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Flint Cultural Center
Flint Cultural Center
The Cultural Center is a campus constructed in the 1950s and 60s alongside Mott Community College (see below) with local support and funds from the General Motors. Arranged in a parklike setting along both sides of Kearsley Street just east of 475, this area hosts nine separate entities managed under the organizational umbrella of the Cultural Center, and is often touted as Flint's crown jewel. The Cultural Center includes the Mott Applewood Estates, Bower Theatre (home of the award winning Flint Youth Theatre), Longway Planetarium (Michigan's largest), the Flint Institute of Arts (Michigan's best endowed after the Detroit Institute of Arts), the Flint Public Library, the Flint Institute of Music (home to the Flint Symphony Orchestra), Sloan Museum and Automotive Gallery, The Sarvis Center, and The Whiting Auditorium (which often hosts touring Broadway productions).
Alfred P. Sloan Museum, 1221 E. Kearsley St. Flint, Michigan 48503, ☎ 810.237.3450 ( ), . M - F 10 AM - 5 PM, Sat - Sun Noon - 5 PM.
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 1960's 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 G.M. 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.
$6 Adults, $5 Seniors, $4 Children (3-11), Adult School Programs, $3 Student School Programs, Free for Children (2 and under), Teachers. �
Flint Instutute of Arts, 1120 E. Kearsley St. Flint, Michigan 48503, ☎ 810.234.1695 ( ), . Gallery: T - Sat 10 AM - 5 PM, Sat 1 PM - 5 PM. Office: M - F 9 AM - 5 PM. 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.
$7 Adults, $5 Seniors, Students, Free for Children (12 and under) and Members. �
Sarvis Center, 1231 E. Kearsley St. Flint, Michigan 48503, ☎ 810.760.1351, .
The Sarvis Center, a sloping slab of black and white stone set off to the north of the main campus, is Flint's main convention center and is currently managed by the Flint Board of Education. It offers little of interest to tourists, but a number of civic organizations such as Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Greater Flint and the Optimist Club hold their meetings here.
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Flint Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.