Design Day

Join us for Design Day at Cranbrook Art Museum presented in partnership with Detroit Month of Design! Activities include hands-on artmaking for all ages, curator-led tours of the exhibitions A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century Design and A Modernist Regime: The Contemporary Cuban Lens and a discussion on graphic design; Cuban Poster Art and the Spirit of Revolution. 

11am-2pm Drop in Zine Making Workshop  

Learn about the art of the zine and make your own!

1:00-2:00pm Curator Led Tours  

Co-Curators Andrew Blauvelt, Director Cranbrook Art Museum, Laura Mott, Chief Curator, Cranbrook Art Museum, and Abel González Fernández will be stationed in the galleries to discuss the Cuban Modern Collection, The OSPAAAL Poster Collection and contemporary works in Cuba Dispersa.  

2:30-4:00pm  Panel Discussion: Cuban Poster Art and the Spirit of Revolution 

This discussion begins with a presentation by scholar Lincoln Cushing who will examine the unique features of postrevolutionary Cuban poster art and the impact they had – and continue to have – in international social justice graphics, followed by a conversation with Juan Carlos Rodriguez Rivera, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design; and Danielle Aubert, Associate Professor of Graphic Design both at Wayne State University and Andrew Blauvelt, Co-Curator A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century Design and Director, Cranbrook Art Museum. 

REGISTER FOR THE EVENT HERE

Panelist Bios:

Lincoln Cushing teaches “Archiving as Social Justice Practice” at U.C. Berkeley and documents, catalogs, and disseminates oppositional political graphics of the late 20th century. His books include Revolucion! Cuban Poster Art, Visions of Peace & Justice: Political Posters from Inkworks Press, and Agitate! Educate! Organize! – American Labor Posters. He was curator for the All Of Us Or None — Poster Art of the San Francisco Bay Area exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California and continues to catalog the collection. His research and publishing projects can be seen at Docs Populi – Documents for the Public [link: www.docspopuli.org].  

Danielle Aubert is a graphic designer whose work examines materials, methods of production, machines and labor. She is the author of The Detroit Printing Co-op: The Politics of the Joy of Printing (2019: Inventory Press), Marking the Dispossessed (2015: Passenger Books), and 16 Months Worth of Drawings in Microsoft Excel (2006: Various Projects). She is co-author, with Lana Cavar and Natasha Chandani, of Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies (2012: Metropolis Books). She is a Professor of Graphic Design at Wayne State University, in Detroit. In 2021 she was elected President of AAUP-AFT Local 6075, the union of faculty and academic staff at Wayne State. From 2013-15 she was a Fellow in the Creative and Performing Art at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University. She is a 2021 recipient of a $25,000 Kresge Award. Aubert holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Virginia and an MFA in graphic design from Yale University. She practiced graphic design in New York and Moscow before returning to graduate school. In 2005 she moved to Detroit, where she started her own practice before joining the department of Art and Art History at Wayne State University in 2008. 

Juan Carlos is an artist, designer, and educator, passionate about food, lover of ephemeral objects, gradients, and anything deemed as kitsch. He was born and raised in Cataño, the smallest town in Puerto Rico. His goal is to contribute new imaginaries for the Caribbean that cultivate people’s agency in creating their own realities. His work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation Bridging the Divides Fellowship. As a fellow, he is working on a collaborative research publication exploring questions of decolonization in the Puerto Rican context. Juan Carlos holds an MFA in Communications Design from Pratt Institute in New York and obtained a BFA from Miami International University of Art & Design. In 2019, he engaged in a yearlong process of inquiry, dialogue, and project generation as a political fellow at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA). Additionally, he has participated in exhibitions and initiatives at Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SFMOMA, and the Dialogo Global: Decolonizing Knowledge and Power School in Barcelona.