Cranbrook: Legacy of a Utopian Academy of Art

Curator Kevin Adkisson weaves the tale of Cranbrook Academy of Art’s evolution from a series of craft workshops into a center of design, architecture, and art education under the leadership of Eliel Saarinen. Opening in 1932 at a moment of seismic change in art and design, the school’s faculty included established artists such as Carl Milles and Zoltan Sepeshy, as well as younger designers like Charles Eames and Harry Bertoia. Students in this period included Florence Knoll, Harry Weese, Ray Kaiser Eames, Ralph Rapson, Gyo Obata, Ruth Adler Schnee, and Edward Bassett. The circle of artists, architects, and designers living, working, studying, and collaborating at Cranbrook in the 1930s and 1940s would go on to have illustrious careers beyond Michigan, transforming the course of American modernism. (Image: Competition drawing by Cranbrook architecture students Ralph Rapson and John Van der Meulen for their “4/16 Modular Minimal House” for Architectural Forum magazine in 1930. Drawing AD.26.06, Courtesy of Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research)