Birmingham Resident to Represent Oakland County on DIA Board
Birmingham resident Thomas Guastello will represent Oakland County on the Detroit Institute of Arts' board of directors. Fellow Birmingham resident Henry Wineman, meanwhile, is re-elected to the board.
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Birmingham resident, attorney and business owner Thomas Guastello is among 11 new members recently named to the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) board of directors.
The appointment is part of an agreement following the August approval of a $230 million millage by voters in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne Counties.
In return for this financial support, residents and school groups from the three counties that supported the millage receive free admission to the museum for the next decade.
As part of the millage, the institute authorities established in each county appointed two members to the board. Hubert Massey and Amy DeBrunner represent Wayne County; Lillian Demas and Donald Ritzenhein represent Macomb county; while Guastello joins Bloomfield Hills' Jennifer Fischer in Oakland County.
"We welcome all our new board members and the talent, experience and enthusiasm they bring," said Eugene Gargaro, DIA board chair. "With the vote of confidence shown by the millage, the DIA is on the path to financial long-term stability, and we look forward to the new and current board members helping us achieve that goal."
Guastello, an attorney, is the owner and president of Center Management, a commercial real estate business in Birmingham.
Guastello has also served in Michigan's House of Representatives from 1969-74 and the Michigan State Senate from 1975-82. A member of the Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents, the Mackinac Bridge Authority and Metro Detroit Convention and Visitors Bureau, Guastello is also chair of the Oakland County Art Authority.
Also joining the board are Detroit's Antoine Garibaldi, Hubert Massey, Irvin Reid and Mary Kramer, Troy's Linda Orlans, Macomb's Donald Ritzenhein, Grosse Pointe Farms' Andrea Dickson and Bruce Township's Lillian Demas.
Meanwhile, re-elected to the board is Bloomfield Hills' Nicole Eisenberg, Meryl Podolsky and Sandra Seligman, Detroit's Rhonda Welburn and Reuben Munday, Northville's Mary Ann Gorlin and Birmingham's owner Henry Wineman.
Correction: Thomas Guastello was not a member of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners.
Marcia Robovitsky
2:45 pm on Tuesday, December 4, 2012
The DIA millage to give "free" admission for 10 years... after the YES vote this past August.... is already confusing many. Reading the fine print is important. Unfortunately, that fine print is usually not in the ballot language.
from an Oakland Press article: http://theoaklandpress.com/articles/2012/12/03/news/local_news/doc50bbad8c7735e612127082.txt?viewmode=fullstory
......"DIA officials insist that it was widely understood prior to the vote that special exhibitions, as in the past, will still involve a ticket price separate from general admission. The current exhibition of 200 Faberge artifacts from 20th Century Russian aristocracy costs $15 for adults, $8 for children." ....
Did you understand that not everything would be "free"?