Community Calendar

Put on your favorite pair of shoes and join us for a special night celebrating the artistry of footwear. Join us for a Gallery Gathering in Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting Edge Kicks at 5:30 before we kick off Explore and Create Night at 6pm. Continue to explore the exhibition and then create your own shoe-inspired artworks while enjoying some sweet treats. Come explore how design, craft, and imagination come together—one step at a time. This evening is appropriate for all ages.

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.

This April, we’re taking a blue adventure through From Cobalt to Indigo: The Power of Blue in East Asia! From prints to pottery, we’ll find out how artists from East Asia create beautiful blues and use them in their amazing artworks.

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!

Nature Journaling
Saturdays, April 4 & May 2, 10-11:30 am

Audience: Teens & Adults

Immerse yourself in the art of slowing down, looking closely, and connecting more deeply with the natural world. These nature journaling workshops are designed for anyone—who wants to cultivate a mindful, creative practice that blends observation, writing, and sketching.

These workshops invite you to step outdoors (or view nature from a window) and tune in to textures, colors, patterns, and stories unfolding around you. Along the way, you’ll explore topics such as seasonal change, nature-based mindfulness, basic field sketching techniques, and how to use your journal as a tool for wonder and awareness.

Please bring your own sketch or notebook. A limited amount of supplies will be available for those who may have misplaced their journal.

Fee: Members Free, Non-Member $10 Please register.

Eco Art in the Anthropocene
Find the frontier of art and nature with WMU’s IDEAS Collaboratory (InterDisciplinary Experimentations in Art and Science).

IDEAS students will be presenting a unique project drawn from explorations of the Nature Center, weaving together scientific and artistic principles to create a wholly new mixed media experience tied to the land here at KNC.

This collaboration is one you will not want to miss!

Audience: Adults
Meet: Visitor Center Auditorium
April 4 2-4PM

Fee: Included in regular KNC admission; KNC Members free!

Please join us the first Saturday of each month at 9 AM (barring special events or bad weather which will be announced on our Facebook page), for "Beginning Birding Walks," led by experienced birders from the Audubon Society of Kalamazoo. This event is free and open to the public. Meet at the second parking lot at Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery in Mattawan, just off SR 43. All skill levels are welcome.

We will enjoy nature while typically identifying 20-40 species of birds, plus butterflies, frogs, etc. Over 200 bird species have been sighted at Wolf Lake, which offers a variety of habitats and easy walking trails. Annual highlights include colorful songbirds like orioles, warblers, tanagers, hawks and eagles, kingfishers, Great Blue and Green Herons, and over 20 species of waterfowl. Eastern Bluebirds can be found year-round! Children accompanying adults are welcome. The focus is on birding fundamentals, and extra binoculars are always available. The walk typically takes about 2 hours (but feel free to arrive late or leave early).

Silver Maples: Saving Woods Lake

Invisible Salt and Urban Dead Seas

April 8, 11 am – 1 pm

Audience: Geared for Adults 50+, but all are welcome

Road salt deicers are widely used in the U.S. and around the world to make roads safer for winter driving. However, the application of road salt may have significant impacts on natural systems.

Local scientist Dr. Carla Koretsky will share her work completed at two lakes in Kalamazoo (Woods Lake and Asylum Lake), demonstrating the significant impact that road salt can have on the biogeochemistry and physical functioning of urban lakes.

Bring your lunch! We will eat together after the program. This program is geared for adults 50 and up, but all ages are welcome.

Part of the Silver Maples Series: NatureCenter/SilverMaples

Fee: Member $12, Non-Member $15 Please register.

During this virtual ArtBreak, learn more about Nick La Marca, the multimedia artist whose Sole Lines installation is on view in the KIA lobby. La Marca is an artist and documentarian working across photography and installation. Born and raised in the Bronx, his practice is deeply informed by the city’s cultural vibrancy and diversity. La Marca’s work engages art and design as forms of social practice, using creativity as a bridge between personal narrative, community histories, and broader societal issues. At the core of his projects is a commitment to recognition and research–illuminating local or “micro” concerns and situating them within larger cultural or economic frameworks. His installations and photographic works often serve as platforms for dialogue, highlighting how lived experiences intersect with questions of value, identity, and community. Through this approach, La Marca positions art as both a document and an agent of change, underscoring its ability to connect creativity with social responsibility.

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 Great KIA Book Swap returns! Bring gently used books to the KIA to trade for new-to-you titles! We are excited to offer this sustainable reading opportunity to our community. Music and refreshments will be provided. Enter a raffle for great prizes from our sponsors! Receive one raffle ticket per book, with a limit of five tickets per person. You must be present at the time of the drawing to win raffle prizes. Please no textbooks, encyclopedias or magazines. Books should be in good physical condition—no moldy, torn, or damaged books. Keep in mind that this is a book swap, so bring a book in the condition that you would want to receive.

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

Attend the tale of a barber who returns from unjust exile, driven by vengeance and a hunger for justice. When he joins forces with Mrs. Lovett, a resourceful pie shop owner, the results are both horrific and strangely compelling.

Winner of eight Tony Awards including Best Musical, Sweeney Todd blends sharp wit, chilling suspense, and a powerful score that ranges from haunting ballads to biting satire. Described as “one of the greatest musicals ever written” (New York Post) and “a nightmare of a show and in some ways a dream” (The Guardian), this tale of love, loss, and razor-sharp revenge continues to resonate.