Community Calendar

"Sociolinguist Noriko Sugimori has often worked with her students to collect oral histories from Japanese-speaking World War II survivors in Japan, South Korea, and the United States. Their testimonies reveal personal experiences that have often remained untold and show how the past continues to shape the present. Drawing on video excerpts from these interviews, Dr. Sugimori will explore the stories, silences, and meanings preserved in wartime memory.

Dr. Sugimori is Professor of Japanese at Kalamazoo College. Her Mellon Foundation-funded Japanese-English oral history project was the first in using the bilingual Oral History Metadata Synchronizer. At Kalamazoo College, she teaches the Japanese language at all levels, as well as sociolinguistics."

"George Takei recounts his childhood imprisonment in Japanese American internment camps during World War II in this richly illustrated graphic novel. The memoir explores resilience and patriotism while connecting past injustices to discrimination. Blending history with storytelling, the book urges readers to challenge prejudice in America. Themes in this discussion will tie into the exhibition Resilience.

Please note that this discussion will take place one week earlier than our usual meeting."

Representatives from several Midwest colleges and universities will be available to meet with students to review their portfolios and offer admissions advice. Registration is strongly encouraged. This event is free to attend and open to all high school junior and senior art students.

• 8 – 9am: College and university presentations
• 9am: Galleries open
• 10:30am: Kirk Newman Art School Tour
• 9 – 11am: Portfolio reviews
• 10:30am: Kirk Newman Art School Tour

This event is free to attend and open to all high school juniors and seniors. Representatives from several Midwest colleges and universities will be available to discuss your students’ portfolios and give admissions advice. Please register by October 8, 2026. If you have any questions please email Amy Hudson at museumed@kiarts.org.

Please note:
• Students bringing digital portfolios must bring their own computer/tablet on which to display. Please do not use cell phones for this purpose.
• The galleries will open at 9:00am and Portfolio Day participants will be able to explore for free.
• Free parking is available in our lot on South St. The Lovell St. lot immediately adjacent to the building is reserved for contractors, but is available for dropoff. The lot on the south side of Lovell St remains open for parking.

Portfolio Requirements:
• All colleges and universities will accept digital work. Digital portfolios should be organized neatly in a Powerpoint or Google Slide Presentation.
• Submit 8-10 works and a sketchbook.
• Videos should be 2 minutes in length or less.
• Come prepared to talk about your work.

"Jimmy Mirikitani (1920-2012) was a Japanese American artist who survived the trauma of WWII incarceration, the loss of family and friends in his ancestral city of Hiroshima, a harsh life on the streets of New York, and the chaos of 9/11 – all by making art. Sitting alone on a windy corner in Soho, he drew whimsical cats, bleak concentration camps, and the angry red flames of the atomic bomb. Blending beauty and humor with tragedy and loss, The Cats of Mirikitani is an intimate exploration of the lingering wounds of war and the healing power of art.

This film was directed and produced by Linda Hattendorf, who has worked in the New York documentary community for decades. Her editing work has aired on PBS, A&E, and The Sundance Channel, as well as in theatrical venues and hundreds of festivals. Produced in 2006, The Cats of Mirikitani was her directorial debut and won awards at more than thirty film festivals around the world. The film has a run time of 74 minutes. "

Join us for a Gallery Game Night, where we’ll explore the permanent collection through interactive, art-focused games and creative sketching activities. This event is appropriate for all ages.

This fall, Helen Frankenthaler's large-scale painting Code Blue returns from New York, where it was included in the Gagosian exhibition Helen Frankenthaler: The Moment and the Distance. Celebrate the return of this beloved part of the KIA's permanent collection with a screening of The Eye is the First Circle. Inspired by Mary Gabriel's bestseller Ninth Street Women, this 2022 documentary centers the work of Frankenthaler and her female contemporaries -- Grace Hartigan, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, and Lee Krasner -- who broke new ground in the field of Abstract Expressionism despite the marginalization they faced in mid-20th century America. The Eye is the First Circle was created by Schler Productions in partnership with PBS12 (Denver), and has a run time of 56 minutes.

"In the wake of Pearl Harbor and the United States’ declaration of war on Japan, the U.S. government ordered the removal of more than 120,000 men, women, and children from their homes based on their Japanese ancestry and imprisoned them in remote incarceration camps. Two-thirds were U.S. citizens. In this talk, Dr. Donna Nagata will examine how the lasting consequences of this wartime trauma continue to shape experiences of postwar third- and fourth-generation Japanese Americans.

Donna Nagata, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology in the Clinical Science Area at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She has studied the psychosocial effects of the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans for over three decades, with a particular focus on postwar multigenerational impacts."