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Milestone: Kathy Willman Bids Adieu!

Katharine Willman, the Academy's Registrar and Admissions Manager for more than 30 years, has announced that she will retire in late September of this year --just after the classes of 2013 and 2014 are enrolled and comfortably settled into the academic year.  Kathy began her career in 1981 at Cranbrook as assistant to Lucille Harper in admissions and financial aid. Since her first day on campus, no less than 2,300 students have matriculated under her careful watch.  In 1994, Kathy assumed full responsibilities for the admissions and registrar's office, balancing the needs of prospective students, faculty, current students, and alumni with her own unique style and grace.  "I have been blessed with meeting exceptionally creative people every single day," she says of her Academy career. She maintains a thick file folder in her office with notes and photos from graduates "who have been so very kind to me over the years." In celebration of her service and on the occasion of her retirement, we invite all alumni to join us in wishing Kathy the best of luck and thanks for all her great humor and steady service! Notes by snail mail to the Academy marked "for Kathy's Memory Box" are welcome and will be included in a special box being compiled by the office staff (if received before September 28)!

DJ Spooky Delivers 2012 Commencement Address

The 2012 Commencement ceremonies at the Academy took place on Friday, May 11 at 2 pm in the Greek Theater under sunny skies. Composer, multimedia artist, and writer Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky "that Subliminal Kid"-- who has made music and art across a huge expanse of styles--delivered a memorable address to a gathering of more than 400 friends and families of the graduates.

Miller -- who will be the Metropolitan Museum of Art's first-ever Performing Artist in Residence this year-- asked graduates to look to the lessons of history and apply them to all of their future creative and environmental challenges.  Miller's own work is about sampling, breaking the world apart, collecting impressions/fragments, and making something new. For more information about his ongoing work in this forthcoming year, click here.

Anne Wilson Receives Distinguished Alumni Award

The Distinguished Alumni Award was conferred during the 2012 Commencement ceremony on artist Anne Wilson. The award is one of the highest honors bestowed by the Academy and recognizes graduates who have demonstrated creativity, innovation, leadership, and vision through their contributions to the practices of architecture, art, and design, as well as to Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Anne Wilson is a 1972 graduate of the Academy’s Fiber Department and a visual artist who creates sculpture, drawings, performances and video animations that explore themes of time, loss, and private and social rituals. Her work is exemplary of an artistic practice that is rooted in hands-on processes of making, forming, and creating.

Past recipients of Cranbrook Academy of Art’s Distinguished Alumni Award include Peter Bohlin (CAA ’61 Architecture) and Niels Diffrient (CAA ’54 Design).

 Academy Named Best Design School

Winning 3D Design Team at ICFF Awards Reception.

"Designs From the 2012 International Contemporary Furniture Fair"
New York Times

"The Search for Rest and Concentration"
Architects + Artisans

A group of top editors from distinguished global design magazines put their seal of approval on Cranbrook Academy of Art, which was named Best Design School at this year's annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York in early May.

This is the fourth year that the Academy's 3D Design Department has been invited by the organizers of ICFF to participate in an exhibition featuring the world's leading design schools. The Cranbrook entry — "Rest and Concentration in the Workplace" — evolved out of a sponsored student project created by Herman Miller to nurture a new generation of design talent through the exploration of emerging challenges in the workplace. For more information on the presentation and award, please visit here.
 

Andrew Blauvelt Curates Exhibition in New York

If you are in New York this summer,  you will not want to miss the exhibition “Graphic Design: Now in Production” currently running at Building 110 on Governors Island through September 3. This new exhibition features  posters, books, magazines, typography, branding and film and television graphics created since 2000. It is co-curated by Design alum Andrew Blauvelt (1988) and Ellen Lupton of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Blauvelt, who has served as Design Director at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis since 1998, is well known for curating design and architecture exhibitions and developing related public programs. Currently he provides creative leadership for the Walker’s Design Studio.

