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Artist and Curator Bruce McColl ’84 Welcomes Cranbrook to the Currier Museum

9/23/2026

Alumni connections open the door to a special weekend of art, architecture, and friendship in Manchester and Boston, October 25 and 26

When Cranbrook alumni visit the Currier Museum of Art this October, their guide will know both the collection and his audience unusually well. Bruce McColl ’84, the museum’s director of curatorial affairs, is an artist, educator, former Cranbrook Kingswood faculty member, and alumnus whose ties to Cranbrook continue to shape his work and relationships more than four decades after graduation.

Bruce’s path after Cranbrook began at Brown University, where he studied history and played four years of Division I ice hockey. After graduation, he spent a year playing professionally in Gotland, Sweden, before retiring from the ice and earning an MFA in painting from Wayne State University. He later taught at Cranbrook Kingswood and Tabor Academy in Massachusetts.

Bruce credits Cranbrook with showing him that his athletic and artistic interests did not have to be separate.

Since moving to New Hampshire in 2004, Bruce has built a career in museum education and curatorial work at the Currier—first serving for 15 years as director of education and now as director of curatorial affairs. Throughout that time, he has continued his own painting practice and exhibited his work across New England.

“Cranbrook was fundamental in giving me permission to be an athlete and an artist,” he says. “The faculty were enormously supportive of my work on the ice and in the studio when I was a student—and continue to be even today.”

As a boarder in Marquis Hall, Bruce had the full campus as part of his daily life. He remembers the lasting influence of the late Christine Goodale, his art teacher, whose “gentle influence in those early years made a lasting imprint.” Cranbrook also became part of his family story. His wife, artist Rane Hall McColl ’90, grew up surrounded by art; her parents were early collectors of American folk art and lived and worked at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Bruce and Rane have two daughters, Iris and Eve.

“For us, Cranbrook is a second home,” he says. “We visit often and feel deep affinities with its art, its beautiful natural spaces, extraordinary architecture, and people.”

Those people include friendships Bruce has maintained with classmates, faculty, and other members of the Cranbrook community across many years. Among them are Carol Almeda-Morrow ’83 and her late husband, Joe Morrow ’84. Today, Bruce works closely with Carol, a member of the Currier’s Board of Trustees and his partner in planning the New England CRAN weekend.

“I’m particularly proud to be working so closely with her,” Bruce says. “Our mutual love for Cranbrook, each other, and our families galvanizes us in the work we do for the Currier.”

At the museum, Bruce has also found opportunities to preserve and highlight Cranbrook’s influence. The Currier collection includes works by Cranbrook-connected artists John Glick and Beverly Fishman, as well as a glazed vessel by Maija Grotell, the first head of ceramics at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Once part of the collection of Susie Symons and John Glick, the Grotell vessel carries an especially personal Cranbrook connection.

Bruce will share these works and other highlights during a private tour of the Currier on Sunday, October 25. Alumni may also register for an optional tour of one of the museum’s two Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian homes. The Zimmerman House and Kalil House are the only Wright houses in New England open to the public, and the Kalil House is one of only seven Usonian Automatic houses in the world.

Bruce sees a natural connection between the Wright homes and the modernist design alumni experienced at Cranbrook.

“Both houses feel quite familiar to me—echoing the influences of modernist design we see in the Saarinens’ architectural imprint at Cranbrook,” he says.

The gathering continues Monday evening in Boston with a reception hosted by Carol at The ’Quin House in Back Bay. Bruce will join alumni there for drinks, hors d’oeuvres, conversation, and an update from Director of Schools Jeff Suzik.

What is Bruce most looking forward to?

“Sharing laughs, world-class art, delicious food, and wonderful memories,” he says. “Cranbrook is such a special place—it is a joy to reconnect with those of us lucky enough to have experienced its transformative impact.”

New England CRAN Weekend

Sunday, October 25
Currier Museum of Art
Manchester, New Hampshire

Optional Frank Lloyd Wright House Tours | 9:30 a.m. or 2:30 p.m.
Lunch Reception | 11:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Private Tour of the Currier Museum Collection | 1:00–2:15 p.m.
Click here to register.

Monday, October 26 | 6:30 p.m.
The ’Quin House
Boston, Massachusetts

Click here to register.

Alumni who live in or are visiting the area are welcome to attend either or both gatherings. Email alumni@cranbrook.edu for information.

Bruce’s involvement is a wonderful example of what becomes possible when alumni share their knowledge, creativity, connections, and access with the Cranbrook community. Alumni with an idea for an event—or an experience, workplace, collection, or area of expertise they would enjoy sharing—are invited to contact alumni@cranbrook.edu.

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