Community Calendar

Join us for a colorful autumn adventure through the galleries! We’ll explore artworks that capture the magic of fall. Along the way, we’ll look for warm colors, interesting textures, and hidden surprises that celebrate the beauty of the season. Bring your imagination and get ready to see autumn through the eyes of artists!

Please note that this event will not be livestreamed or posted on YouTube.
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!

Learn and create with us during an interactive ArtBreak that will highlight the power of sharing stories and experiences in order to unite communities! “The Rope Project” began in 2017 as an alternative arts initiative woven together by Education for the Arts’ visual teaching artists, whose hope was to bring students across the county together to share stories celebrating their community and their unique experiences. These stories are written on fabric and tied together to form a rope using a rope-making machine.

Gayle Swank-Reyes, with the help of her EFA advanced high school students, will discuss the history of the rope-making project and share some of the projects inspired by the ropes and the stories they hold. Attendees will then be invited to contribute their stories to a rope we will create together. This rope will later be incorporated into a project that EFA students will develop during the school year.

All hybrid events will be livestreamed to our YouTube page and can be found under the “Live” tab. Recordings of select past events are available on YouTube as well.

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.

Discover the beauty and expression of Chinese ink painting! Start the evening by exploring Ink Rhapsody: The Art of the Lingnan Masters in Hong Kong and get inspired by the dynamic brushwork. Then bring your ideas to life with a fun, hands-on art activity. Ink painting will be offered for ages 8 and older. This workshop is open to the first 20 participants and runs from 6:30 to 8 pm. A drop-in hand fan activity will be available for all ages to enjoy from 6 to 8pm.

Please note that this event will not be livestreamed or posted on YouTube.

This October, Art Detectives will explore the wonders of fall! We’ll read a charming story about some hesitant leaves who aren’t quite ready to change colors and let go. Then, we’ll search the galleries for autumn-themed art and create our own leaf-inspired creation.

Please note that this event will not be livestreamed or posted on YouTube.
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!

The Lantern of Lost Memories tells the story of Mr. Hirasaki’s magical photo studio, a gateway to the afterlife where the departed revisit their memories through a “spinning lantern.” Guests—including a kind yakuza, a devoted teacher, and a young girl—relive their past and choose one cherished moment to photograph. This emotional story celebrates memory, love, and beauty. Discussion will relate themes in the book with the exhibition Washi Transformed: New Expressions in Japanese Paper.

Please note that this event will not be livestreamed or posted on YouTube.
All book discussions are free, open to the public, and take place in-person at the Meader Fine Arts Library. Participants do not need to have read the book, but it will help facilitate the overall discussion. Preregistration is encouraged.

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.

Chinese, Korean, and Japanese artists have been painting pictures of birds for more than 1000 years. With an estimated 50 billion birds flying around us all the time, this comes as little surprise. Birders, who partake in one of the globe’s fastest-growing, multi-generational pastimes, know our feathered friends offer endless variety and incredible beauty. During this Joy Light Lecture in East Asian Art, Dr. Robert Mintz will guide our exploration of East Asian “bird and flower painting” through the joy of “artistic bird-watching.”

Kalamazoo Art League is delighted to sponsor this year’s Joy Light Lecture in East Asian Art and will provide a reception before the presentation, starting at 5:30 pm.

Dr. Mintz is the Chief Curatorial Director of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. A specialist in 18th-century Japanese painting, he oversees the art research and exhibitions program and guides the growth, preservation, and presentation of the museum’s Asian and Asian American art collections.

All hybrid events will be livestreamed to our YouTube page and can be found under the “Live” tab. Recordings of select past events are available on YouTube as well.

In celebration of Washi Transformed: New Expressions in Japanese Paper, visit the library to make your own bookmark using colorful washi tape and book pages. All supplies will be provided.

Please note that this event will not be livestreamed or posted on YouTube.

The Kalamazoo Book Arts Center functions as a creative public space where artists and book enthusiasts of all kinds gather to celebrate the collaborative arts of the book, including papermaking, printmaking, letterpress, bookbinding, and creative writing. KBAC preserves and employs traditional technologies while combining them with contemporary ideas and techniques. During this off-site ArtBreak, we will venture to KBAC to learn more about the organization and its diverse array of offerings!

The Kalamazoo Book Arts Center is located on the first floor of the Park Trades Center at 326 W. Kalamazoo Ave., Suite 103A. Enter the studio through the central door on Kalamazoo Ave. Parking is available on the street and across from the building on N. Church St. Parking garages are located at the intersection of Eleanor and Rose, and adjacent to the Radisson Plaza Hotel at the intersection of Water and Rose. Guests are also welcome to park in a KIA lot and walk to the Park Trades Center. Please do NOT park in the lot for Park Street Market or behind the Park Trades Center in the lot reserved for resident artists; cars parked in these lots are subject to towing.

Please note that this event will not be livestreamed or posted on YouTube.