The Cranbrook Educational Community is an education, research, and public museum complex in

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Bloomfield Hills is a small city (5.04 sq. miles) in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Metro Detroit and is approximately northwest of Downtown Detroit. Except a small southern border with the city of Bir ...

. This

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

was founded in the early 20th century by newspaper mogul George Gough Booth. It consists of

Cranbrook Schools Cranbrook Schools is a private, PK–12 preparatory school located on a campus in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The schools comprise a co-educational elementary school, a middle school with separate schools for boys and girls, and a co-education ...

Cranbrook Academy of Art The Cranbrook Educational Community is an education, research, and public museum complex in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This National Historic Landmark was founded in the early 20th century by newspaper mogul George Gough Booth. It consists of C ...

, Cranbrook Art Museum, Cranbrook Institute of Science, and Cranbrook House and Gardens. The founders also built Christ Church Cranbrook as a focal point in order to serve the educational complex. However, the church is a separate entity under the

Episcopal Diocese of Michigan The Episcopal Diocese of Michigan is the Episcopal diocese comprising more than 70 congregations in the southeast part of Michigan. The diocese traces its roots to the founding of St. Paul's, Detroit in 1824. It became a diocese of the Episcop ...

. The sprawling campus began as a farm, purchased in 1904. The organization takes its name from Cranbrook, England, the birthplace of the founder's father. Cranbrook is renowned for its architecture in the Arts and Crafts and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

styles. The chief architect was

Eliel Saarinen Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1873 – July 1, 1950) was a Finnish-American architect known for his work with art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century. He was also the father of famed architect Eero Saarinen. Lif ...

while Albert Kahn was responsible for the Booth mansion. Sculptors

Carl Milles Carl Milles (; 23 June 1875 – 19 September 1955) was a Swedish sculptor. He was married to artist Olga Milles (née Granner) and brother to Ruth Milles and half-brother to the architect Evert Milles. Carl Milles sculpted the Gustaf Vasa sta ...

and Marshall Fredericks also spent many years in residence at Cranbrook.

Schools at Cranbrook

Cranbrook Schools comprise a co-educational day and boarding college preparatory "upper" school, a middle school, and Brookside Lower School. In 1922, the Bloomfield Hills School was the first school to open on the Cranbrook grounds. Founded by George Booth, the Bloomfield Hills School was intended as the community school for local area children. The Bloomfield Hills School ultimately evolved into Brookside School. Following completion of the Bloomfield Hills School, Booth looked forward to building Cranbrook School for Boys, an all-boys College-Preparatory school at which students from the

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

area and abroad would come to reside. Booth wanted the Cranbrook School to possess an architecture reminiscent of the finest British boarding schools; he hired Finnish architect

to design the campus. Cranbrook's initial phase of building was completed in 1928. ChristChurchCranbrook1

Over the years, the Cranbrook School for Boys campus grew to include Stevens Hall, Page Hall, and Coulter Hall. While primarily functioning as only residential spaces, Page Hall featured a smoking lounge as well as a shooting range. Lerchen Gymnasium, Keppel Gymnasium, and Thompson Oval were also constructed on the campus. In the 1960s, Cranbrook School for Boys also constructed a state-of-the-art Science Building named the Gordon Science Center. Realizing that young women would also need a place of their own to learn, Ellen Scripps Booth, Booth's wife, pressured Booth into building a school for girls. Scripps Booth supervised the project, which she named the Kingswood School Cranbrook. Unlike her husband, Scripps Booth encouraged Eliel Saarinen to come up with a unique interior design for the campus completely on his own. Instead of the several buildings that housed the Cranbrook School for Boys, the Kingswood School Cranbrook was contained within one building that included all necessary features, including dormitories, a dining hall, an auditorium, classrooms, a bowling alley, a ballroom, and lounges and common areas. The education at Kingswood School Cranbrook was initially viewed as a " finishing school", though that changed over time. In 1986, the Cranbrook School for Boys and Kingswood School Cranbrook entered a joint agreement, renaming the new institution the Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School.

Cranbrook Academy of Art

The Cranbrook Academy of Art, one of America's leading

graduate school Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and stru ...

s for

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

, and

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

, was founded by George Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth in 1932. In 1984, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' wrote that "the effect of Cranbrook and its graduates and faculty on the physical environment of this country has been profound ... Cranbrook, surely more than any other institution, has a right to think of itself as synonymous with contemporary American design." The buildings were designed and the school first headed by

, who integrated design practices and theories from the Arts and Crafts movement through the international style. The school continues to be known for its

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

method of teaching, in which a small group of students—usually only 10 to 16 per class, or 150 students in total for the ten departments—study under a single artist-in-residence for the duration of their curriculum. The graduate program is unconventional because there are no traditional courses; all learning is self-directed under the guidance and supervision of the respective artist-in-residence. Beginning in 1983, a major exhibition of works by Cranbrook's faculty and graduates, entitled "Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision 1925–1950", toured major museums in the United States and Europe. The

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation and expansion project comple ...

and

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

co-authored a book detailing the works in the exhibit.