Kristin Cammermeyer's Graduation Gifts

Kristin Cammermeyer, a 2012 graduate of the Painting Department is off to an auspicious start in her "life after Cranbrook." Just two weeks ago, the brand new Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University announced that it is organizing the first-ever solo exhibition of Kristin's work. From June 21 through July 22,  the Broad will present Cammermeyer’s work in a “pop-up” museum created in Lansing’s Old Town neighborhood in the vacant former home of the Chrome Cat bar. The exhibition is in advance of the expected Fall 2012 opening of  MSU’s new Zaha Hadid-designed art museum. Also in May, Cammermeyer received the juror's pick in the New American Paintings MFA Annual, and she was the 2012 Toby Devan Lewis Award recipient at the Academy Awards ceremonies the night before Commencement. Wow!

Cranbrook for Alessi Launched in New York

The Italian home accessories manufacturer Alessi has teamed up with the Academy for a collection of alumni-designed tableware that was launched at the company's Soho NY showroom in May. The shop opened in 2006 and is designed by alum Hani Rashid ('95 Architecture).

This most recent partnership with the Academy began when Alberto Alessi visited  campus in 2009. Seeing unlimited talent and potential, Alessi asked Scott Klinker, Head of 3D Design and Iris Eichenberg, Head of Metalsmithing, to pull together a dream team of faculty, students, and alumni to develop concepts for new tabletop pieces.

Four of those designs are now being put into production and will be available in September 0f 2012. They include two designs by Metalsmithing alum Adam Shirley ('10); the Dear George banana holder by John Truex (3D Design '06); and the perforated Trellis fruit bowl by Klinker, who is also a 1996 alum of the Design Department. A blog was created by Klinker and his students that  is a digital record of the product development process at cranbrookalessi.wordpress.com.

Architecture Alumna Receives Grant for Film on Ruth Adler Schnee (CAA '46)

Ronit Eisenbach (Architecture '93) and her team were recently awarded a grant by the Graham Foundation for their film "The Radiant Sun: Designer Ruth Adler Schnee."

The film by Eisenbach explores the life and work of mid-century American designer and Academy alum Ruth Adler Schnee, who has been called a "Detroit treasure" and an "American legacy." Schnee credits her studies under Eliel Saarinen, with preparing her for a design career. With her husband Edward Schnee, she formed Adler-Schnee Associates, a design studio and store that helped bring modernism to Michigan.  Now in her late 80s, Schnee continues to work as a space planner and textile designer. Follow these links for more information on Graham Foundation and the film, click here.
 

2012 Degree Books For Sale

The 2012 Graduate Degree book is available for purchase for a limited time. Designed by 2D Design student Jesselisa Morretti, the latest issue of the Academy's annual student-produced publication is groundbreaking on a number of fronts including size, design, and in the representation of work by the class of 2012. You can purchase a copy simply by sending in a check for $41, which includes all taxes, shipping, and handling, to: Cranbrook Academy of Art, PO Box 801, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304, Attn: Grad Book/Debra Watson. (Telephone and credit card orders cannot be accommodated.)

Help Support the Projects of Fellow Alums!

Photo alum Laura Ginn ('10) has posted a call for support on Kickstarter to help fund a performance and exhibition in New York at the Allegra La Viola Gallery. The project entitled "Tomorrow We Will Feast Again on What We Eat," will be a display of photography and performance culminating in an urban hunter-gatherer feast.

RSTYWTR (pronounced "rusty water") is an artist collective of five 2012 graduates and a current student in the Architecture Department that was recently selected as one of 10 teams to compete in the 72 Hour Urban Action competition in Stuttgart, Germany (July 11th-14th, 2012). The group is seeking to raise funding for travel and materials to help them realize their dream of participating in this event on GoFundMe.com.  The 10 competing teams will be assigned a problem-solving "mission" in a particular place in Stuttgart and then given 72 hours to design and build a creative intervention in that space.
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The Academy maintains a curated page on Kickstarter and we want to include YOUR project links! Only projects created by students, alumni, and faculty will be posted. Your project will live on our page forever. Please email Kelly Kennedy at kkennedy@cranbrook.edu with your link.
 

 
For more information about
Cranbrook Academy of Art
visit www.cranbrookart.edu
or please call 248-645-3300


Ruth Adler Schnee c.1948, with her hand-printed fabric Slits and Slats,
1947 / 2000 reissue. Courtesy of Cranbrook Archives, Edward and Ruth Adler Schnee papers.