Cleveland Rocks

March 5-7 the department set forth on our pilgrimage to Cleveland. The mission to see art, learn about various aspects of the Cleveland art scene, and eat. We started the trip with a tour of the Museum of Contemporary Art which had a group exhibition Superlight, and a solo exhibition of Christian Wulffen's work on view. We then visited the offices of Cleveland Public Art where we learned a great deal about their programming and some great advice for approaching public art projects. Next on our itinerary was a visit to the Cleveland Institute of Art where Deborah Carlson, co-chair of the Fiber Department and Cranbrook Alum gave us a great tour of their spaces and student work. And we concluded the day with a wonderful dinner with Deborah at a local Thai restaurant.

Friday started with a tour of the textile conservation and storage labs at the Cleveland Museum of Art. In the lab they were working a Native American feather cape from the Midwest, a Great Plains beaded shirt, and some contemporary pieces. It was extremely hard to keep hands off when so close to such amazing objects. The group then went on a tour of the Progressive Insurance Company's art collection, and a visit to Melt for some more good food. After Progressive we had some free time to search for public art, rest, and walk by the lake before we enjoyed the evening.

On Saturday morning we visited SPACES a 30 year old alternative gallery for a tour of the shows and a talk about their various exhibition, residency, and community programs. We followed this with a visit to the Sculpture Center and then had to head back home.
Once back at Cranbrook we resumed seminar and critique activities. The second year students patiently waited to find out what space in the museum they would have for their degree show work, and now we are all on Spring Break.

Reviews and guests

After Jon Haddock's visit we continued our professional practices discussions focusing on contracts, budgets, and financial issues as well as grants, residencies, and jobs. The interesting thing about addressing these topics with graduate students is they already have a level of experience with some of these things so we can really discuss how to approach applying for a grant, or how to understand a contract in depth, and from a variety of personal experiences.

February 16-20 brought Second Semester Reviews. During the week all of the first year students in each of the departments meet with four of the Artists-in-Residence from the Academy. The students meet individually with the Artists-in-Residence for approximately 30 minutes and use the information from those conversations to evaluate their work and what directions they will pursue. Fiber went on the Friday of that week which made for a long and stressful week, but I think all of them would tell you the discussions were very helpful.


We were very fortunate to host St. Louis based artists, Kim Humphries and Sarah Colby on February 23. Kim is the Director of Exhibitions at Laumeier Sculpture Park and Sara works in community arts education. They presented lectures about the development of their individual work, collaborative work, and what they do in their day jobs. One of the exciting things about their lectures was the connections they revealed to ways that people in the department are working. So when they met individually with students there was a great deal of excitement.

Today we will be meeting to critique the work of two Fiber students, Ema Ishii and Mary Smull, as well as the work of two Print Media students, Carrie Ida Edinger and Terry Conrad, who are taking electives in Fiber this semester. It should be a good day.