What's Next at Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum
Upcoming Exhibitions
Here & Now: The 2008 Graduate Degree Exhibition of Cranbrook Academy of Art
April 19-May 9
Members’ Preview: Friday, April 18, 6-8 pm
All galleries of Cranbrook Art Museum
Each April, as part of the requirements for earning either a Master of Fine Arts or Master of Architecture degree, the second-year students of the Academy present their thesis work in the annual Graduate Degree Exhibition. The Academy’s prestigious two-year Master’s Degree Program includes approximately 150 students working with ten Artists-in-Residence, each of whom heads one of the Academy’s ten departments: Architecture, Ceramics, 2D Design, 3D Design, Fiber, Metalsmithing, Painting, Photography, Print Media, and Sculpture.
William Massie: An American House 08
May 3 – October 31, 2008
Architect’s Lecture and Virtual Tour
Friday, March 7, 7 pm
Member’s Preview and Open House
Friday, May 2, 5-8 pm
The lawn of Cranbrook Art Museum
Take a tour of "An American House 08," the first in a series of ten prefabricated houses designed and constructed by William E. Massie — the award-winning Architect-in-Residence and Head of the Architecture Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Massie has become well known in the design world for exploring and inventing new technologies and applying them to the construction and design of buildings. In 2002, Massie was selected as the winner of the Museum of Modern Art’s Young Architects Program Competition and his work has been shown in leading museums around the world. The plans for" An American House 08" were intricately generated through a Computer Numerically Controlled machine, which can cut into solid materials with an accuracy that is within a thousandth of an inch of the architect’s drawings. The design and building of the house suggests a radical turn away from conventional architectural practice and making. It was first constructed in the architect’s Pontiac studio, then disassembled and moved to the Cranbrook campus in March of 2008 where it underwent further refinement. "An American House 08" features modular construction, innovative lighting, and interior elements as well as contemporary furniture.
Forum Gallery Openings
Friday nights through April 18, 6-8 pm
New Studios Building
The student-run Forum Gallery offers an opening most Friday evenings of the academic year. Join graduate students of the Academy who present their work to their peers and the community at large. Free and open to the public.
Lectures and Special Events
Cranbrook Academy of Art
6th Annual Student Art Auction
Sunday, May 4
Silent Auction: 3-6pm (Forum Gallery)
Live Auction: 4pm (deSalle Auditorium)
Cranbrook Academy of Art is recognized the world over as producing some of the best young, emerging artists and designers on the contemporary art scene. Art lovers and collectors will enjoy this extraordinary opportunity to purchase work by rising young stars in the art world. Work ranges from large installations to small ceramic teacups, all embodying the leading-edge style and technique of the Academy’s top artists.
Cranbrook Academy of Art 8th Annual Video Festival
Friday, April 25, 7 - 9 pm
deSalle Auditorium
Video has evolved into a technically beautiful, flexible, accessible, and often clandestine medium that works like magic in the hands of artists and storytellers and provides a powerful tool for communication in the hands of artists. Video continues to evolve into new mediums like CD-ROMs, DVDs, web sites, streaming video, HD and 24P. This student-run festival features a night of short videos at the cutting edge of the art world as produced, directed and created by graduate students from among the Academy ten departments who have shared their visions with the public since 2000.
The Painting and Sculpture departments at the Cranbrook Academy of Art presents
Laura Hoptman, Curator at the New Museum
Thursday, April 10, 7 pm
deSalle Auditorium
Cranbrook Art Museum
The 3D Design Department presents
Hollywood Production Designer
Alex McDowell
Thursday April 3, 7pm
deSalle Auditorium
An advocate of immersive film design, the acclaimed Hollywood production designer Alex McDowell integrates digital technology and traditional design technique, creating a production design process that allows for unprecedented control over the look of the final film. McDowell began incorporating digital design into his work with Fight Club. He sophisticated the process in 1999 with a fully integrated digital design department for Steven Spielberg's Minority Report, creating an intensely researched world of 2054. For Spielberg's "The Terminal," he set up another cutting-edge art department to realize a full size airport terminal, the largest architectural set ever built for film. Please join us for this rare behind-the-scenes look at production design by one of Hollywood’s leading men.
