhibition of Oriental and American Art" and the University of Michigan
Anna Wieck, PhD Candidate, History of Art, University of Michigan
Mei-Chen Pan, PhD Candidate, Comparative Literature, University of Michigan
Sarah Conrad, PhD Candidate, American Culture, University of Michigan
 
October 24, 2010
A Discerning Taste for Japanese Art: the Formation of Charles Lang Freer's Collection
Ann Yonemura, PhD, Senior Associate Curator of Japanese Art, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian
 
October 8, 2010
 
March 28, 2010
Charles Lang Freer and Detroit's Pewabic Pottery
Thomas W. Brunk, PhD, Indepent Art and Architecture Historian
 
March 19, 2010
 
February 7, 2010
A Benefit Concert at Freer House
A recreation of the historic first concert held at the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. on February 7, 1924 by the Library of Congress. Chamber music of diverse composers performed by the Scarab Club String Quartet.
Freer House Benefit Concert Program
 
October 25, 2009
The Blue Room: Whistler's Peacock Room in Detroit
Linda Merrill, PhD, Visiting Professor of Art History, Emory University Whistler scholar, 
former Curator of American Art, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian
 
May 19, 2009
Charles Lang Freer and Egypt
Dr. Massumeh Farhad, Chief Curator and Curator of Islamic Art
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
 
May 3, 2009
Charles Lang Freer and Egypt
Dr. Ann C. Gunter, Professor, Northwestern University 
Former Curator of Ancient Near Eastern Art, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian
 
February 8, 2009
Pretty Women: Freer and Feminine Beauty
Dr. Kenneth John Myers, Curator of American Art and Head of the Department of American Art,
Detroit Institute of Arts
 
November 9, 2008
Surface Beauty: American Art and Freer's Aesthetic Vision 
Lee Glazer, Ph.D., Curator of American Art, Freer Gallery of Art Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian
Surface Beauty Presentation   
 
November 11, 2007
Dr. Thomas Brunk, Historian and Authority on the Freer House  

 

April 29, 2007
Rev. Dr. Geoffrey G. Drutchas
 
February 11, 2007
Dr. Kenneth John Myers, Curator of American Art and Head of the Department of American Art, Detroit Institute of Art
 
November 5, 2006
Dr. Thomas W. Brunk, Historian and Authority on the Freer House 
 
January 29, 2006
Dr. Thomas W. Brunk, Historian and Authority on the Freer House
 
November 10, 2005
John Douglas Peters
 
October 27, 2004
Steven Seebohm
 
May 15, 2004
The Detroit Connection: James McNeill Whistler / Charles Lang Freer
Arnold Klein
Flyer for event no longer available.
 
March 9, 1995
Thomas W. Brunk, Architectural Historian and Freer Scholar