Center exhibitions explore Cranbrook's history and collections. They are presented in spaces across the campus, including Saarinen House, Cranbrook House, and the galleries of Cranbrook Art Museum.
uPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
oNLINE Exhibitions
See new, site-specific work from Cranbrook Academy of Art students, staff, and Artists-in-Residence staged within Cranbrook's three historic homes. Watch a virtual guided tour by the curators, or view the exhibition photographs and short essays.
This online show examines the artistic work and legacies of the four presidents of Cranbrook Academy of Art that followed Eliel Saarinen: Zoltan Sepeshy, Glen Paulsen, Wallace Mitchell, and Roy Slade.
This online exhibition examines the artistic work of Cranbrook Academy of Art alumnus Jason Carter, which imagined the Art Deco landmark changed by contemporary technology, studying the interaction between the historic domestic environment and the glowing light of digital devices.
PAST Exhibitions
October 7, 8, and 9, 2022
In this special exhibition in the magnificent rooms of Cranbrook House, the members of Ikebana International Detroit Chapter 85, present a display of nearly thirty arrangements by some of Michigan’s most respected ikebana artists. The exhibition, which includes ikebana demonstrations and tours of both the Cranbrook Japanese Garden and Cranbrook House, celebrates the legacy of the Japanese Garden and its ongoing rejuvenation by Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.
Sunday, March 27th, 2022
3:00pm - 4:30pm EDT
Virtual Opening and Lecture
Engaging in the Academy’s long tradition of making functional art and objects for the table, approximately fifty artists from each of the Academy’s eleven departments have created work for tables in Cranbrook’s historic house museums. Created in dialogue with the decorative arts and architecture of each site, experimental new works in a range of media will be sited directly alongside existing pieces in the homes and from Cranbrook collections, challenging the idea of art existing only within the neutral space of the studio or gallery.
VIRTUAL OPENING AND LECTURE
Sunday, March 28th, 2021 | 3:00pm - 4:30pm
This year, some fifty artists from each of the Academy’s eleven departments are participating. For the first time, works will be installed across all three of Cranbrook’s historic house museums: Cranbrook House (1908/1918), Saarinen House (1930), and the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Smith House (1950/1968). The new work is being created in dialogue with the art, architecture, and stories of each home’s residents: Cranbrook founders George and Ellen Booth, architect and designers Eliel and Loja Saarinen, and Detroit schoolteachers Melvyn and Sara Smith. Experimental new works in a range of media will be sited directly alongside existing pieces in the homes, challenging the idea of art existing only within the neutral space of the studio or gallery.
OPENING RECEPTION IN CRANBROOK HOUSE
Saturday, February 29, 2020 | 5:00pm - 8:00pm
Artist remarks at 6:00pm
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
Saturday, February 29, 2020 - Sunday, March 1, 2020
Friday, March 6, 2020 – Sunday, March 8, 2020
12:00pm—4:00pm
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research is pleased to announce the exhibition Surface Levels/Cranbrook, the third intervention of new, site-specific work by Cranbrook Academy of Art metalsmithing students, alumni, and Artist-in-Residence Iris Eichenberg staged within the historic Cranbrook House.
OPENING RECEPTION IN SAARINEN HOUSE
Sunday, April 28, 2019, 1:00pm - 5:00pm
EXHIBITION TOUR DATES
May 10 through December 1, 2019
Fridays and Saturdays at 2:00pm
Sundays at 1:00pm and 3:00pm
During the 2019 Tour Season, all Saarinen House tours will include the temporary exhibition Studio Loja Saarinen: The Art and Architecture of Weaving, 1928-1942. The fifth in a series of interventions in the historic house, the show brings together rarely seen handwoven rugs and textiles produced at Cranbrook under the direction of Loja Saarinen.
OPENING RECEPTION IN CRANBROOK HOUSE
Saturday, February 2, 2019 | 6:00pm - 8:00pm
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
Sunday, February 3, 2019 - Sunday, February 10, 2019
12:00pm - 4:00pm daily
Kindred Neighbors: An Inhabitation of Cranbrook House is the second intervention of work by Cranbrook Academy of Art students and Artists-in-Residence staged within the historic home. Free admission.
OPENING RECEPTION IN SAARINEN HOUSE
Sunday, April 29, 2018, 1pm-5pm
EXHIBITION TOUR DATES
May 11 through November 25, 2018
Fridays and Saturdays at 2pm
Sundays at 1pm and 3pm
Presidents/Residents examines the artistic work and legacies of the four presidents of Cranbrook Academy of Art that followed Eliel Saarinen: Zoltan Sepeshy, Glen Paulsen, Wallace Mitchell, and Roy Slade.
Opening Reception with the Artist in Saarinen House: Sunday, September 17, 2017 2:00pm to 5:00pm
Exhibition dates: September 22 through November 26, 2017
Fridays and Saturdays at 2:00pm, Sundays at 1:00pm and 3:00pm
Exhibition Dates: May 5, 2017, through July 30, 2017
Vistiors to Saarinen House learned about the remarkable Saarinen family and their work at Cranbrook, as well as their life in their exquisite Art-Deco home.
Exhibition Dates: December 11, 2015, through August 28, 2016
Simple Forms, Stunning Glazes was the inaugural exhibition of the works in the Gerald W. McNeely Collection, which recently had been donated to Cranbrook Art Museum. The collection comprises one of the largest private collections of Pewabic Pottery, and includes 117 works, including objects that pre-date the pottery and span founder Mary Chase Perry Stratton’s lifetime.
Exhibition Dates: December 12, 2015 to March 20, 2016
Designs of the Times was the third exhibition in the Cranbrook Archives ephemera series. The exhibition, which represented Cranbrook’s diverse audiences by exploring both design and history, illustrated the impact of new technologies and the information age on the poster medium as visual communication.
Exhibition Dates: May 1, 2013 through October 31, 2013
For his first solo exhibition in Michigan, Danish ceramist Anders Ruhwald presented a series of “site-sensitive” installations in Saarinen House, the “total work of art” designed by the Finnish American architect Eliel Saarinen in 1930.
Exhibition Dates: June 16, 2012, through March 24, 2013
With models and drawings and rich archival materials, this exhibition presented the architectural legacy of Cranbrook as an artistic narrative emerging from the creative beliefs of Cranbrook’s founder, George Gough Booth.