TIFF MASSEY

7 Mile +
Livernois

A guided, digital re-telling of the DIA exhibition where you can relive the experience through images, context, and community voices.
DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS · MAY 5 2024 to MAY 11 2025
01 / 03
The Experience
From studio to gallery, forms, scale, and the language of adornment.
This page preserves the DIA presentation of 7 Mile + Livernois for those who missed it, or want to experience it again, from studio process to installation views, from material close-ups to gallery scale.
The exhibition occupied four galleries in the Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg and Family Wing. Four new large-scale works were commissioned and installed in conversation with works by Donald Judd and Louise Nevelson from the museum's collection.
+ CURATORIAL NOTE
BEFORE THE SHOW & OPENING NIGHT
Campaign shoot on DIA steps
7 Mile + Livernois Cadillac
Opening night gallery
Tiff Massey in blue
Production shoot, install, and May 5 opening
The Works
39 Reasons I Am Not Playing
39 Reasons I Am Not Playing
2018 · brass
Work 2
Green Wall
Baby Bling
SWIPE FOR ALL 12 WORKS →
02 / 03
The Impact
225k+
VISITORS
As reported by DIA. Excludes general visitors.
30%
FIRST-TIME
First-time DIA attendees.
9
PRESS
Major critical reviews.
“An articulation of the grandeur, the sheer magnificence of Detroit itself.”
MARSHA PHILPOT (MARSHA MUSIC), OPENING REMARKS
“Seeing our styles and stories centered changed how our kids saw the museum, and themselves.”
DETROIT EDUCATOR
More reflections publish here as they come in.
Opening night
Opening night
In the galleries
In the galleries
▶ event video
event photo
03 / 03
The Future
7 Mile + Livernois is a mirror and a map. Detroit is the blueprint.
Tiff's “first” is not an exception to admire; it's a door to widen, schools, small shops, and studios become a pipeline from curiosity to craft to career.
Tiff Massey
Blackbrook.
COMING SOON
Share your voice
LEAVE A TESTIMONIAL →
The publication
DOWNLOAD PDF ↓
PR@TIFFMASSEY.COM · CREDITS · DIA
01 / 03

The Experience

From studio to gallery, forms, scale, and the language of adornment. Before and after installation, selected highlights, and material detail.
On viewMay 5, 2024 to May 11, 2025
VenueDetroit Institute of Arts
GalleriesEisenberg & Family Wing, four rooms
CuratorKatie A. Pfohl
EXHIBITION OVERVIEW

This page preserves the Detroit Institute of Arts presentation of 7 Mile + Livernois for those who missed it, or want to experience it again. From studio process to installation views, from material close-ups to gallery scale. Massey’s practice of scaling jewelry to architecture and centering Detroit’s neighborhoods has been translated here for the screen.

At the DIA, the exhibition occupied multiple galleries within the Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg and Family Wing. Four new large-scale works were commissioned for the show and installed in conversation with pieces from the museum’s collection, including a modular wall work by Donald Judd and a monumental assemblage by Louise Nevelson. The galleries were staged to heighten contrast and reflection, inviting visitors to see themselves, literally and culturally, within the work.

Across the run, the museum paired the installation with talks, community programs, and city-wide engagement. This archive captures the spirit of that presentation: the forms, the context, and the voices that made the rooms feel alive.

BEFORE THE SHOW

Production and install

The campaign shoot on the museum steps, the Cadillac at 7 Mile and Livernois, and the months of fabrication that filled four galleries.

In the studio, cutting patterns for Quilt Code

Wood forms and mirror, mid-process
Campaign shoot, DIA steps
7 Mile + Livernois, on location
At the museum doors
OPENING NIGHT

May 5, 2024

The galleries opened to the city: Tiff walking the rooms, the Great Hall reception, and the first visitors in front of the work.
With curator Katie A. Pfohl, Great Hall reception
The rooms fill up: Fulani and the gold chain
Visitors at the green wall
The Works
Twelve works, in the order you met them. Tap any work for the full label.
←
→
VIEW ALL 12
Everyday Arsenal
01
Everyday Arsenal
Tiff Massey (American, born 1982), 2018
Whatupdoe
02
Whatupdoe
Tiff Massey (American, born 1982), 2024
Untitled
03
Untitled
Donald Judd (American, 1928–94), 1969
Baby Bling
04
Baby Bling
Tiff Massey (American, born 1982), 2023
I Got Bricks
05
I Got Bricks
Tiff Massey (American, born 1982), 2014
I Remember Way Back When
06
I Remember Way Back When
Tiff Massey (American, born 1982), 2023
07
Homage to the World
Louise Nevelson (American, 1899–1988), 1966
I've Got Bundles and I Got Flewed Out (Green)
08
I've Got Bundles and I Got Flewed Out (Green)
Tiff Massey (American, born 1982), 2023
Quilt Code 6 (All Black Everything)
09
Quilt Code 6 (All Black Everything)
Tiff Massey (American, born 1982), 2023
Fulani
10
Fulani
Tiff Massey (American, born 1982), 2021
Facet
11
Facet
Tiff Massey (American, born 1982), 2010
39 Reasons I Am Not Playing
12
39 Reasons I Am Not Playing
Tiff Massey (American, born 1982), 2018
VIEW ALL 12 →
01 Everyday Arsenal, 201802 Whatupdoe, 202403 Untitled, 196904 Baby Bling, 202305 I Got Bricks, 201406 I Remember Way Back When, 202307 Homage to the World, 196608 I've Got Bundles and I Got Flewed Out (Green), 202309 Quilt Code 6 (All Black Everything), 202310 Fulani, 202111 Facet, 201012 39 Reasons I Am Not Playing, 2018
IN HER OWN WORDS

Hear from Tiff

Tiff in conversation with dream hampton at the DIA, plus studio footage from the build. Pick a chapter to jump straight to that part of the talk.

