Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research is pleased to announce the exhibition Kindred Neighbors: An Inhabitation of Cranbrook House, the second intervention of work by Cranbrook Academy of Art students and Artists-in-Residence staged within the historic home. The show will feature new work from the forty-two students in the departments of Ceramics, Fiber, and Metalsmithing, as well as work by these three departments’ Artists-in-Residence Ian McDonald, Mark Newport, and Iris Eichenberg.

The artists’ works will be located throughout the first floor of Cranbrook House, in dialogue with the art, design, and architecture assembled by Cranbrook founders George and Ellen Booth and their architect, Albert Kahn. Completed in 1908, with additions in 1918 and 1919, Cranbrook House is an Arts & Crafts home rich with sculptures, ceramics, furnishings, metalwork, and textiles. Experimental new works in a range of media will be sited directly alongside existing pieces in the home, challenging the idea of art existing only within the neutral space of the gallery. 

All three craft disciplines at Cranbrook Academy of Art—ceramics, fiber, and metalsmithing—are the top-rated programs in the country for graduate studies in their discipline. Each department dates to the founding of the Cranbrook Arts and Crafts Studios in 1928 and the opening of the Academy in 1932. Since 2002, the departments have been located together in the New Studios Building adjacent to Cranbrook Art Museum.

Students in the Academy’s Master of Fine Arts program study for two years under the mentorship of Artists-in-Residence. Ian McDonald has served as Artist-in-Residence and Head of the Ceramics Department since 2017, Mark Newport as Artist-in-Residence and Head of the Fiber Department since 2007, and Iris Eichenberg as Artist-in-Residence and Head of the Metalsmithing Department since 2006.

Kindred Neighbors: An Inhabitation of Cranbrook House was organized by the Ceramics, Fiber, and Metalsmithing Departments at Cranbrook Academy of Art in conjunction with Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research. Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, in partnership with Cranbrook House and Gardens Auxiliary, is responsible for stewarding the collections of Cranbrook House and opening its doors to visitors from around the world.