Sine of the Times: A live electronic music and digital film performance by Chris
McNamara, Walter Wasacz and Jennifer A. Paull
Friday, March 28, 7 pm
deSalle Auditorium
Windsor-native Chris McNamara is a member of the Canadian-U.S. laptop collective, Thinkbox and currently teaches in the University of Michigan’s Screen Arts and Cultures Department. His installation, Magic City, was exhibited in the "Shrinking Cities" exhibition both in Berlin (2004), and at Cranbrook Art Museum in 2007. Walter Wasacz is a writer/editor/ photographer and co-founder of Paris '68, a sonic-art collective based in Detroit and Pittsburgh. His work was also featured at the Art Museum during the "Shrinking Cities" exhibition in 2007. McNamara and Wasacz are joined in this performance by sound and visual artist Jennifer A. Paull of Hamtramck, who has been performing with Paris '68 since 2006.
Finnish Reggae and Other Sauna Beats: Music by Conga Se Menne
Saturday, March 15, 8-10 pm
deSalle Auditorium
This event is sponsored by
The Finlandia Foundation National and The Finnish American Club of Detroit
The band members of Conga Se Menne live and work along the chilly and invigorating banks of Lake Superior. It is rare to find world-class musicians hailing from the small northern college town of Marquette, Michigan. Defying the expected, Derrell Syria and the members of Conga Se Menne’s original songs carry the flavor of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in lyrical silliness and the spirit of it's hearty residents. They play with a mastery of melodic syncopation and the band’s musical style is a melting pot of ethnic styles including Blues, Funk, Latin, Reggae, Rock, Caribbean beats and Finnish sounds. They are best known for their island beat percussion blending smoothly with melodious keyboards, sonorous horns and big-shouldered guitar work - all mixing with an influence of traditional styles.
Interactions-International: Women, Art, Criticism
A Two-Day Conference/Conversation among Artists, Theorists, and Critics
Afternoon Sessions Free and Open to the Public
Thursday, March 13, 2008
2:00—5:00 pm
Institute for Research on Women and Gender
University of Michigan
2239 Lane Hall, 204 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI
Friday, March, 14, 2008
2:00—5:00 pm
deSalle Auditorium
Cranbrook Academy of Art
32991 Woodward Avenue
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303
Participants:
Iris Eichenberg, Metals, Cranbrook Academy of Art
Beverly Fishman, Painting, Cranbrook Academy of Art
Johanna Frank, English Language, Literature, and Creative Writing, University of Windsor
Renée c. Hoogland, IRWG & English Language and Literature, University of Michigan
Lucy Hartley, English Language and Literature, University of Michigan
Jane Kennedy, documentary filmmaker, South Africa
Bastienne Kramer, Ceramics, Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Netherlands
Elizabeth Kuebler-Wolf, Art History, School of Creative Arts, University of St. Francis
Fedwa Malti-Douglas, Gender Studies, Indiana University
Suzanne Matheson, English Language, Literature, and Creative Writing, University of Windsor
Heather McGill, Sculpture, Cranbrook Academy of Art
Ulrike Möntmann, Visual Artist, Netherlands
Gina Lori Riley, School of Dramatic Art, University of Windsor
Judith Roof, English & Film Studies, Michigan State University
Lucia Saks, Screen Arts & Culture, University of Michigan
Julie Sando, Visual Arts, University of Windsor
Sigi Torinus, Visual Arts, University of Windsor
Patricia Yeager, English Language and Literature, University of MichiganSponsored by:
University of Michigan:
Global Turns Gender Returns Program
Institute for Research on Women and Gender
International Institute
Screen Arts & Cultures Program
Department of English
Department of Women’s StudiesCranbrook Academy of Art:
Department of MetalsmithingDirector, Reed Kroloff
University of Windsor:
Humanities Research Group
Dr. Stephen Pender, Research Leadership Chair
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Department of English
Windsor International, IDRETSteinSemble Performance Group
Conference committee: Johanna Frank, Renée C. Hoogland, Judith Roof
For more information, please visit www.steinsemble.com
The Fiber and Photography Department present
Liz Cohen
Thursday, March 13, 3 pm
deSalle Auditorium
Three years ago, Liz Cohen began building a car: a lowrider so complicated that even the owner of the shop she works in said he wouldn't attempt it. Her "Trabantimino" is an East German Trabant 601 Deluxe that transforms, through hydraulics into a Chevy El Camino-- meaning it changes from one failed-utopian car, representing socialism, into another, representing the American determination to have it all.
