Traveling Exhibitions

The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts has a collection of over 5,000 objects including sculpture, oil paintings, ceramics, and more. In order to ensure art is for everyone, the KIA travels its collection throughout the United States. View the list below for the latest on our traveling exhibitions.

To inquire further about our Traveling Exhibitions or to receive a prospectus, checklist, and more information contact Katherine Ransbottom, Associate Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, at katheriner@kiarts.org

Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 1983, chromogenic print. Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Permanent Collection Fund Purchase, 2000.46

NEW! Framing Moments

Drawn from the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts’ distinctive photography collection and curated by guest curator Dr. Deborah Willis, Framing Moments reflects on how KIA curators built the collection, focusing on the medium’s ability to capture and preserve specific moments and places. Framing Moments includes photographs from iconic photographers such as Ansel Adams, Dawoud Bey, Dorethea Lange, Gordon Parks, Irving Penn, Cindy Sherman, James VanDerZee, among others.

Contents: 67 photographs and didactics

Approximate Linear feet required: 200-225

Georges Rouault, Bittersweet, 1935, aquatint. Collection of the KIA, Director’s Fund Purchase, 1966/7.77

NEW! L’esprit: Wit and Beauty in French Prints

Celebrate the joys and foibles of French society and culture between 1830 and 1930 when Paris was the world capital of artistic creativity, innovation, and opportunity. This exhibition of spectacular images in the KIA collection contains works by Honoré Daumier, Charles Méryon, Paul Gauguin, Georges Rouault, and many more. 

Contents: 53 prints (lithographs, screenprints, woodcuts, and more) and didactics

Approximate Linear feet:  175-200 

Kerry James Marshall, Keeping the Culture, 2011, screenprint and linocut in colors, on Arches paper. Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Elisabeth Claire Lahti Fund Purchase, 2018.46

NEW! Resilience: African American Artists as Agents of Change

Resilience examines how artists have looked at the world and used their art not only as reflections on history, memory, and the time period but also as a means to facilitate change. The show features dynamic works by Romare Bearden, Dawoud Bey, Bethany Collins, Elizabeth Catlett, Samuel Levi Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Renee Stout, and Kara Walker, among others.  

Contents:  47 works (works on paper, photography, mixed media) and didactics

Linear feet required: approximately 250 linear feet

Charles Sheeler, Architectural Cadences, 1954, screenprint. Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; Permanent Collection Fund Purchase, 1999.31

American Perspectives on Modernism

Drawn from the KIA collection, this exhibition includes works by American modernists including Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Charles Sheeler, Max Weber and others. Responding to the artistic developments in Europe, these artists sought new ways to picture the rapidly changing times of the early 20th century.  

Contents:   34 paintings and prints and didactics 

Approximate Linear feet:  140–170

Luis Jimenez, Self-Portrait, 1996, soft ground etching, multiplates | Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Permanent Collection Fund Purchase, 2005.9

Boo: Images of the Macabre

The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts reveals its most spooky and unnerving works from the darkest corners of the vault. Engage your subconscious through art that explores eerie landscapes, creepy creatures, ghostly figures, and other mysterious intersections of reality and imagination.  

Contents:   30 paintings, prints, photographs, and didactics 

Approximate Linear feet:  100-150 

Robert Indiana, Number 2, screenprint, 1968. Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Bequest of Charlotte Collins from the Charles and Charlotte Collins Collection, 2009.31

Drawn to Abstraction: Prints from the 1960s and 70s

The works in this exhibition capture the vibrancy of the emerging abstract movements during this time, including Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Op Art, and Pop Art. This exhibition features an extraordinary collection of works on paper by artists now widely recognized as giants of 20th-century art: Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, and others. 

Contents:   40 prints (lithograph, screenprint, intaglio, and woodcut) and didactics 

Approximate Linear feet:  200-250

Francisco Goya, A Way to Fly, c. 1816-1823, etching and aquatint. Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; Director’s Fund Purchase, 1968/9.28.13

Fear and Folly: The Visionary Prints of Francisco Goya and Federico Castellon

Francisco Goya and Federico Castellon both turned their attention to the human condition. In this exhibition, the artists are represented by 2 important print series: Castellon’s lithographs for Edgar Allen Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death and Goya’s etchings from Los Disparates. Many artists have been drawn to things dark and fantastic, but few have probed the human condition with the insight and truthfulness found in these images. 

Contents:   38 prints (etchings, aquatints, and lithographs) and didactics

Approximate Linear feet: 140 – 170

Kuniyoshi Utagawa, Yukukawa Sanpei Munenori from the series Deeds of the Faithful Warriors (the Story of the 47 Rōnin), 1847-1848, woodblock print. Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; Gift of Stan and Connie Rajnak, 2016.9

Impressions In Japanese Printmaking

Through four thematic groupings, this selection of 30 prints from the KIA collection illustrates the flowering of Japan’s printmaking culture from the 17th to the 21st century, and includes woodblock prints by Hiroshige and Utamaro, who first captivated 19th-century Western artists. Modern and contemporary works include updated woodblock techniques, but also etching, aquatint, and drypoint.

Contents: 33 prints (woodblock print, etching, aquatint, lithograph) and didactics 

Approximate Linear feet: 130-160

James McNeill Whistler, Rotherhithe, 1860, etching and drypoint. Permanent Collection Fund Purchase, 2005.21

Shimmerings of Light, Mysteries of Shadows: The Etching Revival of the 19th Century

This exhibition begins with three works by Rembrandt, but then focuses on the artists of the “etching revival,” including such masters of the medium as James McNeill Whistler, Charles Meryon, and Samuel Palmer. The works, drawn from the rich print collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, illustrate how etching, which required the artist to use line alone, introduced a new way of both drawing and perceiving the world.

Contents:   34 prints and didactics

Approximate Linear feet:  90 – 170

Ansel Adams, Oak Tree, Sunset City, Sierra Foothills, California, 1962, gelatin silver print. Collection of Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; gift of Wm. John Upjohn, 1995/6.27.8 ©2021 The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.

Sight and Feeling: Photographs by Ansel Adams

This exhibition of Adams’ photographs from the KIA collection suggests how his intuitive and emotional response to the landscape resulted in powerful and enduring photographs. 

Contents: 22 framed photographs, View camera (ca. 1920s), 8×10 Negative (contemporary example from reproduction view camera), corresponding contact print, and didactics 

Approximate Linear feet: 110–140