Cranbrook Academy of Art

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Cranbrook Academy of Art Cranbrook Academy of Art is the country’s top ranked, graduate-only program in architecture, design and fine art.
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Each year, just 75 students are invited to study and live on the landmark Saarinen-designed campus in Bloomfield Hills, which features: private studios, state-of-the art workshops, the renowned Cranbrook Art Museum and 300 acres of forests, lakes and streams, all a short drive from the city of Detroit. The focus at Cranbrook is on studio practice in one of ten disciplines including Architecture, 2D and 3D Design, Ceramics, Fiber, Metalsmithing, Painting, Photography, Print Media, and Sculpture. The program is anchored by celebrated Artists- and Designers-in-Residence, one for each discipline, all of whom live and practice on campus alongside the graduate students. The community-at-large is invited to participate in public events at the Academy which annually include exhibitions, symposium, and lectures by dozens of internationally acclaimed artists, critics, scholars, art museum directors, curators and gallerists who are invited to campus each semester to supplement the individualized instruction, critiques, and mentoring by the Artists-in-Residence. For more information on all our programs, please visit: http://www.cranbrook.edu

Vote for recent Cranbrook Academy of Art graduates who are shortlisted in the 7th edition of the ARTS THREAD Global Crea...
10/16/2026

Vote for recent Cranbrook Academy of Art graduates who are shortlisted in the 7th edition of the ARTS THREAD Global Creative Graduate Showcase! Each voter can cast 10 votes, so spread the love for Alex Baxter (MFA Ceramics 2026), Alexandra Collins (MFA Painting 2026), Maryangela Sanchez Rocca (MFA Industrial Design 2026), Ryan Seng (MFA Metalsmithing 2026), Soyeon Lee (MFA Painting 2026), and YunJia Wang (MFA Ceramics 2026). ❤️✅✨ Voting closes Wednesday, October 21!

Alex Baxter
No Creatures, no people
Contemporary Craft · Fine Art/Photography/Craft
https://vote.artsthread.com/project/mermaid-object-13

Alexandra Collins
Superbloom
Fine Art · Fine Art/Photography/Craft
https://vote.artsthread.com/project/jubilee2

Maryangela Sanchez Rocca
Mechudo
Design for Social Good · Product / Architecture / Interiors
https://vote.artsthread.com/project/ixtle

Ryan Seng
Mementos
Jewelry · Fine Art/Photography/Craft
https://vote.artsthread.com/project/mementos2

Soyeon Lee
Tyvek work
Fine Art · Fine Art/Photography/Craft
https://vote.artsthread.com/project/incorrect-spelling

YunJia Wang
Drift
Contemporary Craft · Fine Art/Photography/Craft
https://vote.artsthread.com/project/untitle1

1: Collage of six featured alumni, clockwise: Alex Baxter, Alexandra Collins, Maryangela Sanchez Rocca, YunJia Wang, Soyeon Lee, Ryan Seng. Images courtesy of the artists.
2: Graphic courtesy of Arts Thread.

👀 Join us Thursday, October 15, at 6pm, for a free, public lecture with artist, educator, and Cranbrook alumna Poppy Del...
10/13/2026

👀 Join us Thursday, October 15, at 6pm, for a free, public lecture with artist, educator, and Cranbrook alumna Poppy DeltaDawn (MFA Fiber 2016)! Her work moves between the loom and the land, and she will speak to how ecology, craft, and land stewardship come together in a practice where weaving and basketry function not as metaphors for land, but as extensions of it.

📍Cranbrook's deSalle Auditorium
39221 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, MI, 48304
Park at Cranbrook Art Museum.

1: Poppy DeltaDawn
2: Prairie Broom, 2026, prairie grass, thread, wood; TOS, 2026, handwoven wool, cotton, and tinsel, newspaper. Photo credit: Pratya J. Photographer
All courtesy of the artist.

