Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
LightNews LightNews
banner
kiarts.bsky.social
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
@kiarts.bsky.social
750 followers 41 following 19 posts
The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts' mission is to cultivate the creation and appreciation of the visual arts in West Michigan. We believe the arts are for everyone.
Posts Replies Media Videos
kiarts.bsky.social
Now on view:
👉✋ Celebrate talented regional artists in the 2025 West Michigan Area Show.

🎆 Leo Villareal: Interstellar invites viewers into the immersive digital worlds of Leo Villareal, where code, celestial bodies, and humanity converge into a fusion of art and technology.
A glass sculpture with a color pattern resembling a monarch butterfly wing sits in a display case in front of a wall of several paintings at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Custom LED panels on a museum wall glow with colorful purple and yellow abstract shapes, while illuminated circles are projected onto an adjacent wall at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
June 27, 2025 at 3:56 PM
kiarts.bsky.social
Sourced from the 'Zoo, now on view (with a theremin too).
Art, including paintings and portraits, hangs on two gallery walls - one blue and one white - while a sculptural installation sits on a pedestal in the foreground. A person wearing a black jacket and hat operates a theremin, a musical instrument contained in a wooden cabinet with metal piping extending from it. Two people discuss the Sourced from the Zoo object guide while kneeling at a table with a typewriter on it. Two parents and a child lean in to look at and discuss a quilled paper artwork piece hanging on a gallery wall.
March 14, 2025 at 8:51 PM
kiarts.bsky.social
Friday from 6–9pm is our annual Hands On event—a lively evening to experience the joy of art making. From wheel throwing and printmaking to welding and textiles, you’ll have the chance to try the activities that happen in our studios every day. See the projects: kiarts.org/knas-hands-on-event/
A person sits at a pottery wheel, shaping clay into a bowl shape. Children and adults work on assembling metal pieces into larger sculptures at different tables in a large metalworking studio. A person in a blue apron and KIA nametag uses needle-nose pliers to shape a piece of jewelry while a person in a gray sweatshirt and hat watches closely. They stand over a table with jewelry making supplies in bags and baskets.
March 5, 2025 at 2:44 PM
kiarts.bsky.social
"What makes us feel like we belong? Who are the people, or what life events have lifted us up?" The works and characters in An Infinite Constellation of Love encourage you to consider these questions.

Visit this fantastical realm through June 15.
A family of imaginative characters of felt and fiber—including a fireball, a snow person, a grumpy piece of toast, and a gumdrop penguin—sit in a garden of vibrant flowers and potato rocks. Image credit: JooYoung Choi, The Freizor-Bern Family: And it was Plain to See You were my Destiny, 2019-2025, wooden armature, quilt poly fiber batting, fleece, poly-fill, metal hardware, polyfoam, and felt. Courtesy of the artist and Inman Gallery. Three vibrant paintings by artist JooYoung Choi hang on museum gallery walls featuring characters and events from her Cosmic Womb series.
February 25, 2025 at 6:15 PM
kiarts.bsky.social
This is the last weekend to see our exhibition Legendary Voices: Art for the Next Century. It pairs artworks from different periods, artists, and genres to create compelling connections and dialogues, while also illuminating the breadth of our permanent collection.

Sat: 11am–5pm
Sun: 12pm–4pm
An art gallery with four artworks of different mediums hanging on a wall, and two others - including a black ash basket - on pedestals. Photo by Colleen Woolpert. An art gallery with numerous abstract artworks on a wall in groupings and pairings, with a variety of bright geometric shapes and patterns. The gallery space surrounds a staircase to a lower gallery. Two visitors are shown in a motion blur. Photo by Colleen Woolpert. Two people, each wearing a blazer and name tag, stand in an art gallery as they point at and discuss a painting in a large and ornate gold colored frame. Photo by Colleen Woolpert.
February 14, 2025 at 7:39 PM
kiarts.bsky.social
A new highlight in our lobby features artist Jill Waskowsky. Her lithograph Kirk II pays homage to Kirk Newman, a prominent sculptor, teacher, and contributor to the Kalamazoo art community. It juxtaposes realism with stylized, whimsical elements, reflecting Newman’s artistic and personal legacy.
A lithograph of artist Kirk Newman. He wears a black suit and lifelike expression, humorously disrupted with a bright and multicolored geometric top hat and oversized striped bowtie. Circular cutouts in the suit and the exaggerated gesture of the subject's hand refer to the imagery seen in Newman’s own lithographs. Image credit: Jill Waskowsky, Kirk II, 1983, lithograph, hand-colored. Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; Donation from Edward Sackley III, 2006. A photo of a framed lithograph of artist Kirk Newman. He wears a black suit and lifelike expression, humorously disrupted with a bright and multicolored geometric top hat and oversized striped bowtie. Circular cutouts in the suit and the exaggerated gesture of the subject's hand refer to the imagery seen in Newman’s own lithographs. Image credit: Jill Waskowsky, Kirk II, 1983, lithograph, hand-colored. Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; Donation from Edward Sackley III, 2006.
February 7, 2025 at 5:45 PM
kiarts.bsky.social
We're excited to journey into the dazzling and boundless world of JooYoung Choi in An Infinite Constellation of Love, opening Feb. 22.

