Cranbrook Art Museum

Join&nbsp;Cranbrook Academy of Art at deSalle Auditorium for the Knoll Lecture in Design delivered by Nifemi Marcus-Bello.Nifemi Marcus-Bello’s Knoll Lecture in Design, Material Affirmations, will explore material affirmations as acts of care, agency, and transformation; revealing how materials shape meaning, memory, and identity. Through an iterative, inquiry-based design practice, it examines making as dialogue, embracing tactility, imperfection, and embodied knowledge to cultivate more attentive, ethical, and materially engaged ways of creating.The Knoll Lecture in Design was established in 2004 by Knoll, the residential furnishings company founded by Cranbrook Academy of Art graduate Florence Schust and her husband, Hans Knoll. Each year, the endowed Knoll Lecture Fund brings the world’s most distinguished and innovative designers and thinkers to the Cranbrook campus to speak about their practice and to work with tomorrow’s design leaders studying at the Academy. Past speakers have included Steven Haulenbeek, Aldo Bakker, Martino Gamper, Bertjan Pot, Lindsey Adelman, Stefano Caggiano, and many others.

Local Event: The Knoll Lecture in Design: Nifemi Marcus-Bello

Oakland County

Bloomfield-Bloomfield Hills

Michigan

The Knoll Lecture in Design: Nifemi Marcus-Bello

Join Cranbrook Academy of Art at deSalle Auditorium for the Knoll Lecture in Design delivered by Nifemi Marcus-Bello.Nifemi...

Join Cranbrook&nbsp;Academy of Art at deSalle Auditorium for the 2026 Swanson Lecture, delivered by community designer and educator Joseph Kunkel, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation. Kunkel is focused on sustainable development practices for Indigenous communities.
Kunkel’s lecture, Land Back – Design Forward, reframes the Land Back movement beyond questions of ownership, property, or acknowledgment. For Indigenous peoples, connection to land has always been defined through relationships—relationships of stewardship, responsibility, and reciprocity that have guided communities for millennia. Yet contemporary systems shaping our built environment have rarely recognized these ways of relating to land. Through examples, his lecture will explore architecture, planning, and design approaches that begin to unravel these deeper relationships, moving beyond development toward practices that support cultural continuity, ecological stewardship, and community resilience.

Local Event: Swanson Lecture: Joseph Kunkel

Swanson Lecture: Joseph Kunkel

Join Cranbrook Academy of Art at deSalle Auditorium for the 2026 Swanson Lecture, delivered by community designer and educator...

Each summer, visitors to Cranbrook Art Museum can experience a “hole” new dimension of the historic campus with our miniature golf course, inspired by the art and design of Cranbrook.Join us Saturday, May 9, and Sunday, May 10 from 10am–5pm to celebrate Mother's Day with free Cranbrook on the Green Mini-Golf for mom/one special adult in your life!To receive the complimentary ticket, please purchase all tickets for your group on-site.

Local Event: Mother's Day Mini-Golf Weekend

Mother's Day Mini-Golf Weekend

Each summer, visitors to Cranbrook Art Museum can experience a “hole” new dimension of the historic campus with our miniature...

Each summer, visitors to Cranbrook Art Museum can experience a “hole” new dimension of the historic campus with our miniature golf course, inspired by the art and design of Cranbrook.Join us Saturday, June 20, and Sunday, June 21 from 10am–5pm to celebrate Father's Day with free Cranbrook on the Green Mini-Golf for dad/one special adult in your life!To receive the complimentary ticket, please purchase all tickets for your group on-site