⏳ This is the final week to see four Cranbrook alumni featured in "Homecoming," the inaugural exhibition at Gallery SSS ...
10/12/2026

⏳ This is the final week to see four Cranbrook alumni featured in "Homecoming," the inaugural exhibition at Gallery SSS in Grand Rapids, on view through October 16. Galerie included the show in its list of October's standout collectible design exhibitions.

Chris Schanck (MFA 3D Design 2011) is known for his Alufoil series. Jay Sae Jung Oh (MFA 3D Design 2011) transforms discarded household objects into sculptural furniture now held by SFMOMA, the Cooper Hewitt, M+, and LACMA. Kayla Powers (MFA Fiber 2023) makes ecologically focused textiles with foraged and grown plants and held a 2025 residency at the Australian Tapestry Workshop. John Torreano (BFA Painting 1963) is best known for paintings, sculptures, and prints that incorporate faceted gems. He has exhibited at the Whitney, MoMA, and the Corcoran, and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1991.

Exhibition views courtesy of Gallery SSS. Photos by Dean Van Dis.

🎉 Congratulations to Artist-in-Residence and Head of Fiber Joey Quiñones on being named a finalist for the 2027 Envision...
10/09/2026

🎉 Congratulations to Artist-in-Residence and Head of Fiber Joey Quiñones on being named a finalist for the 2027 Envision: The Michigan Artist Initiative award!

Quiñones joins finalists Mandy Cano Villalobos and Abhishek Narula. Led by the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design and Stamps Gallery, Envision is now in its fourth iteration and recognizes contemporary artists living and working in Michigan.

Quiñones is a fiber artist, ceramicist, and mixed media sculptor. Their work focuses on African American and Caribbean history, particularly the development of q***r Afro-Latine identity. Their work has been shown at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Akron Art Museum, The Shepherd in Detroit, and The Sculpture Center in Cleveland. In 2025, they also took part in Detroit Salon at Art Basel Paris.

The finalists will present new work at Stamps Gallery from June 10 to July 31, 2027, and the $5,000 prize winner will be announced at the June 17 opening.

📸 Mandy Cano Villalobos, Joey Quiñones, and Abhishek Narula. Graphic courtesy of Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design. Photo credit: Jeff Cancelosi.

Last night, alumna Karyn Olivier (MFA Ceramics 2001) returned to Cranbrook to present an overview of her practice in scu...
10/09/2026

Last night, alumna Karyn Olivier (MFA Ceramics 2001) returned to Cranbrook to present an overview of her practice in sculpture, installation, and public intervention, examining how landscapes, materials, and built environments carry the weight of historical memory. She detailed several commissioned works, delving into the research, materials, joys, challenges, and public response.

Found materials, researching their history, and having patience for a particular object's purpose are deeply significant to Olivier across several featured works, including one currently on view at Cranbrook Art Museum in "Labyrinth/Laboratory: Selections from the Cranbrook Collection." We look forward to finding out where that orange automotive piece comes to life, Karyn!

Olivier also touched on her time at Cranbrook, from applying to the program to studying with former Head of Ceramics, Tony Hepburn, attending Sculpture and Architecture critiques, and forming a cross-department crit club. She revisited a few of her graduate works, including a scaled version of her studio inside her studio (in the pre-Moneo building Ceramics studios), her graduate degree exhibition installation, "Whispering Dome," a drop ceiling installation in the area that is now FIKA Cafe, and her Untitled (Coffee Table) from 2000 that was reimagined in 2005 for MOMA PS1.

Of her degree show work, Olivier said, "The piece is called Whispering Dome, so it's really a sound piece. Once I extended [the ceiling] down...when you speak, your voice became unfamiliar in that space. It might still be, I think, one of the best pieces I've ever made because it kept on shifting your expectations. In a way, the piece didn't sit still."

Thank you, Karyn, for sharing with our community!

If you missed this lecture in person, a recording will be available on the Cranbrook deSalle YouTube channel soon.

Thanks also to our event partners, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit - MOCAD and Cranbrook Art Museum, for making this program possible.

