Cranbrook

The House

Cranbrook House, Bloomfield, Michigan, as we saw it yesterday. It was built in 1905.

Cranbrook House was the home of George and Ellen Booth. They were heirs to the Scripps family fortune, which mainly came from the national newspaper chain, and they actively participated in managing and enlarging the Scripps newspapers. Ellen’s family had founded the papers in the 19th century, and they remain a major force in journalism today.

The house is an Arts and Crafts-style masterpiece designed by the well-known architect Albert Kahn, and furnished and embellished with works by local Detroit artists and craftsmen, as well as by imported objects, tapestries, paintings, and sculptures.By zillionaire standards, this is a modest house, neither very large nor very opulent. Here are some photos that I took while touring the house:

The Gardens

The house stands on a large tract of land, which includes many gardens. Several institutions, especially a private school and an art school, also stand on the estate.

Cranbrook Academy and Art Museum

The complex of buildings and gardens includes an art museum and a school. On our visit yesterday, we visited only a smll part of the estate. While we didn’t go into the museum we did enjoy seeing the fountain with a set of sculptures by the sculptor Carl Milles, as I mentioned yesterday.

Photos © 2026 mae sander

Statues at Cranbrook Inst.

The Ann Arbor Art Fair

Art and People

Evelyn and Miriam at the ceramic fish artists’ booth. The family is spending the weekend here,
partly to visit the Art Fair.

Two of the ceramic fish.

Skin art (we saw lots of this)!

After over a 24 hour delay, thanks to the airline chaos this weekend, Alice is here in time for the end of the Fair.

Food at the Art Fair

Friday: a black bean burger. Saturday: candy-coated nuts.

At the Carl Milles Fountain

The beautiful Carl Milles Fountain is always surrounded by Art Fair goers and food stalls.

Appreciating the fountain.

Ibrahim, the Vendor of African Art

As we often have done in the past, we found Ibrahim, who deals in African tribal art.
He usually finds a place to set up (unofficially) but this year he was disallowed,
so he only spent a few hours selling from the back of his van.

Some of Ibrahim’s selection of masks: not the one we bought.

In the center of our mantlepiece: the sculpture we bought this year.
The other two sculptures are from earlier years at Ibrahim’s stall.

Saturday Night Dinner

Blog post and all photos © 2024 mae sander

Shared with Deb’s  Sunday Salon.

Saint Louis Highlights

 

The Saint Louis Art Museum and the iconic statue “The Spirit of Saint Louis.”

This statue of King Louis of France, for whom Saint Louis was named, is a symbol of the city.

The Missouri Botanical Gardens contain fantastic plant life and also art works. In this photo you can see some of the
statues by sculptor Carl Milles, glass “onions” by Dale Chihuley, and the famous Climatron, a geodesic
dome invented by Buckminster Fuller.

Inside the Climatron, more Chihuly creations among the tropical plants.

We plan to drive back from St. Louis to Michigan tomorrow, and I’ll organize more photos and write about the gardens and the museum. The purpose of our trip was to visit family, which we’ve been doing during all three days of our visit here.

Light and Shadows

 A Walk near the Huron River

A Walk on the University of Michigan Campus

Burton Tower.

One group of figures from the fountain created by Carl Milles, “Sunday Morning in Deep Waters” (1940)
The water has been drained for the winter season.

This fountain is my favorite local work of art.

The fountain in summer during the Ann Arbor Art Fair, 2019.

A cupola above the Engineering Arch at the University of Michigan, no longer dominates
the skyline as a new high-rise apartment building is under construction nearby.

Photos © 2023 mae sander