Things to Do in Birmingham

The Detroit Institute of Arts takes the “s” at the end of its name seriously. The immense Beaux Arts building on Woodward Avenue isn’t only a setting for a top-tier collection of visual works that include Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry frescoes, a van Gogh self-portrait, and ancient sculptures from Africa and Asia. It also opens the doors of its lecture halls, event spaces, and auditoriums for craft workshops, wide-ranging talks from historians and people who know how to draw really good cubes, film, and music. The latter two art forms find a home in the Detroit Film Theatre, a gilded, neoclassical auditorium that preserves a sense of coziness amid the grandeur.

Impact Fight League 57: War of Aggression pits American and Canadian fighters against one another in border-crossing bouts of merciless full-contact combat, showcasing a unique blend of fighting techniques. Stompers, punchers, and Vulcan nerve-pinchers from the Midwest and Canada converge at Joe Louis Arena, unleashing caged rage and bloodlust in battles that aren’t for the squeamish.

As the fight approaches, check the Donofrio Entertainment website for soon-to-be-announced information about the fighters, matchups, and advice on how to build a tree house with roundhouse kicks.

Built in 1928, Music Hall Center dazzles patrons with an ornate art-deco façade and lush Spanish Renaissance interior. Elegant columns, glittering chandeliers, and vibrant geometric patterns create a palatial atmosphere in the lobby. The auditorium's intimately arranged velvet seats leave every viewer within 70 feet of the stage, eliminating the need for binoculars or drawn-out games of telephone describing the onstage action.

With its gargantuan ballroom space, the Congress Theater is just as much a feast for the eyes as it is for the ears. The former movie palace, which boasts a curved upper deck lined with red-velvet seats, beckons concertgoers to its lushly vintage confines for country-music shows, bluegrass festivals, and electronic-music performances. Regardless of the act, audience members revel beneath an ornately decorated domed ceiling that's perfect for jetpack escapes when the dance floor gets too crowded. The theater also is branching out into its surrounding neighborhood by filling attached storefronts with restaurants, small grocers, and other community partners.

Fox Theatre, originally opened in 1929, has long been established as a venue for legendary performances, earning induction into the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. Domed entryways, walls lined with pastoral murals, intricate chandeliers, and a palette of brilliant gold and crimson hint at the venue's Moorish influences, which eclectically clash with the ordered lines of its Gothic exterior.