Academics

The school currently confers two degrees: Master of Fine Arts and

Master of Architecture The “Master of Architecture”(M.Arch or MArch) or a “Bachelor of Architecture” is a professional degree in architecture, qualifying the graduate to move through the various stages of professional accreditation (internship, exams) that res ...

. The Master of Architecture degree is a post-professional degree and is not accredited by the

National Architectural Accrediting Board The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), established in 1940, is the oldest accrediting agency for architectural education in the United States. The NAAB accredits professional degrees in architecture offered by institutions with U.S. r ...

. Cranbrook Art Academy currently has 11 departments (2D Design, 3D Design, 4D Design, Architecture, Ceramics, Fiber, Metalsmithing, Painting, Photography, Print Media and Sculpture https://cranbrookart.edu/departments/.) The latest department (4D Design) began taking students in the fall of 2019. It is led by Carla Diana, a Cranbrook Art Academy alumna (https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/carla-diana-launches-4d-design-at-cranbrook/). In 2022, Paul Sacaridiz was appointed the Director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Notable alumni and faculty

Notable alumni and faculty of the Cranbrook Academy of Art include

Harry Bertoia Harry Bertoia (March 10, 1915 – November 1978) was an Italian-born American artist, sound art sculptor, and modern furniture designer. Bertoia was born in San Lorenzo, Pordenone, Italy. At age 15, given the opportunity to move to Detroit ...

, Richard DeVore, Charles Eames,

Ray Eames Ray-Bernice Alexandra Kaiser Eames (née Kaiser; December 15, 1912 – August 21, 1988) was an American artist and designer who worked in a variety of media. In creative partnership with her husband Charles Eames and The Eames Office, she was ...

, Waylande Gregory,

Florence Knoll Florence Marguerite Knoll Bassett ( Schust; May 24, 1917 – January 25, 2019) was an American architect, interior designer, furniture designer, and entrepreneur who has been credited with revolutionizing office design and bringing modernist desi ...

(did not graduate), Daniel Libeskind, and

Eero Saarinen Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors ...

. In 1932, sculptor Marshall Fredericks accepted an invitation by Carl Milles to join the staff of the academy and schools, teaching there until he enlisted in the armed forces in 1942. In 1987,

Keith Haring Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his wor ...

served as an artist-in-residence.

Cranbrook Art Museum

The Cranbrook Art Museum is a museum of

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic co ...

with a permanent collection, including works by

Charles and Ray Eames Charles Eames ( Charles Eames, Jr) and Ray Eames ( Ray-Bernice Eames) were an American married couple of industrial designers who made significant historical contributions to the development of modern architecture and furniture through the work of ...

, Maija Grotell,

Robert Motherwell Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was an American abstract expressionist painter, printmaker, and editor of ''The Dada Painters and Poets: an Anthology''. He was one of the youngest of the New York School, which also inc ...

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

, and Roy Lichtenstein. Completed in 1942 under the direction of architect Eliel Saarinen, the museum is housed in the same building as the Cranbrook Academy of Art. The museum also offers tours of Saarinen House, which has undergone painstaking restoration beginning in 1977. The remaining areas of the house were completed between 1988 and 1994. The museum is accredited by the

American Alliance of Museums American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

. Sculptor Carl Milles' numerous works in Metro Detroit include those at Cranbrook Educational Community, such as ''Mermaids & Tritons Fountain'' (1930), ''Sven Hedin on a Camel'' (1932), ''Jonah and the Whale Fountain'' (1932), ''Orpheus Fountain'' (1936), and ''Spirit of Transportation'' (1952), currently in Cobo Center. In 2009, the museum closed for renovation and expansion, reopening in November 2011. The project restored aspects of the original building designed by Saarinen, made necessary structural repairs, replaced windows, and upgraded mechanical systems. The renovated museum features year-round, changing exhibitions and a new Collections and Education Wing—an additional of storage and classroom space open to visitors by guided tour. Based on an open storage plan, the new wing allows the museum's entire collection to be seen.