Local Event: Father's Day Mini-Golf Weekend

Father's Day Mini-Golf Weekend

Poolside Performances&nbsp;are an exploration of experimental music, movement, and mark-making.&nbsp;Witness a dynamic poolside performance with Detroit Dance Collective and celebrate the expressive power of dance. Audiences will experience innovative performances of contemporary and improvisational styles, accompanied by Marco Schirripa’s live percussion. This special event celebrates former DDC company member Kay Rediers and her lasting legacy as Director of Dance at Cranbrook Schools.&nbsp;
Detroit Dance Collective (DDC) is a professional contemporary dance company celebrating 46 years of creating powerful choreography that heightens human expression. As Detroit’s longest-running professional dance company, DDC believes in the expressive power of dance as a transformative force that reflects significant social issues and human expression. DDC’s legacy and life-affirming work voices the personal thoughts and feelings of our artists and our community. Through performances and community programs, they explore the intellectual, emotional, and physical dimensions of dance to create Art that Matters.&nbsp; 
DDC was formed in 1980 by Sue Ellen Dar, Paula Kramer, Barbara Selinger, and Anita Surma, four women graduates who earned degrees in dance and dance education from Wayne State University. Over the years, DDC performed and taught in numerous schools and communities, and produced concerts in theaters, schools, museums, galleries, and alternative spaces throughout Michigan and beyond. The company continues to explore, discover, and bring communities together to share the arts as a vital element of the human condition. 
Poolside Performances take place rain or shine and are free and open to the public with RSVP. Cash bar will be available throughout the evening.

Local Event: Poolside Performance with Detroit Dance Collective

Poolside Performance with Detroit Dance Collective

Poolside Performances are an exploration of experimental music, movement, and mark-making. Witness a dynamic poolside...

Poolside Performances are an exploration of experimental music, movement, and mark-making. Join us for a summer evening with Allen Dennard Trio. 
Allen Dennard is a trumpeter, composer, recording artist, bandleader, and activist who was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of 9, Allen joined his elementary school’s band at John Trix Elementary. From then on, he never put the trumpet down. Following his passion for instrumental music, he received a Bachelor’s of Jazz Studies from the University of Michigan.
Dennard has released three recorded projects as a band leader in his musical career thus far. He released his debut project, “Stepping In,” in 2018, his debut album, “Flashback,” in 2022, and his latest release, “Black Valley,” in 2025. Dennard has been nominated for the Detroit Music Awards and has released music with the record label Motor City Wine.
Dennard has made five appearances as a sideman in the Detroit Jazz Festival: Wendell Harrison (2015), Detroit bassist Ali Bey (2017), the Detroit Jazz Festival All-Star Alumni Band (2019), David McMurray (2020), and the Keyon Harold Big Band (2021). In 2022 and 2025, Dennard was a headliner at the Detroit Jazz Festival, showcasing his groups “The Allen Dennard Quintet” and “Allen Dennard Quartet.” All groups have been headliners in venues in Detroit and across the Midwest, including Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, Cliff Bell’s, and The Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe.
In 2025, Allen Dennard Trio was selected as an ambassador for Detroit, touring Japan with the “Detroit Jazz Festival Generations All-Star Group.” Dennard’s music mixes jazz, contemporary, house, hip-hop, and funk. He resides in Detroit; focused on developing his musical career in the local, national, and international music scene. 
Poolside Performances occur rain or shine and are free and open to the public with RSVP.&nbsp; A cash bar will be available throughout the evening.

Local Event: Poolside Performance with Allen Dennard Trio

Poolside Performance with Allen Dennard Trio

Poolside Performances are an exploration of experimental music, movement, and mark-making. Join us for a summer evening with...

Monumental Color: Cecily Brown, Sam Gilliam, and Joan Mitchell brings&nbsp;together significant artworks by three quintessential&nbsp;abstract artists. Through the performance series&nbsp;Monumental Connection, featured artists engage in dialogue with performers whose work resonates with Sam Gilliam’s love for jazz, Joan Mitchell’s lifelong connection to poetry, and the frenetic physicality of Cecily Brown’s paintings.&nbsp; Join us for an improvised group movement performance by Shua Group, mirroring the frenetic movement and emotion in Cecily Brown’s The Hunt.

Local Event: Monumental Connection: Shua Group

Monumental Connection: Shua Group

Monumental Color: Cecily Brown, Sam Gilliam, and Joan Mitchell brings together significant artworks by three...

