Cranbrook Academy of Art: Courses, Admission, Cost

The Cranbrook Educational Community is an education, research, and public museum complex in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Cranbrook is eminent for its architecture in the Arts and Crafts and Art Deco styles. The Cranbrook Academy of Art, one of the country's leading graduate schools for architecture, art, and design was established by George Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth in 1932. The structures were planned and the school initially headed by Eliel Saarinen, who incorporated design practices and theories from the Arts and Crafts movement through the international style.

The legacy of the Cranbrook Academy of Art is evident in the buildings that make up its remarkable campus. The community is a 319-acre campus located just outside of Detroit, Michigan, filled with woods, lakes, streams, landscaped courtyards, and thoughtfully-constructed buildings. The community also includes a world-class art museum, a natural history museum, and a PreK-12 college preparatory school.

The Academy is comprised of 11 leading programs of graduate study encompassed by the resources and facilities to help them. Every division is driven by a full-time Artist, Designer, or Architect-in-Residence who is the sole faculty member and head of the department. Every department has an enrollment of around 15 students, who are chosen by the Artist-in-Residence. The 11 departments shape the rhythms of the Academy. From multiple points of view, every division is its own unit, with an individualized schedule of exercises, a program of guest artists and critics, travel opportunities, departmental reading and discussion groups, and other special projects. Students are full-time active individuals from their specializations, contributing, and building up the program.

The Graduate Degree Exhibition of Cranbrook Academy of Art is the culminating event for graduating Academy students. Eliel Saarinen designed the Cranbrook Art Museum which displays to the general public, the achievements and promises of a new group of architects, artists, and designers. It is visited by the whole Cranbrook people community, its benefactors, visiting critics, journalists, and collectors. Since the degree shown is available to people in general, it expects students to display work under professional and public standards. Financial aid at Cranbrook is accessible as scholarships, awards, credits, and Federal Work-Study. Some aid depends on (Need-Based Aid), while another aid is granted regardless of the financial need (Non-Need-Based Aid). The need-based guide may include institutional need-based grants, government unsubsidized and Graduate PLUS credits, and Federal Work-Study. Non-need based aid may include scholarships, fellowships, and supplemental grants.

Notable alumni and faculty of the Cranbrook Academy of Art include Harry Bertoia, Richard DeVore, Charles Eames, Ray Eames, Waylande Gregory, and Daniel Libeskind.