Cranbrook Institute of Science

The Cranbrook Institute of Science includes a permanent collection of scientific artifacts, as well as displays of annual temporary exhibits. It also features a planetarium and a powerful

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observ ...

through which visitors may peer on selected nights. The museum grounds feature a life-sized statue of a ''

Stegosaurus ''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been fou ...

''. From 1946 to 1970, the institute awarded the

Mary Soper Pope Medal The Mary Soper Pope Memorial Award, informally known as the Mary Soper Pope Medal, was awarded by the Cranbrook Institute of Science of Detroit, Michigan, for notable achievement in plant sciences. It was inaugurated in 1946, and the last award wa ...

for notable achievement in

plant sciences Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

."Cranbrook Institute of Science Director's Papers"
Cranbrook Community. Retrieved Dec. 27, 2016.

Cranbrook House and Gardens

Cranbrook House and Gardens are the centerpiece of the Cranbrook Educational Community campus. The 1908 English Arts and Crafts-style house was designed by Albert Kahn for Cranbrook founders George Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth. Ten first-floor rooms can be seen on guided tours; the rooms contain

tapestries Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

, hand-carved

woodworking Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making (cabinetry and furniture), wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. History Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first mate ...

, and English antiques in the Arts and Crafts style. The upper floors are used for the executive offices of the Cranbrook Educational Community. Originally designed by George Booth, the gardens include a sunken garden,

formal gardens Garden design is the art and process of designing and creating plans for layout and planting of gardens and landscapes. Garden design may be done by the garden owner themselves, or by professionals of varying levels of experience and expertise. ...

, a

bog garden A bog garden is a type of garden that employs permanently moist (but not waterlogged) soil to create a habitat for plants and creatures which thrive in such conditions. It may exploit existing poor drainage in the garden, or it may be artificiall ...

, a

herb garden The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...

, a wildflower garden, a

Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desi ...

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

, fountains, specimen trees, and a lake. Leonard Bernstein recalled composing portions of his Symphony No. 2, ''The Age of Anxiety'', on the Cranbrook House Steinway concert grand piano while residing there in April 1946.Your Gateway to Cranbrook
Cranbook Community. Accessed March 22, 2019. Bernstein had come to Detroit at the request of Zoltan Sepeshy to conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at Music Hall. While visiting, he requested studio space where he could compose, and Sepeshy had the piano moved from Cranbrook House into St. Dunstan's Playhouse. The house and gardens are open to the public from May through October.

St. Dunstan's Playhouse

St. Dunstan's Playhouse, while not formally a part of the Cranbrook Educational Community, is located on the Cranbrook grounds near the Cranbrook House. The Playhouse, a 206-seat theater, houses the St. Dunstan's Theatre Guild of Cranbrook. The guild was founded in 1932 by Henry Scripps Booth, the son of Cranbrook's founders George and Ellen Booth. In the summer months, the St. Dunstan's Theatre Guild performs in the outdoor

Greek Theatre Ancient Greek theatre was a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece from 700 BC. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and religious place during this period, was its centre, where the theatre was ...

adjacent to the Cranbrook House. The theater was restored in 1990–1991.

Historic landmark

Fourteen buildings making up the Cranbrook complex were added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1973 and were further designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989, cited as being "one of the most important groups of educational and architectural structures in America". . The contributing buildings are: # Brookside School Cranbrook # Buildings & Grounds Offices # Christ Church, Cranbrook # Cranbrook Academy of Art # Cranbrook Foundation Office # Cranbrook House & Gardens # Cranbrook Institute of Science # Cranbrook School # Cranbrook School Auditorium # Edison House # Faculty Housing # Greek Theater at St. Dunstan's # Kingswood School Cranbrook # Visitors Entrance

References

External links

Official website

Historical Context Timeline of the Cranbrook Educational Community

''Design in America : the Cranbrook vision, 1925-1950''
from The Metropolitan Museum of Art {{Authority control 1922 establishments in Michigan Architecture schools in Michigan Art schools in Michigan Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Botanical gardens in Michigan {{Commons cat, Botanical gardens in Michigan Michigan Botanical gardens A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''bot ...

Buildings and structures in Oakland County, Michigan Buildings designed by Eliel Saarinen Education in Oakland County, Michigan Educational institutions established in 1922 Graphic design schools in the United States Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Houses in Oakland County, Michigan Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums National Historic Landmarks in Metro Detroit National Register of Historic Places in Oakland County, Michigan Tourist attractions in Metro Detroit Tourist attractions in Oakland County, Michigan Anthropology museums in the United States

Art museums and galleries in Michigan Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by ar ...

Dinosaur museums in the United States Geology museums in the United States Paleontology in Michigan Planetaria in the United States