Shelley Selim is used to the long game. She’s spent years looking for the perfect coffee table: something functional but arresting, with an “interesting material” that doesn’t overwhelm the room. That kind of deliberate, discerning eye serves her well as the inaugural Mort Harris Curator of Automotive, Industrial and Decorative Design at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). It’s a post she’s held since January 2024 — one that feels custom-built for her.
Selim grew up in Washington, D.C., in a family steeped in cultural institutions.
“Both of my parents worked at the Smithsonian,” she says. “So it’s a little bit of the apple falling close to the tree.”
Her interest in design and history found footing in college and later led her to the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, where she earned her master’s in the history of decorative arts and design.
“I was a broke grad student working multiple jobs — research assistant, teaching assistant, part-time museum work,” Selim recalls. “But the museum work really resonated. I loved how research-intensive it was and how it created educational experiences for the public.”
That duality — academic depth paired with public engagement — has defined Selim’s approach ever since. Following roles at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and the Cranbrook Art Museum in Michigan, she spent six years at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, shaping one of the nation’s most robust design collections. But when a new, endowment-funded position at the DIA opened in 2023, she came full circle back to Michigan.
The Mort Harris Curatorship, funded by a $5 million gift from the Harris family, was born out of the 2020 “Detroit Style” exhibition and aims to spotlight automotive and industrial design as cultural expression, not just a technical feat. For Selim, who is now building the collection from the ground up, it’s a rare opportunity.
“We’re particularly interested in collecting renderings from Detroit’s automotive designers, especially midcentury onward,” she explains. “These aren’t engineering schematics. They’re conceptual works — beautiful, dynamic pieces of art.”
Selim lights up when talking about the hand-drawn works she’s uncovered, especially those rendered on Canson paper with colored pencil and chalk.
“There’s something magical about the texture, the vibrancy,” she says. “They’re incredibly expressive. You’re seeing an idea, a dream of a future vehicle, taking shape.”
Her work at the DIA has also been shaped by formative experiences at Cranbrook.
“Cranbrook was the most influential chapter of my early career,” she says. “It’s such an experimental place, and I had a lot of freedom to curate exhibitions and dig into the intersections of art, craft and design.”
That fluidity between disciplines, between the intellectual and the intuitive, is what drives Selim. But don’t confuse her professional taste for her personal aesthetic.
“They’re completely separate,” she says. “What I admire conceptually in a museum isn’t what I would put in my home.”
At home in downtown Detroit, she prefers clean lines, light colors and a Scandinavian minimalism she honed during early academic research.
Still, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t indulge in the thrill of the hunt.
“I’m an avid eBay and estate-sale person,” she says. “I’ve found some great pieces that way, but I’m still looking for the coffee table.”
Her ideal piece would be sculptural but practical, a showstopper that doesn’t shout.
“It’s harder than it sounds,” she says. “Everyone I know agrees: It’s the hardest piece to get right.”
For Selim, style isn’t about flash — it’s about intention. Whether acquiring a 1930s Detroit-made Art Deco lamp or studying renderings of a futuristic steering wheel, she’s guided by the belief that design shapes how we move through the world.
“Design objects are part of our daily lives. They reflect who we are, how we live and the technology of their time,” she says. “They’re not just things, they’re stories.”
SIDEBAR:
SELIM’S FAVORITE OBJECTS (SO FAR)
Toshiko Takaezu’s “Mask Pot” (1962)
“This spherical ceramic piece is a quiet masterpiece — there's only this tiny little pinprick opening on the top. So it's kind of her venturing into sculpture. And it is this incredible cobalt blue color. She has these very expressive brushstrokes that sweep across the surface. It's just an absolutely beautiful, beautiful object.”
Midcentury Automotive Renderings on Canson Paper
“The renderings are done on Canson paper, which is like a colored paper. They use that color like a ground color, and then they use colored pencils and chalk to render automobiles that way. Those, to me, tend to be the most exciting, dynamic illustrations.”
Patton Products Lamp, Detroit, 1930s
“I recently acquired for the Museum a lamp by a company called Patton Products, which was local, based in Detroit, I believe, on Jefferson in the 1930s. And it's a really interesting kind of Art Deco and industrial modern lamp.”
Holy Grail: The Elusive Coffee Table
“I’m still searching — I'll get there one day. I know I will.”