Graduation day: Cranbrook Academy term closes with showcase of high caliber student art & design

This is no ordinary student art show. Year after year, Cranbrook Academy of Art produces some of the country's strongest fine artists, photographers, designers, sculptors, printmakers and other creative workers.

Established in 1932, the Academy of Art's Graduate Program remains a "living studio of artistic invention" as envisioned by its founder, newspaper publisher and philanthropist George Booth. The prestigious two-year Graduate Program includes approximately 150 students working with 10 artists-in-residence, each of whom heads one of the academy's 10 departments: Architecture, Ceramics, 2D Design, 3D Design, Fiber, Metalsmithing, Painting, Photography, Print Media and Sculpture.

Each spring, as part of the requirements for earning either a Master of Fine Arts or Master of Architecture degree, the second-year Master's degree candidates present their thesis work in the annual Graduate Degree Exhibition.

The closing party for the exhibition is this Thursday (May 8), 6-10 p.m., with a scholarship presentations to take place at 7:30 p.m. in deSalle Auditorium in the basement of the Cranbrook Art Museum.