Detroit Institute of Arts to restore museum's exterior walls

DETROIT (AP) - The Detroit Institute of Arts has been awarded two grants from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, including one to help pay for restoring the museum's original exterior walls.

A $48,000 grant is for general operating support and a $100,000 grant is for the work on the 1927 building. The project will repair mortar joints, fix broken stones and clean the exterior marble and replica Donatello and Michelangelo bronzes that flank the Woodward Avenue entrance.

In a statement Thursday, museum Director Graham Beal says the walls were "sorely in need of restoration and cleaning." Work on the building is scheduled to begin this spring and the museum says it plans to have the project completed by this fall.

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