by Joy Harjo Joy Harjo, the first native american to be named the United States Poet Laureate, chronicles a sweeping view of ancestry, storytelling, and memory told through her signature lyrical poetry and prose. Harjo cites the teachers that forced her to fight battles throughout her life and surrounds them with compassion and understanding, sometimes…
Join us for an artist’s talk and live demonstration with Jeffrey Bohl, whose sculpture Ellie is featured in the 2024 West Michigan Area Show! Bohl has been creating bronze sculptures for over 16 years, exhibiting along the way in numerous regional competitions and in several individual shows. He pours most of his bronzes in his own…
by Faith Ringgold As Art Detectives and their caregivers commemorate Juneteenth at the KIA, join us at 11:15am for a reading of Tar Beach by multi-disciplinary artist, writer, and activist Faith Ringgold. No registration needed.
Join the KIA as we remember Juneteenth, which is a holiday that commemorates the abolishment of slavery in the United States. Free general admission on June 15, 2024. 11:00 am to 5:00 pm: Explore the Museum Use a gallery guide to learn more about African American artists in the KIA’s collection. 11:15 am: Art Detectives…
Michigan photographer Emily J. Gómez will share her work in New Cyanotype, explaining how and why she uses this handmade blueprint process. Through the series Unearthed, she investigates places where Native American towns in the Southeast and Midwest once prospered and considers what they have become. Her latest series, titled Cumberland Island: Land, Water, Wind,…
Originally published in 1893 and 1901, Simon Pokagon’s birch bark stories were printed on thinly peeled and elegantly bound birch bark. In Dr. Blaire Morseau’s 2023 book, As Sacred to Us: Simon Pokagon’s Birch Bark Stories in Their Contexts, these rare booklets are reprinted with new essays that set the stories in cultural, linguistic, historical,…
Visit the KIA to see which films were selected as highlighted works and award winners during this year's Kazoo 48-Hour Film Festival! In this annual Kalamazoo event, filmmakers were assigned a genre, prop, character quirk, location, and line of dialogue to use within a short film, created in just 48 hours. Winning films were selected…
Join us in observing Memorial Day with a screening of the 1994 film Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision.This Academy Award-winning documentary tells the story of architect-sculptor Maya Lin, whose design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was selected from over a thousand submissions when she was a 21-year-old student at Yale University. The film explores…
As part of the KIA's mission to cultivate the creation and appreciation of the visual arts in West Michigan, we are proud to be working with Art Bridges Foundation to increase access to museums and foster engagement with local audiences. Enjoy free general admission at the KIA every fourth Thursday of the month, featuring extended…
In 1961, construction was completed on two remarkable structures in Kalamazoo, both designed by the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. One was the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, based on a design by architect Mies van der Rohe and expanded in 1994 to become the structure we occupy today. The other was the Upjohn Company’s…
by Kevin Wilson It’s 1996. Frankie and Zeke are two teenagers just trying to get through a long, hot Tennessee summer. Frankie wants to be an author and Zeke an artist. One boring day, they decide to create some poster art containing an intriguing phrase and hang the copies all over town. When some older…
Founded by Dale Chihuly and a few art school friends in 1971, the Pilchuck Glass School has long been pushing the limits of a medium that can last for centuries or shatter in an instant. Through the story of this small and highly influential school in the Pacific Northwest, Pilchuck: A Dance with Fire identifies…