Collaboration at Cranbrook

The intimate size and nature of the Academy and campus helps foster a sense of community and active dialogue between departments within the Academy and projects that connect us to the other parts of the educational community(as evident in the two prior posts). On occasion students discover similar concerns and goals with students from other departments and set about to make work together. Last month Tricia Stackle (Fiber) and Andrew Kline (Architecture) began such a venture that resulted in a large scale project being installed temporarily on the campus. Below are a couple of photos of their nest made of red hand made felt.


To see more images you can check out Andrew's website:

http://web.me.com/andrewkline/Andrew_Kline.com/Work/Pages/Nest.html

Insert Color Here

On November 20 the Fiber Department opened a show of work at the Kingswood Gallery on the Cranbrook campus. The show, "Insert Color Here," is part of the exchange between the Academy Fiber Department and the Weaving Studio at Kingswood mentioned in the earlier post about workshops the Academy students are teaching.
Here are some photos from the opening.

Workshops at Kingswood

One of the exciting elements of working at Cranbrook is the history of textile work evident in the surroundings. At the girl's high school on campus - Kingswood- there is a weaving studio with approximately 65 looms and a full time artist in residence- Lynn Bennett-Carpenter- teaching weaving as well as other fiber processes. Lynn proposed that the students in the Academy Fiber Department have a show of their work in Kingswood's gallery in exchange the Academy students would provide workshops to the Kingswood students. Earlier this semester my students made proposals to Lynn for workshops and Lynn chose several technical workshops and individual lecturers to present to the Kingswood students. The first workshop happened at the end of October and was presented by Casey Droege and Amy DiPlacido. It introduced the students to silk screen printing and sewing as tools to transform the common t-shirt. Here are some photos from Amy and Casey's workshop.




Rosemary Dardick presented a workshop on embroidery and Mary Smull lectured earlier this month. Next semester Megan Heeres has a sewing workshop scheduled and Rose Pink, Emily Nachison, and Tricia Stackle are slated to co-teach a felting workshop.

A Visit From Amy Honchell

We were lucky to have Amy Honchell pay the Fiber Department a visit for a few days in October. Amy is an artist and teacher based in Chicago at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She creates site-specific installations using stretch fabric, found objects and sound and has exhibited in many venues around the country. She spent two full days in the department giving individual critiques and candid advice about being an installation artist out in the "real world". She was extremely honest and approachable with a great sense of humor about life, art and herself. She provided us with thoughtful insight into our work, materials and processes. Amy also gave an artist talk in the Media Center at Cranbrook to the Fiber Department, as well as students from Sculpture, Architecture, and Print Media. We then hosted a dinner for her and her husband in the department. It was a casual evening in which we shared stories and experiences about a life in the arts. Amy wrapped up her visit with a question and answer session in which she encouraged us to continually pursue opportunities for showing and teaching. Having graduated with an MFA relatively recently, she offered very useful, pertinent advice. Amy was generous with all of her insight into and knowledge of her own practice, as well as our own individual artistic practices. 

Almost everyone before Fanfare

As the headline says, here is a photo of most of the department just before Fanfare. Fanfare is an annual fundraising event at the Academy. Patrons visit each of the normally private studios at the Academy, speak with the students, and eat dinner with the Artist in residence and second year students from the department.

They are seated front: JaYoung Yoon. Standing first row left to right: Derya Hanife Altan, Mary Smull, Amy Diplacido. And the back row: Tricia Stackle, Ema Ishii, Souk Jin Park, Rose Pink, Megan Heeres, Rosemary Dardick, Corrie Baldauf, and Casey Droege. Missing are Emily Nachison and Ashley Allen Short.

Berlin in October

As I mentioned in my last post, many things have been happening in and out of the studio. One of the most exciting developments of October was the opportunity for me to travel to Berlin for the opening reception of Forwards 08, and exhibition at Daimler Contemporary. Daimler Contemporary is the gallery run by Daimler Financial, one of Cranbrook's major benefactors, and the sponsors of the annual Emerging Artist Award. In May Annica Cuppetelli was chosen as the winner of the Emerging Artist Award. Annica was a student in the Fiber Department starting with Jane Lackey and then working with me last year.

On October 10 I was in Berlin to introduce Annica at the opening and represent Cranbrook at the ceremony. The show which looked fantastic, included several of Annica's work. She will be in Berlin for a couple of months with the support of Daimler, researching fashion in the city. You can see more about the show, Annica, and Daimler Contemporary at:

http://www.sammlung.daimlerchrysler.com/contemporary/08_09_forwards08/forwards08_index_emergingartist_e.htm

Catching Up

As befits the beginning of the semester a great deal has been going on in and outside of the studios. The last post, provided by T.A. and second year student, Meg Heeres, includes images from the first round of critiques in the Fiber Department. These critiques happened after two weeks of school and in them we addressed the works in progress each student had developed in that brief time. We moved through the students in 30 minute intervals, discussing the artist's intentions, results, and possible directions of growth for the work.

I required that the works be in process in order to get people working, and because I feel strongly that everyone needs to have strong research and development skills for their work. Sharing that process allows each member of the group to understand how their colleagues think through their work and hopefully develop strong lines of communication in the department. As you can see from the informal photos in the previous post the work is in a broad range of states and approaches diverse concepts.

Some of the other activities keeping us busy include seminar discussions in response to readings about the responsibility of the artist in society. These readings were also linked to discussions that have been taking place Academy wide due to the new format for our annual Artist in Residence (AIRs) talks. In those talks, three or four AIRs presented short talks - 20 minutes- about the thinking behind their work. Reed Kroloff then moderated a discussion between the AIRs and students. These discussions focused primarily on the relationship between artists, designers and the larger society. These lively and contentious discussions led to even further discussions in our department and led to a day of conversation in seminar.

Now we are into our second round of critiques, each approximately an hour long. In this round one student writes and presents a review of the work being presented by another student. In another entry we will share reviews and photos of the work with you.