Community Calendar

Imani Perry explores the deep cultural and emotional ties between the history of Black people and the color blue. From indigo cloths traded during slavery to blues music’s blend of sorrow and resilience, Perry weaves personal narrative, history, and art into a powerful meditation on race. Drawing on symbols like blue skies, water, and flowers, she crafts a poignant, original examination of Black identity that captures both the pain and beauty of the human experience.

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.

Claude Debussy, a friend of Monet, wanted to be a painter. Instead, he used music to create evocative, beautiful pictures. His contemporary Maurice Ravel turned the miraculous seascapes of Impressionist painters into sparkling piano pieces. In Vienna, Arnold Schoenberg, also a serious painter, wrote music that pushed traditional boundaries to their limit. In his opera Wozzeck, Alban Berg created a character that embodies Expressionism. Intimately connected to the cultural currents around them, these groundbreaking composers turned Impressionism and Expressionism into sound. During this ArtBreak, explore these key movements in visual art and music with Dr. Zaide Pixley.

Zaide Pixley holds a Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Michigan. As a member of the faculty at Kalamazoo College, she taught a wide range of courses, from music theory and history to rock and roll. She is President of the Board of Trustees of the Gilmore Piano Festival and the author (with Jane Rooks Ross) of 100 Years of Great Music, celebrating the centenary of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Pixley is deeply interested in how music reflects, responds to, and shapes its cultural and social context, as well as in the beauty and power of the music itself.

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.

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.

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.

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.