The Photography Department presents
Jason Salavon
Thursday, March 13, 1:30 pm
deSalle Auditorium
Using software processes of his own design, Jason Salavon generates and reconfigures masses of communal material in an effort to present new perspectives on the familar. His projects unearth unexpected pattern while exploring the relationship between the part and the whole or the individual and the group. Salavon earned his MFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his BA from The University of Texas at Austin. He is currently Asst. Professor of Art at the University of Chicago.
“An American House 08--Some Assembly Required"
Lecture and Virtual Tour by William Massie
Friday, March 7, 7 pm
deSalle Auditorium
Join Architect-in-Residence William Massie for a lecture and virtual tour of "An American House 08," the first in his series of ten prefabricated houses that is slated to be open for tours at Cranbrook Art Museum on Friday, May 2 (see above). In this presentation, Massie will offer insight about the ongoing construction of "An American House 08" and the cutting-edge technologies he used in the design and building of the project. A three-screen projection system will be used to provide a virtual walk-through of the house. Massie will also talk about his future plans for subsequent buildings.
Twentieth Century Design: Looking to the Twenty-First Century
John Bloom Memorial Lecture
James Zemaitis, Director of 20th Century Design, Sotheby’s, New York
Thursday, February 28, 7 pm
deSalle Auditorium
James Zemaitis’s talk will explore the development of the contemporary design market, tracing major stylistic and economic trends from the 1950s to the present and offering insight on emerging trends in collecting 20th century decorative arts and design. Zemaitis will also speak about the Bloom Collection from a personal perspective, reflecting on his own friendship with John Bloom that was forged over the creation of his collection. Acting as an advisor to Bloom in many of his purchases, Zemaitis will connect Bloom’s “steadfast and enduring” passion for the decorative arts and design to more general issues relevant to today’s collectors, both novice and seasoned.
The Cranbrook Connection:
Uncovering the John Bloom Bequest
to Cranbrook Art Museum
Emily Zilber, Jeanne and Ralph Graham Collections Fellow at Cranbrook
Art Museum
Sunday, February 17, 3 pm
deSalle Auditorium
Ever wonder how curators integrate newly acquired objects into a museum’s permanent collection? Join us for a behind-the-scenes lecture and exhibition tour focused on the John Bloom Collection’s Cranbrook connection! Many of the artists and movements represented in the exhibition From Frank Lloyd Wright to George Nakashima: Uncovering the John Bloom Bequest to Cranbrook Art Museum have clear ties to Cranbrook’s history. From the similar collecting interests held by Bloom and Cranbrook founder George Booth in the Arts and Crafts and Art Deco movements, to Bloom’s enthusiasm for iconic modern pieces by Cranbrook alumni including Florence Knoll (CAA ’39), the Eames’ (CAA ’41 and ’39), and contemporary work by Cranbrook students, learn how the Bloom bequest has found an ideal home at Cranbrook. A tour through the exhibition follows this lecture.
The Painting Department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art presents
Jon Brummit
Saturday, February 9, 4 pm
deSalle Auditorium
Cranbrook Art Museum
Jon Brummit is an alumni of the Painting Department (CAA '99) and was selected to particpate in the upcoming 2008 Whitney Biennial . He has presented solo and collaborative works widely in the US and abroad at venues including 21 Grand, Lisa Dent Gallery, Southern Exposure, MOCADetroit, Novi Sad Contemporary Museum, SFMOMA, and YBCA.