Choi's videos, sculptures, paintings, and site-specific installations are inspired by science fiction, fantasy, social justice, and the artist’s personal history.
A photograph of a sculptural installation of comic figures, each containing dozens of panels of colorful fabric with shapes resembling faces. The larger figure is holding a smaller one aloft in one of its hands. They stand against a backdrop of trees and a starry night sky.
January 23, 2025 at 1:43 PM
kiarts.bsky.social
Currently on view in our lower level galleries.
laurajg.bsky.social Laura JG @laurajg.bsky.social · Dec 17
"The Visitation," c. 1909-1910, by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937), the first internationally known African-American artist, oil on canvas, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist, also thru a miracle. More in ALT. #arthistory #Christmas
The museum label text: "This painting presents the meeting between Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, as recounted in the Bible. Both women are pregnant— Elizabeth's son will be John the Baptist and Mary will give birth to Jesus. According to the story, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit when the future mother of Christ arrives and John the Baptist kicks joyfully in his mother's womb in response to Christ's presence. The artist includes the viewer in this private moment by bringing Elizabeth and the table close to the picture plane and placing them at the viewer's level. The intimate space and dramatic use of light and shade, especially the shadow cast by Elizabeth's form, heighten the emotion of the scene. Religion always played an important role in Henry Ossawa Tanner's life. With the artistic freedom he found in Europe, this African-American artist built a successful career and international reputation. From the 1890s until the end of his life, Tanner painted exclusively religious scenes."
December 18, 2024 at 6:10 PM
kiarts.bsky.social
Flashback Friday: In 1947, the KIA moved from a leased temporary home to its first owned home, a renovated Victorian mansion at 421 West South Street.

Zoom in for details: The KIA was then known as the Kalamazoo Art Center. The sign noting the move to Jasper St. places the photo in 1958.
Black & white photograph of a Victorian mansion, circa 1958, with signage indicating the home of the Kalamazoo Art Center.
December 13, 2024 at 10:16 PM
kiarts.bsky.social
Trying to be one of the first accounts on here to post about using a steamroller as a printing press.
A steamroller drives over an inked woodblock in a parking lot in order to produce a canvas print as onlookers stand and watch from behind a barrier. The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts entrance is seen in the background. A black and white woodblock print celebrating the South Street Print Fest and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts' 100th anniversary hangs with clothespins as it dries. The print itself depicts the event, showcasing a steamroller and the KIA building. Two people wearing bright safety vests reveal a printed canvas produced by driving an asphalt roller over an inked woodblock. People watch and cheer for the reveal in the background from behind a barrier. An artist's gloved hands hold a roller as they ink up a woodblock relief carving.
November 19, 2024 at 4:45 PM
kiarts.bsky.social
Introducing ourselves on Bluesky like a true Michigander.
A color etching by artist Stephen Hansen depicting the ubiquitous habit, in Michigan, of mapping the outline of the Lower Peninsula upon our own bodies. In the foreground, a helpful Michigander points to their hand. In the background, local architecture and monuments are assembled in a compressed Kalamazoo skyline, while caricatures humorously represent the people of the city with reference to local history, cultural institutions, business, and agriculture. And of course, the windows of the KIA reveal a festive event—perhaps the opening of Hansen's 1992 retrospective for which this print was made.
November 15, 2024 at 9:10 PM
kiarts.bsky.social
Let's start at the top: With 464 individually blown glass pieces measuring 7 feet in diameter and weighing nearly 1,000 pounds.
A hand blown glass sculpture hangs from a ceiling, featuring hundreds of red, orange, and yellow twisting and spiraling glass tubes and shapes radiating out from the center.
November 15, 2024 at 1:58 PM