Monumental Color: Cecily Brown, Sam Gilliam, and Joan Mitchell&nbsp;brings&nbsp;together significant artworks by three quintessential&nbsp;abstract artists.&nbsp;Through the performance series&nbsp;Monumental Connection, featured artists engage in dialogue with performers whose work resonates with Sam Gilliam’s love for jazz, Joan Mitchell’s lifelong connection to poetry, and the frenetic physicality of Cecily Brown’s paintings.As part of Monumental Connection, this poetry reading is presented in partnership with Three Fold, a local nonprofit arts journal. The evening brings together New York–based poet Eléna Rivera, whose work with Three Fold has engaged the paintings of Joan Mitchell, and Detroit-based poet Chris Tysh for a program of readings in dialogue with art and place.

Local Event: Monumental Connection: Three Fold

Monumental Connection: Three Fold

Monumental Color: Cecily Brown, Sam Gilliam, and Joan Mitchell brings together significant artworks by three...

Poolside Performances&nbsp;are an exploration of experimental music, movement, and mark-making.&nbsp;Join us for an expressive, experimental, solo set by multi-instrumentalist Leith Campbell.&nbsp; 
Leith Campbell works at the intersection of technology and creativity. She works to find new, more organic methods to express emotion using technological means, as well as using machines to interrogate humanity’s relationship to technology. From tech-mediated avant-garde composition to electro-mechanical sculpture, there are few mediums under the rubric of technology she has not intersected with her practice.
Originally an instrumentalist with an improvisational focus, she has reinvented and renewed her practice many times. Since 2017, Campbell has been exploring notions of space, perception, phenomenology, and identity, as well as developing new pedagogies synergizing technology and art. She received her Master of Arts degree in Media Arts from the University of Michigan in 2017 and her Bachelor of Music degree from Wayne State University (WSU) in 2011. In addition to teaching at WSU, she also presides over the metal fabrication department of the College for Creative Studies.
She has installed and performed works locally, nationally, and internationally, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit’s Orchestra Hall, the Power Center in Ann Arbor, End Tymes Festival in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and Electric Eclectics festival in Ontario. She is a recipient of the Culture Source Creators of Culture Grant, a 2014 Knight Foundation Arts Challenge grant, and is a 2022 Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellow. She lives in Midtown Detroit, where she continues to practice sound, music, design, and sculpture. 
Poolside Performances occur rain or shine and are free and open to the public with RSVP. A cash bar will be available throughout the evening.

Local Event: Poolside Performance with Leith Campbell

Poolside Performance with Leith Campbell

Poolside Performances are an exploration of experimental music, movement, and mark-making. Join us for an expressive,...

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Posting Activity

The Knoll Lecture in Design: Nifemi Marcus-Bello

APR

28

9:00 AM

Cranbrook Art Museum, 39221 Woodward Ave, Bloomfield Hills, MI

Swanson Lecture: Joseph Kunkel

MAY

5

6:00 PM

Cranbrook Art Museum, 39221 Woodward Ave, Bloomfield Hills, MI

Mother's Day Mini-Golf Weekend

MAY

9

10:00 AM

Cranbrook Art Museum, 39221 Woodward Ave, Bloomfield Hills, MI

Father's Day Mini-Golf Weekend

JUN

20

10:00 AM

Cranbrook Art Museum, 39221 Woodward Ave, Bloomfield Hills, MI

Poolside Performance with Detroit Dance Collective

JUN

25

6:30 PM

Cranbrook Art Museum, 39221 Woodward Ave, Bloomfield Hills, MI

Poolside Performance with Allen Dennard Trio

JUL

23

6:30 PM

Cranbrook Art Museum, 39221 Woodward Ave, Bloomfield Hills, MI

Monumental Connection: Shua Group

JUL

25

1:00 PM

Cranbrook Art Museum, 39221 Woodward Ave, Bloomfield Hills, MI

Monumental Connection: Three Fold

AUG

8

1:00 PM

Cranbrook Art Museum, 39221 Woodward Ave, Bloomfield Hills, MI

Poolside Performance with Leith Campbell

AUG

13

6:30 PM

Cranbrook Art Museum, 39221 Woodward Ave, Bloomfield Hills, MI