ABOUT
CINDY HARTNESS CRANE
Cindy Hartness Crane started her design education at an early age. With family already involved in the arts, it was natural to have materials available and freedom to explore them. In elementary school, Cindy was already entering art contests and trying to excel in a variety of creative disciplines (including theater acting, visual arts, music, and dance).
In high school, Cindy was able to select more specific courses which allowed her creativity to flourish. In her senior year, she was awarded five Gold Key Awards for visual arts.
Once in College, Cindy became determined to apply her creative art skills in a design discipline rather than visual arts. Industrial Design became the perfect challenging combination of human interaction, problem solving, planning, material research, prototype development, and visual proportion. NC State University supplied Cindy with all the resources necessary to reach new levels of creative exploration. Green building and conservation efforts were beginning to emerge in manufacturing just as Cindy was graduating in 2001, which peaked her interest.
At NC State University, Cindy earned her undergraduate degree and minor:
BA Industrial Design
Minor: Textile Technology
Upon completion of undergrad, and inspired by the green movement underway, Cindy still yearned to learn more about reducing wastes, and recycling materials on a large scale. In a used bookstore in Washington DC she bought a book entitled "How To Recycle Buildings". This book explained how many wastes were created each year by knocking down old or unattractive buildings, simply because society couldn't imagine how to save them or make them useful for current human demands.
It became a goal to learn more about how to rehab old structures and increase their usefulness, thereby preserving their place in a city and reducing wastes. Researching further, Cindy saw that Savannah College of Art and Design had done exactly this, in Georgia. After applying and being accepted by the Historic Preservation Department of SCAD, Cindy moved to Savannah.
While at SCAD, Cindy Earned two Masters degrees:
MA Historic Preservation
MFA Furniture Design.
After finishing both of these degrees in 2006, Cindy began teaching in Foundation Studies at SCAD (Savannah campus). Cindy taught consistently for SCAD from 2006 - 2012, taking a brief time to teach online while living in another state. She taught 13 different course titles, spread over 4 different Departments. While having a love for teaching, Cindy has never lost her passions for design or renovation. Throughout the past two decades Cindy has worked on over 12 buildings while also designing in freelance and contract capacities, and teaching art/design..
Currently Cindy is teaching for SCAD in Savannah, and brainstorming with La Bastille, when time allows. Her work there includes primarily design development of decorative range hoods, fireplace mantles, interior spaces, accent tables, and material exploration.
Cindy has most recently taught in the following departments of Savannah College of Art and Design:
Foundations
Industrial Design
Jewelry Design
Summer Seminar Courses (SCAD Camp)
In previous years, Cindy has also taught courses in:
Furniture Design
Exhibit Design (minor)
Sculpture