February and March

Our return to Cranbrook from Vegas meant it was time to buckle down and get back to our schedule of weekly critiques and seminar discussions about professional practices. While the second year students were developing their work for the degree show first year students were preparing for second semester reviews. The reviews happened the week of February 15 and were the first major Academy goal for the first year students. Each presented their work and had discussions with four artists-in-residence during the span of one day. While the reviews are an opportunity to asses academic progress it is also a chance for the students to get information from people outside of their department which always leads to new developments in their studio work.

Soon after reviews we hosted Shannon Stratton, independent curator, critic, and the Director and Curator of Three-Walls a residency program and gallery in Chicago. Shannon lectured about Gestures of Resistance, an exhibition she co-curated with Judith Leeman. The show had opened in January at the Museum for Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon. She also met individually with all of the students in the Fiber Department for critiques. Everyone was challenged and energized by her lecture and critiques.

Catching up - the return to school in January

School began in January with a department trip to Las Vegas during the second week of class. We had plans to see the Liberace Museum, Heizer's Double Negative, the art at the new City Center development and the exhibition at the Bellagio that accompanied that, the Neon Museum sign bone-yard, meet with the grads and faculty at UNLV, and meet with the head of the Arts Office for the City of Las Vegas, amongst other things. It was a great trip that allowed us to see how large public and privately commissioned projects are developed as well as questioning the relationships between, art, design, entertainment, and spectacle.

Tarissa Tiberti from the Bellagio and a Cranbrook alum from sculpture gave a great presentation about the art in the City Center development and the way that project grew. Above a photo from the show at the Bellagio and below is the Jenny Holzer piece in City Center.


Emily Kennerk a Cranbrook sculpture alum is the head of Sculpture at UNLV and she arranged a dinner event for us at their grad studios. It was a great opportunity for the two groups of students to discuss ideas and, the nature of grad school, and even plan an exchange. (this week there will be a show of work from the UNLV students at the Cranbrook Forum Gallery).
Unfortunately, Double Negative had to be canceled because it rained the most of the time we were there, which made the roads in the desert near the work dangerous.

The Neon Sign Museum was a fantastic place to visit and our tour guide Justin was excellent. We not only learned about the signs but also the history of Las Vegas.

The Liberace Museum was a wealth of embellished surfaces and fantastic costumes.

Time to Catch Up Again, Really

The lack of entries on this page in recent months should not be taken as evidence for a lack of activity on the part of the students in the department or myself. The end of the fall semester is the first hint of a very intense and active spring semester. Third semester reviews are one of the major assessments of progress for students while at Cranbrook and while they occur just before winter break, they also herald the degree show to come in April.

For the first year students we ended the semester with critiques of their work and research presentations. Their presentations were to address a show they would curate using any artists living or dead, to form a group show based on a theme of interest to them. Each semester there are research assignments that are intended to help compliment studio activity and prepare people for their thesis document.

Photo from a critique in Heidi's studio.


And as the top picture indicates we have some fun. Our holiday picture was taken after our pre-clean-up holiday brunch at the end of the first semester. There had been an incident with the stove and some bacon that triggered our image theme!