history slide test

Celebrating the Academy

In 1973 Cranbrook Educational Community was formed, merging five autonomous institutions (Cranbrook School, Kingswood School Cranbrook, Brookside School, Cranbrook Institute of Science, and Cranbrook Academy of Art) into one centralized non-profit institution under the administration of a Board of Trustees. In 1977, the Academy’s Board of Governors invited Roy Slade to become the president of the Academy and director of the Art Museum, and under his leadership the Cranbrook Academy of Art Galleries became Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum. Exhibitions increasingly turned their focus to the history, faculty, and students of the Academy of Art, as did the collecting program. The permanent collection, which was named “The Cranbrook Collection,” was launched with a new permanent installation in the Lower Galleries in 1978, and was redefined as representing artists, architects, and designers who had studied or taught at the Academy.