Michigan Travel · Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo Art Hop Nov. 6: 55 free stops downtown and beyond, from glassblowing demos to a new KIA fashion exhibit
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Kalamazoo’s monthly Art Hop is Friday, Nov. 6, from 5 to 8 p.m., and this month’s map lists 55 stops, from galleries and studios to a bank, a bakery and a climbing gym. It is free.
The Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, which runs the event, gave November the theme “Legacy,” a tribute to “the artists, visionaries, and cultural storytellers whose creativity continues to inspire generations.” December’s Art Hop, on Dec. 4, is themed “Belonging.”
How the stops cluster
We sorted the 55 stops on the official map by address. Eighteen are on the Kalamazoo Mall, six of them at one address, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall, home to the Epic Center. Nine more are along Michigan Avenue. Eleven are in one building, 326 W. Kalamazoo Ave., which houses the Park Trades Center studios. That leaves 17 spread around town, including three at 1501 Fulford St. and one, Sakura2, far south on Westnedge Avenue.
That means a walker can see more than half the Art Hop by starting at the Epic Center, heading north up the mall and finishing at the Park Trades Center.
What to see
At the Epic Center, the Arts Council’s Westin Gallery opens a show from the Pine Cypress Art School, with work by students from children to adults taught by Julia Wang, which stays up through Nov. 30. Two group shows fill the building’s first floor and second-floor atrium, and the Black Arts and Cultural Center shows “Stitching Our Stories,” a collective quilt exhibition. The Kalamazoo Violin Choir plays at Wellspring in the same building.
The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, 314 S. Park St., holds the opening reception for “Statement Pieces: Fashioning the Self & Society.” The exhibition pairs works from the KIA collection with contemporary fashion from the Barrett Barrera Projects collection to look at how people have presented themselves over the last 200 years.
At the Park Trades Center, Glass Art Kalamazoo will hold glassblowing and torch-working demonstrations and a hands-on fused-glass project for a small fee. The Kalamazoo Book Arts Center there shows “Some Assembly Required,” the artist’s books of Julie Chen, a University of Wisconsin–Madison professor who has run Flying Fish Press for more than 36 years. The Starlite Collective holds a mini art mart with more than 20 local makers.
Other stops include Kalamazoo Valley Community College faculty and staff art at the Center for New Media, 100 E. Michigan Ave.; ceramic polyhedron models hand-built by a math professor at Ashcraft & The Masters; and a history show by Jacob and Zay Johnson that spans more than 150 years and centers on African American families, at the Vine Neighborhood Association, 806 S. Westnedge Ave.
The full map, with every artist, is on the Kalamazoo Art Hop website.
Sources:
Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, “Art Hop November 2026 - Legacy” (Nov. 6, 2026, 5-8 p.m., free; theme; December date), https://kalamazooarts.org/event/art-hop-november-2026-legacy/
Kalamazoo Art Hop, “Explore Art Hop” (November 2026 stop list and addresses; our address tally), https://kalamazooarthop.org/explore-art-hop/
Photo: Fifth Third Bank Building from Michigan Ave and Kalamazoo Mall, sf-dvs, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fifth_Third_Bank_Building_from_Michigan_Ave_and_Kalamazoo_Mall.jpg
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