George A. Bayard III, Executive Director of the Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives (GRAAMA), shares the museum’s origin story, a selection of unique local stories he’s encountered, and his vision for the futures of both GRAAMA and West Michigan itself. Bayard holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art Education from the University of…
by Sarah Suzuki Join Art Detectives to learn about artist Yayoi Kusama and look for patterns in artworks on exhibit. Then make your own artwork inspired by Yayoi Kusama.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
More information on the 2024 Arts Fair can be found here.
More information on the 2024 Arts Fair can be found here.
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,…
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,…
