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…
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,…
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…
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.
During select ARTbreaks throughout the summer, artists featured in the 2024 West Michigan Area Show will deliver talks on their featured pieces and on their larger bodies of work, their artistic processes, and their points of inspiration. With works selected from more than 300 submitted entries, the West Michigan Area Show highlights the work of…
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…
Learn more about works featured in The Anniversary Show: Promised Gifts from the Joy and Timothy Light Collection with Dr. Mary-Louise Totton. This exhibition delves into the artistic heritage of China and Japan by exploring a variety of media, including ink paintings, calligraphy, and woodblock prints. Presented in collaboration with prominent local collectors Joy and…
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…
