KALAMAZOO—June 24, 2026
Flo Ngala, Hot Girl Summer, 2020, color digital print. Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; Elisabeth Claire Lahti Fund, 2020.41.
For the People, By the People: America at 250 looks to the nation’s milestone as an opportunity to reflect on America’s enduring ties to liberty, justice, and identity.
For the People, By the People brings together artworks from the KIA’s permanent collection and loans of bold contemporary voices to examine the symbols, struggles, and aspirations that shaped, and continue to inform American life using themes such as:
- Pursuit of liberty and fight for visibility
- US iconography and historical events, patriotism and civic discourse
- American land, labor, and ambition
- Reckoning with U.S. history and envisioning its future
Spanning photography, printmaking, painting, sculpture, and installation-based works, this exhibition juxtaposes notable artists such as Dorothea Lange, Jacob Lawrence, Alfred Stieglitz, Hank Willis Thomas, and Andy Warhol with rising artists like Erica Lord, Julio Cesar Morales, and Cara Romero, among many others.
“For the People, By the People: America at 250 showcases selections from the KIA’s outstanding collection with key loans from across the nation, highlighting the ingenuity of American civilization. This exhibition offers our community an opportunity to reflect on the fact that we are a nation that has been evolving since its inception. While we’ve experienced tragedies and triumphs, it’s been the people’s constant pursuit of equality, freedom, and justice that truly defines the nation,” says Rehema Barber, Director of Curatorial Affairs at the KIA.
From iconic images of migration, progress, and protest, to poignant, yet declarative text works to portraits that center Indigenous, African American, and diasporic experiences, the artists featured in For the People, By the People form and challenge the rhetoric and visual language of patriotism, social consciousness, labor, representation, and belonging.
Both celebratory and contemplative, For the People, By the People: America at 250 invites visitors to reflect on the United States of America’s founding principles, our current lived realities, and who we aspire to be in our future.
This exhibition is made possible by generous support from:
Efroymson Family Fund, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Talsma Furniture.
For more information:
For the People, By the People Events – Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
About the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
Founded in 1924, the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA) is a nationally accredited art museum and community art school that brings people together through creativity, learning, and shared experience. Each year, more than 100,000 visitors explore 10–15 rotating exhibitions across the museum’s 10 galleries, drawn from a permanent collection of more than 4,600 works spanning American, European, Asian, and contemporary art.
Beyond the galleries, the KIA is a place where art is not only viewed but made. The Kirk Newman Art School (KNAS) welcomes more than 3,400 enrollments annually, offering hands-on instruction in ceramics, sculpture, jewelry, drawing and painting, printmaking, fiber, photography, glass fusing, and enrichment programs for all ages. Students learn directly from professional artists and educators in a dynamic, studio-based environment.
The museum campus also includes a multi-media auditorium, a publicly accessible art library, an interactive children’s gallery, and the KIA Gallery Shop featuring work by local, regional, and international artists.
Through exhibitions, education, and community partnerships, the KIA serves as a cultural anchor for Southwest Michigan — a place where art sparks curiosity, strengthens connection, and inspires new ways of seeing. Learn more at kiarts.org.