If you enjoyed this lecture and wish to support similar free community events at the Academy, please consider a one-time or recurring donation to the Cranbrook Academy of Art Annual Fund.

Your MFA application isn't a single moment; it's a process. Join our conversation next week: https://bit.ly/4rCOxYN◼️ On...
10/08/2026

Your MFA application isn't a single moment; it's a process. Join our conversation next week: https://bit.ly/4rCOxYN

◼️ Online Conversation: The Application as Studio Practice | Thursday, October 15 at 12pm

Cranbrook's admissions team can help you figure out where you are, what you need, and what a realistic path forward looks like—whether that's this fall or a year from now. No judgment. No pressure. Just guidance from people who've been there.

📸 Sakurako Reed (MFA Print Media 2023). Photo by Arno Goetz.

TOMORROW night! Join us for a free, public artist talk with alumna Karyn Olivier (MFA Ceramics 2001), presented in partn...
10/07/2026

TOMORROW night! Join us for a free, public artist talk with alumna Karyn Olivier (MFA Ceramics 2001), presented in partnership with Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit - MOCAD at Cranbrook Art Museum.

Learn more about Olivier’s expansive career, the impact of Cranbrook’s alumni network, and the dialogue across generations of artists working in and beyond the Detroit cultural landscape. Olivier's solo exhibition, "Bend, Break, Mend," closes this weekend at MOCAD. Her work is also on view in Cranbrook Art Museum's current exhibition "Labyrinth/Laboratory: Selections from the Cranbrook Collection."

The talk includes an introduction by fellow alumna, MOCAD Co-Director and Artistic Director Jova Lynne (MFA Photography 2017).

Thursday, October 8, 6–8 pm
deSalle Auditorium; park at Cranbrook Art Museum

Cranbrook Educational Community

1-2: "Bend, Break, Mend" Installation views, for MOCAD
3: Photo of Karyn Olivier by Ryan Collerd. Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York.

10/05/2026

⏰ Time is running out to secure your tickets to one of the best parties of the season!

Join Cranbrook Art Museum and Cranbrook Academy of Art for Crandemonium, our signature fall fundraiser celebrating Cranbrook’s lasting impact on the cultural landscape of Detroit and beyond. We're back under the big tent on the museum grounds.

🗓 Saturday, October 17, 2026

🖼️ This high-energy evening kicks off at 6:30pm with cocktails and an exclusive first look at "The World of Anna Sui" with Guest of Honor Anna Sui ahead of the exhibition's public debut. This exclusive preview celebrates the metro Detroit-born fashion icon whose fearless blend of rock-and-roll style, romance, and storytelling transformed fashion. A seated dinner and a special program will follow.

💃 The celebration continues under the tent with Art After Dark—featuring a live DJ, dancing, and drinks! Meet and mingle with Academy alumni and current students.

🎟️ Come for the whole event or just the After Dark Dance Party (9-11pm). Purchase tickets through the link in bio!

❤️ Your support helps fund scholarships, exhibitions, and programming.

Past gala video projection: Fluid Spaces, Merel Noorlander (MFA 4D Design 2022) - in collaboration with Nelly Kate (MFA Print Media 2021), Zhuo Chen (MFA 4D Design 2021), Motomichi Nakamura, and Brian Kovach (MFA Photography 2021).

👀 Join us TOMORROW, Thursday, October 1, at 6pm, for a free, public lecture with Baltimore-based artist Alex Puz! His pa...
09/30/2026

👀 Join us TOMORROW, Thursday, October 1, at 6pm, for a free, public lecture with Baltimore-based artist Alex Puz! His painting practice focuses on color study, optics, and linear abstraction to explore the gap between emotion and cognition.

📍deSalle Auditorium at Cranbrook
39221 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, MI, 48304

Park at Cranbrook Art Museum.

Address

39221 Woodward Avenue
Bloomfield Hills, MI
48303

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+12486453300

Website

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