Community Calendar

Join us for a special Artful Evening with Elizabeth Semmelhack, Director and Senior Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto! Semmelhack is the curator of Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks. During this program, she will talk about why shoes matter and about how designers today are revolutionizing what we will put on our feet tomorrow. If you’ve enjoyed Future Now, don’t miss this opportunity to meet the curator behind the exhibition!

Semmelhack’s work focuses on the intersections of fashion, culture, and economics, with a particular interest in the history of footwear. She is widely quoted in the media from the New York Times to Vogue, and since starting at the Bata Shoe Museum in 2000, she has curated over thirty exhibitions and written fourteen books and catalogues and over thirty chapters and articles. Her most recent exhibitions and publications related to sneakers include Art/Wear: Sneakers x Artists (2024), Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks (Rizzoli:2022), Collab: Sneakers x Culture (Rizzoli: 2019), and Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture (Rizzoli: 2015).

Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks is co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Bata Shoe Museum, and curated by Elizabeth Semmelhack, Director and Senior Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum.

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.

Saturday, May 16, 10 am – Noon
Meet: Auditorium

Steve Brown of Kalamazoo is a poet who writes with “the eye of a reporter, the touch of a painter and the heart of a storyteller.”

Steve will be reading from his latest book, News of Need (2025), capturing more than 40 portraits of people and natural landscapes that have been left out, looked over, or worked to the bone, but not without the hope of revelation or redemption.

Steve has staged his work internationally, been awarded residencies at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology and has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes. Since 2016 Brown has been co-founding and leading a foundation in Kalamazoo, Michigan. His books will be available for purchase during the event.

Fee: Included in regular KNC admission; KNC Members free! Drop in program.

This short collaboration celebrates sneaker culture through poetry. Consisting of two parts, part one is a micro saga-in verse about a quest to find sneakers but yields an even great discovery beyond shoes. Part two is a collection of prose poems, a kind of mixtape, which explores many aspects of sneaker culture from overarching artistic reflections to personal ties to footwear. Themes in this book will tie into Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks.

Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks is co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Bata Shoe Museum, and curated by Elizabeth Semmelhack, Director and Senior Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum.

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.

This short collaboration celebrates sneaker culture through poetry. Consisting of two parts, part one is a micro saga-in verse about a quest to find sneakers but yields an even great discovery beyond shoes. Part two is a collection of prose poems, a kind of mixtape, which explores many aspects of sneaker culture from overarching artistic reflections to personal ties to footwear. Themes in this book will tie into Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks.

Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks is co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Bata Shoe Museum, and curated by Elizabeth Semmelhack, Director and Senior Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum.

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.

What does it mean to curate as we live through apocalyptic times? Join our 2026 West Michigan Area Show juror, Dr. Xuxa Rodríguez, as she shares about her curatorial practice and explores what making exhibitions and writing about art means as the stakes of our collective global livelihoods grow higher. Dr. Rodríguez will offer reflections and proposals for working and living through difficult times to find meaning and hope even in the darkest of days.
Xuxa Rodríguez, Ph.D., is a curator, scholar, and writer, originally from Miami, FL. Her expertise ranges across modern and contemporary Latinx and Latin American Art, African diasporic art, feminist and queer art, transnational artists, and time-based media, with strengths in performance and video. Now based in Durham, NC, she is the Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.

Our ArtBreak program will be on hiatus in June and July. Join us in August when ArtBreaks resume!

Virtual events will go live on our YouTube page on the indicated dates and times. They can be found under the “Live” tab. Recordings of select past events are available on YouTube as well. Unless otherwise indicated, no registration is necessary.

"Spend an unforgettable night with Steve Burns, the original host of Blue's Clues, in an intimate, moderated conversation that’s equal parts heartfelt, humorous, and nostalgic.

Beloved by a generation for his gentle curiosity and genuine warmth, Steve steps back into the spotlight to reflect on the unexpected cultural impact of Blue’s Clues, the moment he said goodbye, and the journey that followed—from children’s television icon to musician, actor, and viral internet sensation. With candid stories, behind-the-scenes insights, and thoughtful reflections on growing up (for him and for us), this evening offers fans a rare opportunity to reconnect with a familiar friend.

Whether you grew up watching him search for clues or discovered him through his moving messages years later, this special event invites you to celebrate connection, curiosity, and the enduring power of kindness.

Bring your questions—and maybe your handy dandy notebook—for a night you won’t forget.

Guiding the evening is Stefani Bishop, celebrated Kalamazoo radio personality, bringing her signature warmth and insight to the stage."

Author Natalie Dykstra recounts the story of Isabella Stewart Gardner’s extraordinary life in this moving and illuminating biography. A Boston socialite, Gardner lived a life full of passion but one which was also marked by grief. Dykstra delivers compelling insight into Gardner’s friendships, world travels, and her keen eye for collecting treasures all of which shaped the creation of the Stewart Gardner Museum.

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. The author will not be in attendance unless otherwise stated. Preregistration is encouraged.

During this Artful Evening talk, artist Julia Whitney Barnes will speak about her Planting Utopia series, featured in the Hancock Shaker Museum, the Shaker Heritage Society, and the Albany International Airport. Barnes will also address her larger body of research and her permanent artwork The Botanist’s Mural. On view in Vassar College’s newly-built Vassar Institute, the mural is based on the herbarium that dates back to the founding of the college in 1861.

Born in Newbury, VT, Julia Whitney Barnes spent two decades in Brooklyn and New York City before moving to the Hudson Valley in 2015. She received a BFA from Parsons School of Design and an MFA from Hunter College. Whitney Barnes works in a variety of media, including cyanotypes, watercolor, combined media works on paper, oil paintings, glass, ceramic sculptures, murals, site-specific installations, and limited-edition prints. She has exhibited widely in the United States and internationally.

Whitney Barnes will offer a three-day workshop in the Kirk Newman Art School on June 26-28, entitled Cyanotype: Beyond Blue and White. This workshop is generously supported by the Harold Hope Memorial Fund.

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

Elise Hooper’s biography of Dorothea Lange follows her life from early successes running a portrait studio in San Francisco to her Depression-era work documenting America’s suffering and injustice. As she pursues her art through personal and professional turmoil, Lange’s camera becomes a powerful tool for empathy, reform, and truth-telling, even at great personal cost. This discussion will tie into themes in the exhibition For the People, By the People.

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. The author will not be in attendance unless otherwise stated. Preregistration is encouraged.

The story of the U.S. national anthem—“The Star-Spangled Banner”—is surprising and too little-known. Among the typical misunderstandings is that its author, Francis Scott Key, wrote a poem. In fact, he wrote a lyric to a well-known tune, creating a song that brought emotion into the drama of America. Key sought both to bring Americans together and to inspire active citizenship. This talk by Dr. Mark Clague will explore the forgotten details of Key’s song, how it came to be an important symbol in American life, and what it means for Americans today.

Mark Clague, Ph.D. serves as Executive Director of the Arts Initiative at the University of Michigan and Professor of Musicology at its School of Music, Theatre & Dance. His research centers on music’s role in forging community and on topics from musical institutions to American patriotism. His book O Say Can You Hear?: A Cultural Biography of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was selected as an Editor’s Pick by The New York Times.

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.