Cranbrook Art Museum’s "Labyrinth/Laboratory" Featured by American Craft Council
Cranbrook Art Museum’s Labyrinth/Laboratory: Selections from the Cranbrook Collection is highlighted by the American Craft Council as a vivid reflection of Cranbrook Academy of Art’s ongoing impact across disciplines. The exhibition brings together more than 40 works from the museum’s collection—including many recent acquisitions—created by Academy alumni and Artists-in-Residence from the 1970s to the present.
Conceived as a maze-like environment, Labyrinth/Laboratory invites visitors to navigate the galleries as artists do at the Academy: through self-directed exploration and unexpected connections. Works are intentionally installed across media rather than grouped by discipline, emphasizing the cross-pollination that defines the Academy’s educational model. Ceramics, fiber, metalsmithing, photography, painting, printmaking, design, and sculpture are all represented, underscoring a culture where material boundaries are fluid and dialogue between practices is central.
As the American Craft Council notes, the exhibition positions Cranbrook Art Museum as a key steward of the Academy’s legacy—its sister institution and the primary repository of its artists’ work. At the same time, Labyrinth/Laboratory looks forward, presenting contemporary voices alongside established figures and affirming the Academy as an active site of experimentation, inquiry, and evolving artistic practice.
On view now with no scheduled closing date, the exhibition offers an ongoing opportunity to experience the breadth of the Academy’s creative community through the museum’s growing Cranbrook Collection.
Learn more:
A New Exhibition Takes Cranbrook Visitors Into the Labyrinth – American Craft Council
Labyrinth/Laboratory: Selections from the Cranbrook Collection – Cranbrook Art Museum