Friends and Colleagues:
Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames
and Irwin Miller
With Eames Demetrios and Will Miller
Thursday, February 7, 7 pm
Reception to follow in the
New Studios Building.
deSalle Auditorium
Among the most important relationships in Eero Saarinen’s life, personally and professionally, were his relationships with architect and designer Charles Eames and with successful businessman and philanthropist Irwin Miller, the CEO of Cummins Engine Company, from Columbus, Indiana. Join us on this evening of memory sharing as Eames Demetrios and Will Miller talk about their famous grandfather and father, respectively. The evening’s program also includes the screening of the never before seen footage made by Charles Eames during his years at Cranbrook. The program will conclude with a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Aluminum Group, home and office chairs designed by Charles and Ray Eames.
The Metalsmithing Department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art presents 4 Talks
Lisa Gralnick, Cindi Strauss, Eija Mustonen and Rian de Jong
February 1, 1 pm
deSalle Auditorium
Cranbrook Art Museum
Refreshments will follow in the Metalsmithing studio
Ideas & Process: Gallery Talks
and Studio Tours Led by
Cranbrook Academy of Art Artists
January 20 and 26;
February 3, 9, 16, 24
1:30 pm
Meet at the Art Museum Front Desk
Join students from Cranbrook Academy of Art to tour the exhibition Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future. The gallery talks will be followed by visits to the Academy’s studios, normally closed to the public.
Eero Saarinen and Associates: Inside the Office
Panel Discussion
Sunday, January 27, 2–4 pm
deSalle Auditorium
Join former members of the Saarinen Office as they share their memories about working with Eero Saarinen. Speakers will include architect Robert Ziegelman, architecture photographer Richard Knight, model builder James Smith, and Eero’s nephew, architect Robert Swanson. This program is organized jointly by Cranbrook Art Museum and the Birmingham Historical Society in conjunction with three exhibitions, Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future and Richard Knight: Photography at Cranbrook Art Museum and Eero Saarinen: The Local Legacy at the Birmingham Historical Museum.
The Photography Department presents
Jason Fulford
Friday, January 25, 3 pm
deSalle Auditorium
Cranbrook Art Museum
Photographer Jason Fulford has contributed to Harper's, Life, and The New York Times Magazine, and runs J&L Books, a small press that publishes collections of art and photography. His work has been exhibited in New York, Seattle, Copenhagen, Budapest, Atlanta and Kansas City. Fulford's photographs have also graced the covers of books published by every major publishing house. A graphic designer and freelance commercial photographer as well as an artist, Fulford is the author of three books including Crushed (2003).
In the Architect’s Own Hand: Eero Saarinen Drawings
in the Cranbrook Collection
Hosted by Cranbrook Archives and Cranbrook Art Museum
Sunday, January 20, 1:30–3:30 pm
deSalle Auditorium
Explore how an architect’s ideas take shape as you look through the extensive array of drawings by Eero Saarinen in the collections of Cranbrook Art Museum and Cranbrook Archives. These images, many of which have never been on display to the public, illustrate the evolution of process in a variety of design projects, from full-scale buildings to rooms to pieces of furniture. It’s an exciting journey through the creative process.
Ongoing Exhibitions at Cranbrook Art Museum
From Frank Lloyd Wright to
George Nakashima:
Uncovering the John Bloom Bequest
to Cranbrook Art Museum
January 26–March 22, 2008
From the earliest works of Frank Lloyd Wright to the more contemporary furniture of George Nakashima, Michigan native John Bloom (1935–2006) spent his life studying and collecting important objects of decorative art and design that span the course of the 20th century. He lived and worked with the objects that he loved, always hoping that these exceptional pieces would someday find a home at Cranbrook. Bloom ultimately bequeathed his collection to Cranbrook Art Museum. The collection as a whole reflects Bloom’s strong interests in the decorative arts of the Arts and Crafts movement, Art Deco metalwork, and mid-century design. Highlights of the Bloom bequest include seven stained glass windows from a variety of major buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, a Luc Lanel-designed Art Deco vase for the prominent French manufacturer Christofle, and furniture by Modern masters such as Mies van der Rohe, Nakashima, Charles and Ray Eames, Finn Juhl and Vladimir Kagan. The exhibition showcases masterpieces never seen together before in a public exhibition, offering the visitor a rare opportunity to view the 20th century decorative objects through the eyes of this passionate collector.
