Iris Eichenberg announces departure from Cranbrook Academy of Art

BLOOMFIELD HILLS.- Cranbrook Academy of Art announced today that Iris Eichenberg, Artist-in-Residence and Head of the Metalsmithing program, will leave the Academy at the end of the 2026–2027 academic year.

Eichenberg was appointed Artist-in-Residence and Head of the Metalsmithing program in 2006. She came to Cranbrook after a decade of teaching and leading the Jewelry Department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.

During her tenure at Cranbrook, she has helped shape generations of artists working across jewelry, metalsmithing, objects, and contemporary craft.

“Iris has expanded our understanding of what metalsmithing can be and what it can become,” said Brandon Little, Maxine and Stuart Frankel Director of Cranbrook Academy of Art. “For more than two decades, she has challenged students to look closely at materials, objects, adornment, and the body—to ask questions, take risks, and find their own ways of making. Her influence on the Metalsmithing program, and on the artists who have come through Cranbrook, will continue to be shown through their work for years to come.”

Eichenberg is an internationally recognized artist whose practice expands the possibilities of jewelry and metalsmithing through an exploration of the body, identity, relationships, and everyday objects. Her work often moves between intimate and monumental forms, challenging conventional distinctions between jewelry, sculpture, and craft. Under her leadership, students have been encouraged to approach materials, objects, adornment, and the body as sites for experimentation and inquiry, developing individual practices within Cranbrook’s distinctive model of graduate studio education.

During her time at Cranbrook, Eichenberg continued an active international practice while teaching, lecturing, and mentoring artists. She is regularly invited to lecture, serve as a visiting critic, and lead workshops at art and design programs throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America.

Eichenberg is the recipient of the Susan Beech Mid-Career Artist Grant. Awarded by Art Jewelry Forum, the grant supported Iris Eichenberg: Where Words Fail Me, a mid-career retrospective presented at the Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco in 2022.

Eichenberg’s work has been recognized by numerous institutions supporting contemporary art and craft, including the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture; Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; the Herbert Hofmann Prize; the Gerrit Rietveld Academy Award; and the European Ceramic Center in Den Bosch.

Her work is held in the collections of major museums internationally, including the Cooper Hewitt, the Museum of Arts and Design, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Rijksmuseum and Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; Schmuck Museum Pforzheim; the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain in Paris; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Her work is also held in private collections and foundations, including the Françoise van der Bosch Stichting in Amsterdam and the Rotasa Foundation in California.

“Cranbrook has been my home for twenty years. When I accepted the position, I didn’t yet understand how good it would be for me. The model of this institution fit the way I work and gave my allergy to rules the room it needed at the time,” said Eichenberg. “The students became part of my network and my world. The conversations with them, and the realities and cultures they brought with them, made my world bigger and my work richer. That is what I take with me.”

The Academy will begin an international search for Eichenberg’s replacement this fall.