Tiff Massey in conversation with dream hampton, DIA, September 26 2024 · 32:14

CHAPTERS
On the title
“A call to Blackness, our Detroit nativeness and essence.”
On scale
Why jewelry had to grow to the size of buildings.
On the Avenue
7 Mile and Livernois as a profound junction.
On what’s next
Buildings, a sculpture park, and the Venice Biennale.
Room for a second video: install time-lapse, After Dark, or the DJ series.
PRACTICE & LINEAGE

Tiff Massey's metalwork

01Detroit-born; first Black woman to earn an MFA in metalsmithing from Cranbrook Academy of Art.
02Works across installations, public art, and wearable sculpture inspired by adornment and Black diasporic style.
03Expands jewelry to architectural scale, celebrating Detroit’s evolving neighborhoods and West & Central African influences.

The Avenue of Fashion

017 Mile + Livernois centers Detroit’s Avenue of Fashion, site of Black enterprise, culture, and style.
02Practice merges art with neighborhood building: public art, placemaking, and a new community-centered art space.
03Exhibition reimagines museum space to truly see and celebrate Black Detroit.
02 / 03

The Impact

How the work met Detroit where it lives, on the block, in the museum, across neighborhoods. Community outcomes sit alongside exhibition highlights.
VISITORS ACROSS THE RUN*
0 k+
NEVER ATTENDED THE DIA BEFORE
0 %
PRESS MENTIONS · FULL LIST →
0
COMMUNITY IMPACT
Neighborhood reach: Detroit neighborhoods participated across Westside, Eastside, and Tri-County areas.
Local partners: Small businesses, salons, schools, and cultural organizations actively engaged.
Youth programs: Intensive workshops, studio visits, and creative career talks.
Economic ripple: Detroit vendors featured prominently in pop-ups and event services.
Access & belonging: Free and low-cost activations, student busing, and community days.
EXHIBITION IMPACT
New commissions: Four monumental works premiered in the Eisenberg & Family Wing.
Collection dialogues: Installed alongside Donald Judd and Louise Nevelson to foreground labor and lineage.
Public programs: Artist talks, curator walkthroughs, and city-wide activations across the 12-month run.
Press & attendance: Acclaimed reviews in national media; over 225,000 visitors.
Visitor sentiment: Record-setting feedback for relevance, representation, and spatial design.
FROM THE OPENING REMARKS
“An articulation of the grandeur, the sheer magnificence of Detroit itself.”
MARSHA PHILPOT (MARSHA MUSIC), OPENING REMARKS AT THE DIA
next voice →

Community voices

“Seeing our styles and stories centered changed how our kids saw the museum, and themselves.”
DETROIT EDUCATOR · COMMUNITY REFLECTION

Add your reflection

Submitted through the form on tiffmassey.com, reviewed, then published directly here in the permanent archive.
SHARE YOUR VOICE →
FROM THE OPENING · AFTER DARK · DJ SERIES · CLOSING NIGHT · AWARDS
Opening night, DIA Great Hall
Tiff in the galleries
Visitors in the galleries

Quilt Code 6 (All Black Everything)

03 / 03

The Future

7 Mile + Livernois is a mirror and a map. Detroit is the blueprint.

This work seeds the next generation by opening doors to making, mentorship, and civic pride. Black Detroiters see their style, history, and ingenuity at museum scale, and the map points forward: welding, fabrication, design, entrepreneurship.

Tiff’s “first” is not an exception to admire; it’s a door to widen. Schools, small shops, and studios become a pipeline where young people move from curiosity to craft to career, staying home and building the city they recognize in these works.

WHAT'S NEXT

Blackbrook.

A hint at the nonprofit, expanding the 7 Mile studio compound into a permanent publicly accessible sculpture garden, civic creative lab, and mentorship pipeline.
COMING SOON →

Share your voice

Your experience matters. If the work moved you, at the exhibit, a performance, or a moment in the city, add your voice to the archive.
LEAVE A TESTIMONIAL →

Stay close

News, upcoming public art commissions, exhibitions, and what’s next, straight from the studio compound.
EMAIL INFO@TIFFMASSEY.COM →

The publication

The complete Detroit Institute of Arts official exhibition booklet, curatorial essay, and checklist as a PDF download.
DOWNLOAD PDF ↓

PR@TIFFMASSEY.COM

INFO@TIFFMASSEY.COM
PHOTO + INSTALL CREDITS · DIA