MillerKnoll Welcomes its Inaugural Curatorial Fellow to Cranbrook Art Museum
MillerKnoll, the global modern design collective, today announced their sponsorship of a curatorial research fellowship program at Cranbrook Art Museum. Continuing the Company’s dedication to cultivating the next generation of inclusive designers, the first fellow in this new program has been chosen and will begin their three-year assignment assessing and reassessing the contributions of key figures and the evolution what many now call midcentury modernism. The Fellow will work closely with Cranbrook Art Museum Director Andrew Blauvelt, Chief Curator Laura Mott, and archivists at MillerKnoll.
This full-time, on-site fellowship program will culminate with an exhibition and publication of findings, enhancing the world’s understanding of midcentury modernism’s development and scope. The fellowship program is the next chapter in MillerKnoll’s commitment to create a more inclusive pipeline of opportunity within the design community.
“The stories of Herman Miller and Knoll have been connected since the 1930s when foundational designers Florence Knoll, Ray and Charles Eames, Eero Saarinen, and Harry Bertoia met at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Supporting the next generation of curators, designers and art historians is core to MillerKnoll’s values and principles and we’re proud to return to our MillerKnoll roots, partnering with Cranbrook Art Museum to offer this fellowship opportunity,” said Amy Auscherman, Director, Archives and Brand Heritage at MillerKnoll.
The first fellow is Bridget Bartal, a recent graduate of Bard Graduate Center (BGC) in Manhattan where she received a Master of Arts in Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture. At the BGC, her research primarily centered on 20th-century design and architectural histories, and her qualifying paper explored the social history of women’s emergence into the field of architecture during the early 1930s. She has also conducted research on twentieth-century Cuban design, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin line of textiles, and has previously worked at R & Company, New York.
“We are delighted to welcome our first MillerKnoll Curatorial Research Fellow to our historic campus. Programs like these provide a rich, foundational opportunity both for the next generation of architectural and design students, and for the greater design community,” said Andrew Blauvelt, Director of Cranbrook Art Museum. “With special access to the MillerKnoll collections, as well as daily collaboration and support from our Cranbrook curatorial team, we are excited to see what our Fellow will discover and share.”
The program is managed by Cranbrook Art Museum in partnership with MillerKnoll.
About MillerKnoll
MillerKnoll is a collective of dynamic brands that comes together to design the world we live in. MillerKnoll brand portfolio includes Herman Miller, Knoll, Colebrook Bosson Saunders, DatesWeiser, Design Within Reach, Edelman Leather, Fully, Geiger, HAY, Holly Hunt, KnollTextiles, Maars Living Walls, Maharam, Muuto, NaughtOne, and Spinneybeck|FilzFelt. MillerKnoll is an unparalleled platform that redefines modern for the 21st century by building a more sustainable, equitable and beautiful future for all.
About Cranbrook Art Museum
Cranbrook Art Museum is a leading venue for the presentation of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art, craft, architecture, and design. The Art Museum is located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of metropolitan Detroit, on the beautiful 300-plus-acre historic landmark campus of the Cranbrook Educational Community. Dating from 1930, the Art Museum is among the first museums of contemporary art in the United States. Today, the Art Museum serves a broad community across the Detroit metro area and Southeastern Michigan with a robust program of rotating temporary exhibitions and displays of works from its permanent collection. Since 2015, the Art Museum has organized annual engagements at a variety of scales with cultural and community partners in Detroit. The Art Museum’s sister institution is Cranbrook Academy of Art, a renowned graduate school of art, architecture, craft, and design, which played an important role in the development of midcentury modernism. The museum’s collection of more than 7,500 works contains a special focus on the significant achievements of the graduates and faculty of the Academy and of the work of Detroit-based artists. Since 2011, the collections are housed in a unique, state-of-the-art handling and storage facility, which contains curated displays and is available for guided public tours.
