Cranbrook Educational Community – Director of Schools – Position Statement 2
THE SETTING
A commitment to innovation and design, coupled with an abiding love for aesthetics and education, inspired George Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth to found Cranbrook in 1904. Their vision created a 319 acre campus that is now a National Historic Landmark and includes the Cranbrook Schools, the Institute of Science, the Cranbrook Academy of Art and the Cranbrook Art Museum. Each is renowned on its own merits and the collective entity is unrivaled as a center of integrated learning. From the point of view of generations of students, the glorious campus itself has been described as Cranbrook’ s“ longest-serving teacher, a real and integral part of the curriculum. It boasts resources unequaled by any preparatory school environment in the world.”
Capitalizing on the natural beauty of the place, the five campuses that comprise the Schools are rich with history and reflect the devotion to architectural style that is evident throughout the Community. Each campus speaks to the developmental needs of the children it serves. From the cozy confines of Brookside School for the youngest students, to the gender-specific Cranbrook Kingswood Middle School campuses, to the architecturally diverse boarding campuses of the Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School, everything about the educational institution is
aesthetically and programmatically well thought-out and beautifully executed. The sum of the parts is breathtaking, described in the New York Times Magazine as“ one of the greatest campuses ever created in the world.”
Located in the picturesque community of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Cranbrook is about 45 minutes from the resurging city of Detroit to its south and the dynamic university community of Ann Arbor to the west, putting Cranbrook right in the middle of two world capitals – one of industry, the other of academia. The area offers a remarkable array of opportunities for visitors and residents alike, including fourteen museums and cultural centers; symphony, opera, jazz and arts festivals; professional sports teams in baseball, football, hockey, and basketball; and more theater seats than any city east of the Mississippi other than New York. The area benefits from a true“ four seasons” climate and the state of Michigan enjoys a glorious natural landscape, especially the vast Great Lakes shoreline that gives it the nickname, The Third Coast.