Richard Knight: Photographing Saarinen
January 26– March 22, 2008
Members’ Preview
to meet the Artist:
Friday, January 25, 6–8 pm
Wainger Gallery
Richard Knight’s photographs offer an unprecedented glimpse behind the scenes at the architectural practice and office of Eero Saarinen and Associates. His photographs cover the period from 1957 to Saarinen’s death in 1961, when Saarinen was working on iconic projects like the Dulles International Airport Terminal, the former TWA Terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Working as Saarinen’s “house photographer,” Knight documented in black and white photographs both the professional process and personal dynamics of this celebrated office. Many of the photographs featured in this exhibition are collected in a recent monograph and personal memoir by Richard Knight published by William Stout Publishers, San Francisco, titled Saarinen’s Quest: A Memoir. The book, which will be available for purchase in The Store at Cranbrook Art Museum, includes a foreword on Saarinen’s artistic vision and office culture by the world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli, who began his career in the architect’s office in Michigan.
Knight, who lives in California, is known today for his creative work as a sculptor. Before working for Eero Saarinen, he studied design at Cranbrook Academy of Art in the mid-1950s.
The presentation of Richard Knight: Photographing Saarinen at Cranbrook is supported, in part, by the LEF Foundation, San Francisco, and Light Waves Imaging, Berkeley, California.
Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future
Through March 30, 2008
Upper Galleries
From the soaring concrete vaults of the TWA Terminal at JFK Airport in New York to the 630-foot-tall Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the iconic designs of Eero Saarinen (1910-1961) captured the aspirations and values of mid-20th-century America. Potent expressions of national power, these and other Saarinen-designed structures—including the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan—helped create the international image of the United States in the decades following World War II.
Cranbrook Art Museum is proud to present the North American première of the first major retrospective ever mounted on the career of Eero Saarinen. A native of Finland, Eero arrived at Cranbrook in the mid-1920s with his parents—the renowned sculptor and weaver Loja Saarinen and architect and educator Eliel Saarinen—and eventually based his entire professional career in Bloomfield Hills. Cranbrook’s National Historic Landmark campus, in particular the
Art Museum designed by Eliel in 1942, serves as the backdrop for this homecoming and survey of one of the 20th century’s most productive and unconventional masters of architecture.The exhibition is organized by the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, the Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki and the National Building Museum, Washington, D.C., with the support of the Yale University School of Architecture. Assa Abloy is the global sponsor of the exhibition project. Major sponsorships for the presentation of the exhibition at Cranbrook are provided by the General Motors Foundation and Knoll. Additional sponsorship for the exhibition at Cranbrook is provided by Roncelli, Inc.
Films at Cranbrook Art Museum
Three Films on
Eero Saarinen
Saturdays and Sundays, 2 pm Through March 30, 2008
deSalle Auditorium
(The screening schedule and film descriptions are available at the Museum’s front desk.)
The Gateway Arch: A Reflection of America Civil Pictures, St. Louis.
Winner of four 2007 Mid-America Emmy Awards.
Monumental Reflections
KETC/Channel 9
The Gateway to the West
Studio Anssi Blomstedt, Finland
[FLAK]Detroit and
Cranbrook Art Museum present: Detroit @ 00:55
Friday, February 22, 7 pm
deSalle Auditorium
Detroit @ 00:55 is a collection of 55 second-long films that explore Detroit and beyond made by members of [FLAK]Detroit, a cultural forum of creative individuals dedicated to promoting inventive, sensitive and humane visions.
For more information on public programming at Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum, please call
248-645-3323. For press inquiries, please call the Public Relations Office at 248-645-3329.