Cranbrook Academy of Art

History & Fun Facts

• •In a series of letters during 1925, Booth and Saarinen planned a multi-tiered educational community comprising a church, a primary school, secondary schools for boys and girls, and an art academy.
• •The school was first headed by Saarinen, who integrated design practices and theories from the Arts and Crafts movement through the international style.
• •By 1931, artists and craftsmen were already living at Cranbrook, some of them having moved across the world to be there.
• •Beginning in 1983, a major exhibition of works by Cranbrook's faculty and graduates, Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision 1925–1950, toured major museums in the United States and Europe.
• •In 1984, The New York Times wrote that "the effect of Cranbrook and its graduates and faculty on the physical environment of this country has been profound ...