Guardian Building main lobby

May 14, 2025

Dr. Margaret M. Miles: Plundered Art– Who Gets to Keep It?
7:00 pm Lecture | KIA Auditorium

Is it still possible for a museum to buy ancient art ethically? What about “Old Master” paintings that somehow are available after WWII?

Lovers of museums need to be aware of where art comes from, how, and when it got there. From the concept of “spoils of war” to today’s ideas about ownership, explore the ways we have thought about the ethical concerns around collecting art.

Margaret M. Miles is an archaeologist and the Edward A. Dickson Emerita Professor of Art History at the University of California, Irvine. She served as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Classical Studies at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.

Learn more HERE.

Art League Annual Meeting will precede talk. View Director Nominations HERE
Food As Art Reception following talk is presented by Kalamazoo Country Club Chef Ryne Bisnet and sponsored by Greenleaf Hospitality.

 

 

Join Art League’s depARTure to Detroit
May 20, 2025 – Sold out!

This day trip will take you to some of Detroit’s outstanding and famous buildings. See them with your own eyes. Enjoy the tours; be surprised by something you learn or see. Celebrate the restoration of Michigan Central.  Look up at ceilings, and old bronze chandeliers. Look at murals, sculptures, paintings — all kinds of artwork all in one depARTure!

This trip is sold out. Join the waiting list by contacting the travel committee. Find details HERE.

​Become a member of the Kalamazoo Art League

SPECIAL OFFER: $30 Art League member membership valid through June 2025. Find details and special offer membership form HERE.

Members’ dues support this great series of lectures. And free admission to lectures and receptions makes membership a great value!

Check out previous speakers and enjoy- or revisit- their recorded programs.

ART LEAGUE is a motivated and dedicated volunteer organization founded to organize annual lecture series at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. Annual dues (valid July 1st thru the next June 30th) are $45.

Since 1955, lecturers have been selected from across the US from the forefront of experts who create, curate, study, or write about art. Art League programs promote understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of the visual arts for its members, the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and our community.

Check out what our past lecturers have been doing since they spoke to Art League!

October 9, 2019

Crime Scene Conservation: Preserving the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death

March 12, 2019

Creating the Voice of a Community

April 10, 2019

The Face of Greatness: Abraham Lincoln in Art and Photographs