Hello, and welcome. I’m Diane Tucker. I was just seven years old the first time I visited the Detroit Institute of Arts. Walking beside my grandmother, I whispered, “I wish I could live here.” We were in the courtyard gallery that is home to Diego Rivera’s renowned Detroit Industry Murals. At the far end of that palatial space, I spied an elegant marble staircase and imagined it led straight to my bedroom.
But as I’ve grown older, I sometimes feel less at home in art museums. Their interiors can feel overwhelming—towering and hushed, like a Gothic cathedral. It’s funny because I feel this way despite having led more than 300 public gallery talks at the magnificent National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
In any case, researchers assure me that visiting an art museum boosts the feel-good chemical dopamine and lowers the stress hormone cortisol. Even so, it’s the timeless stories that draw me back. They remind me that I’m part of something bigger.
For years I’ve earned a living writing and producing stories….about Henry Ford’s legendary River Rouge Complex (Discovery Channel), about a grandmother fighting ISIS (National Geographic Explorer), about America’s historic 2008 presidential election (Huffington Post), and more. So when the head of MIT’s AI lab assured me that one big advantage we humans have over computers is the ability to tell our own stories, I knew he was right, even though I know zero about computer algorithms.
Great works of art tell deeply human stories. I’m delighted to share these…
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I’m delighted to be in such good company
