Join us for light refreshments, open galleries, and interactive activities throughout the museum. This is a great opportunity to mingle with other members and explore Legendary Voices: Art for the Next Century before it closes! Also enjoy an additional 5% off your member discount on your purchases at the KIA's Gallery Shop (some restrictions apply).…
Kick the weekend off with a relaxing visit to our galleries! Enjoy hot beverages and pastries, and take advantage of your additional 5% member discount at the Gallery Shop.
Take a closer look at two paintings featured in the Legendary Voices exhibition: Karl Knaths’ Wounded Tree and Harold David Landes’ Pink Tree. How do these artists approach similar subject matter in distinctive ways? Gallery stools will be available.
There are so many things to find in the art on the walls. Let’s take a walk through the galleries and see what we can spy with our little eyes.
by Suzanne Greenlaw and Gabriel Frey Let’s learn about landscapes! We’ll begin with a book to see how the illustrator expresses them, visit the galleries to observe how artists portray them, and finally, you’ll create one of your own to take home.
During this virtual ArtBreak, learn about visual artist Leslie Barlow, whose painting Atquezali, At Indigenous Roots is featured in the ongoing KIA exhibition Legendary Voices: Art for the Next Century. Barlow’s colorful, life-size oil paintings serve as both monuments to community members and explorations into the ways in which race entangles the intimate spheres of…
Meet artist Kelly Church, an Ottawa/Pottawatomi black ash basket maker, fiber artist, educator, activist, and culture keeper. A member of the Gun Lake Band in Michigan and descendent of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Ojibwe, she comes from an unbroken line of black ash basket makers and from the largest black ash weaving…
The High School Area Show offers a unique opportunity for high school artists from Kalamazoo and surrounding counties to participate in a juried exhibition and display their work in a museum setting. The KIA is proud to support emerging artistic talent and committed to increasing young people’s access to the arts and arts education. This…
by Shonda Buchanan This powerful, deeply personal narrative explores Buchanan’s complex identity. She reflects on the trauma, resilience, and strength passed down through generations, as well as the tensions and misunderstandings she encountered due to her mixed heritage. Throughout, she weaves in stories of her ancestors, shedding light on the hidden and painful history of…
Detroit artist Richard Phillips started painting while in prison with a mail order watercolor set: landscapes, portraits of famous people, jazz musicians, and more, eventually creating over 400 paintings. Arrested in 1971 for a murder he didn’t commit, Phillips was in prison for 46 years. Creating art enabled him to persist and deal with the…
In anticipation of Wellspring’s annual RADFest, hear from this year’s RADicle Resident! Puerto Rican movement artist Lourdes del Mar Santiago Lebrón will discuss their new work, Tejer, inspired by the process of weaving. They observe, “Tejido (weaving) relies on pattern making and repetition; the practice, much like dance, requires patience, consistency, and practice. The ephemerality…
March is all about movement! Join us as we engage our hands with a story and a colorful painting project, followed by a fun movement session led by a Wellspring Academy teaching artist. Wellspring Dance Academy provides modern and contemporary dance instruction, while emphasizing organic movement and valuing community, expression, and inclusivity. We will be…