Community Calendar

Enjoy free admission and extended hours until 8pm on Thursdays. Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program and the Efroymson Family Fund.

During this Gallery Gathering, hear from community members whose pieces are included in our Sourced from the ‘Zoo exhibition. With a focus on artworks and objects relating to self-care and wellbeing, we will explore the galleries together and hear the stories behind several of these pieces. Gallery stools will be available.

After the gathering, stick around for a care-centered workshop led by Alessandra Santos Pye and Kama Tai Mitchell, where we will discuss strategies for taking care of ourselves and our communities during times of uncertainty and upheaval.

You’re invited to take a walk through JooYoung Choi’s imaginative world of colors and characters. We’ll meet Pound Cake Man, his daughter, Emma Pound Cake Girl and many others.

Take a Wonder Walk through the galleries! The walk will include close looking at a few artworks as well as gallery games and activities. This is a great way to introduce your little one to art and the museum. Wonder Walks is for children 2-4 years old (but all are welcome) and is free with the cost of admission. Caregivers must stay with their children at all times. Preregistration is encouraged. Adults, remember to register your children.

Gallery photo by Colleen Woolpert.

The Kirk Newman Art School’s Post-Baccalaureate Program is designed for recent fine arts graduates seeking to grow and strengthen their creative practice in a supportive community with access to professional studio facilities. The culmination of the 2024–2025 resident artists’ work will be on display in the Kirk Newman Art School commons from May 2–June 1, 2025. This unique group exhibition will feature new works in sculpture, ceramics, painting, printmaking, and photography from our seven residents.

The opening reception for this exhibition will coincide with Art Hop and its theme of Emergence on Friday, May 2 from 5–8pm. Join us in celebrating the talents of these amazing emerging artists! To learn more about each Resident and their art making journey, visit the KIA YouTube page after April 18 for our virtual ArtBreak series.

During this ArtBreak, artist and educator Tom Rice will discuss the evolution of his large-scale drawings and installations that address the global climate crisis. The increasing size and frequency of hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and floods are symptoms of a seismic transition from a relatively stable climate to a new normal. The denial of these signs and the quickening pace of global warming brought on by the extraction, production, and burning of fossil fuels are the themes of his work.

Tom Rice is an artist working primarily in drawing, painting, and installation. He received a BFA from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia and an MFA from the University of Georgia. Rice is the Jo-Ann and Robert Stewart Professor of Art at Kalamazoo College.

Enjoy free admission and extended hours until 8pm on Thursdays. Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program and the Efroymson Family Fund.

During this special offsite lecture, Dr. James Denison, Postdoctoral Fellow at Kalamazoo College and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, will offer a new interpretation of the artist John Marin’s (1870–1953) work in Maine. Drawing on Marin’s writings, Denison’s presentation will investigate the artist’s attempted assimilation into what he perceived to be a rustic “Yankee” community on the Maine coast. Denison will relate Marin’s representations of denizens of the Maine coast to contemporaneous notions of whiteness and New England identity, situating the artist’s fascination with Maine within the long history of ethnic and cultural tourism in the state.

A native of the DC area and a graduate of Bowdoin College, James completed his PhD in art history at the University of Michigan, where he wrote a thesis on the connections between the Stieglitz Circle and racism in the interwar U.S. In 2023 he joined Kalamazoo College and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts as a postdoctoral fellow.

This lecture will take place in the Connable Recital Hall in the Light Fine Arts Building at Kalamazoo College, at the corner of Thompson and Academy Streets. The recital hall is located off of the main lobby, next to the Dalton Theatre. Parking can be found in the lot behind the building on Thompson Street, as well as on adjacent streets.

In May, Art Detectives will read a story about human kindness and acceptance, dive into JooYoung Choi’s colorful world in An Infinite Constellation of Love, and design their own fantastical creatures.

Art Detectives is a free program for children 4-8 years old (but all ages are welcome). Join us as we read a story, look at art, and make a project to take home. Caregivers must stay with their children at all times. This is a free program; preregistration is encouraged. Adults, remember to register your children!

Thanks to Vaupell for sponsoring this event.

Stop by the Fine Arts Library to celebrate World Collage Day. Create a collage with Errin Ironside from Collage Crew Kzoo. Inspired by the Sourced from the ‘Zoo exhibition, participants can create a personal collage aligned with the themes of the show. Pieces will be showcased in our library window for a month following the event and will be available for pickup during library hours. All supplies will be provided.

Enjoy free admission and extended hours until 8pm on Thursdays. Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program and the Efroymson Family Fund.