The Arts Come Alive At DPTV This Summer

Kick off this weekend with a DOWNTON ABBEY Marathon and then rely on DPTV all season long as your virtual venue for top performances!

Get full details here:

"Downton Abbey Marathon begins at 8 p.m. Tonight! Memorial Day Weekend is often considered the beginning of the summer entertainment season - with street festivals, outdoor concerts and other warm-weather fun. This year will be different. We all know that.

But Detroit Public TV and WRCJ 90.9 FM are here to help, striving to serve as this region's de facto venue for on-air and online performances. We've created our own arts channel - DPTV.org/Arts - as a digital showcase for arts organizations and individual artists, from the DSO to the University of Michigan Penny Stamps Speakers Series, from the Sphinx Organization to Michigan Opera Theatre.

We have plenty more planned for this summer. And we have a special treat for you this Memorial Day Weekend - a total binge of PBS's most popular drama series of all time, "Downton Abbey." From this evening until late Monday night, you can watch every episode of every season. Who cares if it rains and we have to social distance, so long as we have the DOWNTON ABBEY Marathon?

If you are looking for something more contemporary and quintessentially American, Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise will co-host a special presentation on Sunday (at 8 p.m.) of the 31st annual National Memorial Day Concert, with a star-studded lineup - including Detroit's own Cece Winans - honoring our troops, veterans and wounded warriors and also paying tribute to the men and women who are doing so much for all of us in the current fight against COVID-19.

All summer long we will also celebrate the remarkable arts and culture offerings of our diverse local community:

• Watch the scintillating presentations - Ken Burns, Rep. John Lewis, Pussy Riot, John Cameron Mitchell, Chelsea Manning - of the University of Michigan Penney Stamps Speakers Series, streamed on Fridays at 8 p.m. and available on-demand.
• Join us for our weekly Sunday Music Brunch Series at 11 a.m. with stirring recorded performances from the Michigan Philharmonic, the University of Michigan's M Prize competition, the Kresge Artist Fellows and many others. What about the DSO playing the music of Prince on June 7?
• The Chamber Music Society of Detroit's CameraMusic series invites artists to perform live over the internet from wherever they are, and they actually get paid to play. You learn more here.
• That's just a sampling. There are nearly 200 videos to browse through at DPTV.org/Arts, including performances by great local talent, both young and old.
• To keep you up to date on the latest news of Detroit's creative community, One Detroit has expanded to a second night each week - Monday at 7:30 p.m. - with a special focus on arts and culture and how artists and arts organizations are coping and creating during the COVID-19 crisis. For daily reports, visit OneDetroitPBS.org
• Of course, Detroit Public TV and PBS are the home of Masterpiece, American Experience, Ken Burns, American Masters, Nova, Nature and so many more acclaimed programs. With PBS Passport, DPTV members (at the $60 a year level) can view thousands of hours of on-demand programming; sign up here.

Look for more exciting announcements, as Detroit Public TV strives to keep the great artistic traditions of this town alive and clicking.

We will also be working with our new partners, the Detroit Free Press, to help support the creative community during the health and economic crisis, to create opportunities to bring performance back to our region when the time is right and to promote fundraising efforts to maintain the artists and organizations that have made this city a recognized capital of culture around the world.

Back to Downton Abbey, here is the full schedule of the marathon:

• Friday: 8 p.m.-12a.m.
• Saturday: all day
• Sunday: 12 a.m.-8 p.m.
• Monday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m., 8 p.m.-12 a.m."

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