Homeschool families are invited to learn, create, and explore at the KIA and the Kalamazoo Valley Museum (KVM). This collaborative event offers interactive activities designed to promote interdisciplinary learning, creativity, and an appreciation for art, history, and science. This event highlights the Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks exhibit. Bring your creativity and wear…
When ten year old Mona experiences a sudden, brief loss of sight, her grandfather Henry decides to give her a gallery of artworks to visit in her mind as she faces potential permanent blindness. Through fifty-two weekly trips to museums in Paris, Mona receives an emotional art history education. Art lessons become tied to life…
Meet a living legend in the world of 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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…