Saturday, April 13th, 2024 | 9:00am - 7:15pm

Join Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research in Portland as we explore two world-class gardens: Lan Su Chinese Garden and the Portland Japanese Garden. Our guide for the day will be Sadafumi Uchiyama, who for the past six years has been working with the Center to design and plan the rejuvenation of the Cranbrook Japanese Garden. Sada, as he is known to us at Cranbrook, will not only guide us through the Portland Japanese Garden, where he recently retired as the Chief Curator and Director of the International Japanese Garden Training Center, but also offer his reflections on Portland’s Chinese Garden, comparing these two time-honored Asian garden traditions. As memorable food and drink are integral to all Center experiences, it goes without saying that the trip will include a Saturday brunch that is sure to please the foodies in the group.

Thursday, June 22nd, 2023 | 5:00pm - Saturday, June 24th, 2023 | 9:30pm

Join the Center in Wisconsin as we explore five of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most important buildings and the long-anticipated exhibition, Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890–1980, at the Milwaukee Art Museum. With Milwaukee’s luxurious Pfister Hotel as our base—and Kevin Adkisson as our onboard Frank Lloyd Wright expert—the tour will take us to Wright’s home and studio Taliesin in Spring Green; six examples of his early American System-Built Homes in Milwaukee; his first Usonian house (the prototype for Cranbrook’s Smith House), the Jacobs House in Madison; and the S.C. Johnson Wax Company buildings and the H.F. Johnson, Jr., family’s own home, Wingspread, in Racine.

Join us for this exciting virtual Day Away, a lecture and behind-the-scenes tour celebrating ceramist and Pewabic Pottery co-founder Mary Chase Perry Stratton’s unique home in Grosse Pointe Park. Following a short presentation introducing Stratton and Pewabic (and, of course, the Cranbrook connections) by Center Director Gregory Wittkopp and Associate Curator Kevin Adkisson, Adkisson will lead a live tour of the magical home and garden. The house remains a private residence, and the tour will include highlights of the current owners’ art collection and trace the monumental efforts they have undertaken to preserve and enhance this special home.

Saturday, November 16, 2019 | 9:00am - 4:30pm

Join Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research for another adventure as we embark on our fifteenth Day Away, a series that explores Cranbrook connections off campus. The Fall 2019 tour will explore New Deal-era murals in Detroit and travel to the conservation laboratory of Kenneth Katz.

Friday, May 17, 2019 - Sunday, May 19, 2019
Bus departs Cranbrook Friday at 8:00am and returns on Sunday around 5:30pm

Tour a city described by critics as “a veritable museum of modern architecture,” “a small-town architectural mecca,” and “the Athens of the prairie.” For anyone that loves Cranbrook’s architecture, Columbus is simply a city that you must visit!

Friday, November 9, 2018 | 9:00am - 5:00pm

Explore five churches and their significant architects, artists, and craftsmen, as well as important ministers, congregations, and patrons in Bloomfield Hills, Detroit, and Birmingham.

Friday, May 4, and Saturday, May 5, 2018
Bus departs Friday at 8:00am and returns Saturday at 7:30pm

Join the Center on its first overnight excursion as we explore three cities in Ohio and their many connections to Cranbrook and the Center’s programs. 

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Presented in conjunction with both the Docomomo US Tour Day 2017 and the Docomomo-US/MI Frank Lloyd Wright 150 Michigan Tour Weekend, this trip will visit three area homes designed by the famous architect in celebration of his 150th birthday. 

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Presented in conjunction with Cranbrook Art Museum and their exhibition, Alexander Girard: A Designer's Universe, the Center's tenth Day Away trip explores four buildings by internationally-significant designers located in the Grosse Pointes, including a home designed by Alexander Girard.

Friday, May 6, and Saturday, June 25, 2016

Created to commemorate the Simple Forms, Stunning Glazes exhibition of Pewabic Pottery at Cranbrook Art Museum, these two trips took guests to various sites in Detroit to examine installations of tiles from Mary Chase Perry Stratton's famous studio.