Cranbrook Awarded Curatorial Internship Grant

Alumni of the Cranbrook Educational Community (CEC) have helped shape the world of art, design, and architecture, and outstanding artists and staff include Florence Knoll and Ray and Charles Eames. For these reasons and more the Decorative Arts Trust is proud to partner with CEC on a Curatorial Internship Grant for 2021-2023.

CEC is a world-renowned center of art, design, education, and science located north of Detroit in Bloomfield Hills, MI. Cranbrook’s mission is to provide extraordinary education, to encourage creativity and innovation, and to value learners of all ages and backgrounds. The CEC includes Cranbrook Schools, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Cranbrook Art Museum, Cranbrook Institute of Science, and the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.

Decorative Arts Trust Curatorial Internship Grants underwrite internships for recent Masters or PhD graduates in partnership with museums and historical societies. These internships allow host organizations to hire a deserving young professional who will learn about the responsibilities and duties common to the curatorial field while working alongside a talented mentor. The Trust’s internship program seeks to provide mutually beneficial opportunities that will nurture the next generation of museum curators while providing essential staffing for the host.

Launched in 2012, the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research oversees the management and curatorial leadership of all Cranbrook’s cultural collections, archives, and historic properties—most notably Cranbrook House (the founders’ 1908 Albert Kahn-designed Arts and Crafts manor home), Saarinen House (Eliel Saarinen’s 1930 Art Deco masterwork), and Smith House (Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1950 Usonian “little gem”), as well as the renowned Arts and Crafts Cranbrook School and Saarinen’s Art Deco Kingswood School.

The Collections Fellow will work in a mentored relationship with the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research’s Director as well as with Center staff, filling a vital role curating Cranbrook’s remarkable 19th- and 20th-century collections. During the two-year position, the Fellow will prepare for publication the definitive monograph on Smith House, including its architecture, the story of the Smith family, the Thomas Church-designed landscape, and an in-depth study of its collection of decorative arts.

In addition to curatorial and preservation opportunities, the Fellow plays an integral part in public outreach and engagement, enabling them to hone important professional skills to be carried throughout their career. Past fellows’ assignments have included researching an object through its maker, its acquisition, and location on campus; researching how best to care for or who best to restore an object; conducting physical maintenance and cleaning of objects; and using objects for new displays or within educational projects. 

Look for updates about this fellowship opportunity on Cranbrook’s website and social media outlets.

The Decorative Arts Trust thanks the members and donors who make programs like the Curatorial Internship Grant and other Emerging Scholars Programs possible.