Vivian Beer Wins Ellen’s Design Challenge

Bloomfield Hills, Mich., March 8, 2016 – Last night, Vivian Beer, a 2004 graduate of Cranbrook Academy of Art’s Metalsmithing Department, was named the winner of “Ellen’s Design Challenge,” the television show currently airing on HGTV and produced by Ellen DeGeneres. Beer’s prize package includes $100,000 and a feature in HGTV Magazine.

Just last month, Beer was named the 2016 recipient of the Alumni Achievement Award at the Academy. This is the fifth time the Academy had bestowed the award, which seeks to recognize alumni who have achieved excellence early in their career.

Visit the HGTV website to see a gallery of Beer’s designs for the program. And watch Beer’s reaction to the win last night on local Manchester news station WMUR-TV.
Beer’s sleek, abstracted metal and concrete furniture combines the aesthetic sensibilities of contemporary design, craft, and sculpture to create objects that alter viewers’ expectations of and interface with the domestic landscape. With a strong foundation in contemporary furniture design, her recent research into the history of American industry, architecture, and transportation—supported in part by a 2014 Research Fellowship at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum—adds intellectual rigor and specificity to her work.

Her work is included in the collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Museum of Arts and Design and the cities of Portland, Maine and Cambridge, Massachussetts. She holds an undergraduate degree from Maine College of Art and a MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Beer has held residencies at a variety of institutions including at the Penland School of Crafts, the State University of New York at Purchase, and the San Diego State University. Visit her website for more information about her studio practice.

Congratulations, Vivian!

Media Contact:
Julie Fracker
Director of Communications
Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum
248.645.3329
jfracker@cranbrook.edu
High-resolution images available upon request