Detroit's Stickwork sculpture hits all the right notes to make highly successful public art, or what might more meaningfully be described in this case as urban environmental art.

As we settle into our new domestic routine, weathering the emotional turbulence that each week (and each new news item) brings, I observe my mind's eye returning, often, to the peace and stillness of Glacial.

We recently ventured to Midland, two hours north of Detroit, to tour the Alden B. Dow Home & Studio, and to Flint, where we visited Lawrence Halprin's Riverbank Park.

The theme of "Common Time" is the dense network of creative collaborations and relationships that typified Merce Cunningham's practice—and that brought dance into fruitful contact with the wider art world.