Stop in to the KIA during Arts Fair for a hands on art activity! We will provide the supplies to create your own Gelli Plate printed sneaker. Experiment with colorways inspired by objects featured in Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks! Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks is co-organized by the American Federation…
What does it mean to curate as we live through apocalyptic times? Join our 2026 West Michigan Area Show juror, Dr. Xuxa Rodríguez, as she shares about her curatorial practice and explores what making exhibitions and writing about art means as the stakes of our collective global livelihoods grow higher. Dr. Rodríguez will offer reflections…
Each year, a growing number of talented Kalamazoo filmmakers, both amateur and professional, take on the challenge of participating in the Kazoo 48-Hour Film Festival. Assigned a genre, prop, character quirk, location, and line of dialogue to use within a short film, participants have just 48 hours to bring their visions to life. The winning…
This short collaboration celebrates sneaker culture through poetry. Consisting of two parts, part one is a micro saga-in verse about a quest to find sneakers but yields an even great discovery beyond shoes. Part two is a collection of prose poems, a kind of mixtape, which explores many aspects of sneaker culture from overarching artistic…
Inspired by the innovation and history of sneakers, we will provide origami paper to fold your own mini shoe! A variety of styles and difficulty levels will be provided. Check out the exhibition Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks for inspiration and then drop by the library to try your hand at this detailed…
Join us for a special Artful Evening with Elizabeth Semmelhack, Director and Senior Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto! Semmelhack is the curator of Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks. During this program, she will talk about why shoes matter and about how designers today are revolutionizing what we will put on…
In May, Art Detectives will be on the case, searching for how artists show people in their artwork. We’ll read a book about different artistic styles, hunt for faces and figures in the permanent collection, and finish by creating our own portrait masterpiece to take home. Arty will be on vacation in June, July, and…
Explore the artwork of Edward Hopper in this lecture by Dr. James Denison, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and Kalamazoo College. Denison's presentation will consider the use of fashion in Edward Hopper’s paintings of urban American life, interpreting his simplified representations of clothes as a strategy crucial to the sense of isolation…
Immerse yourself in shades of blue as we explore selected works from the exhibition From Cobalt to Indigo: The Power of Blue in East Asia, on view in the Joy Light Gallery through July 12. Together we will learn more about the cultural significance and wide-reaching influence of the color blue in the art of…
Spring is creeping closer, and we’re ready to get outside. Until it warms up, join us for a stroll through the permanent collection to enjoy some sunny landscapes and think ahead to brighter days. We'll discover how artists represent the natural world and have fun with a few gallery activities along the way.
As we celebrate the future of shoes, it can be fascinating to look back to see where we have already been. During this ArtBreak talk, fashion historian and professor Iris Carney Cooper will offer an overview of notable and special shoe designs throughout time, discussing history, significance, function, and design. Cooper is a fashion historian,…
Meet a living legend in the world of shoe design! During this Artful Evening, Wilson W. Smith III will speak about his prolific career in the athletic footwear industry. The first Black designer for Nike, Smith has created shoes for Michael Jordan, Andre Agassi, Serena Williams, and many more. After a 41-year career with the…