Kalamazoo Institute of Arts

When the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts planned a major expansion of it’s 1950s building it wanted an innovative hands-on learning experience for its visitors. Working closely with the institute’s staff of educators and curators, InterActive Group developed ARTworks, a new interactive gallery and exhibits to engage visitors in cutting edge sensory-based learning. The institute’s highly regarded art collection became the inspiration for a series of family-based exhibit activities that put visitors in the role of the artist to explore fundamental themes in creativity. Visitors of all ages engage in discovery-based learning in a visitor-friendly setting to explore themes ranging from the patterns in KIA’s collection of quilts to the large-scale approach to color field painting on oversized canvases. Museum attendance rose sharply after opening with many visitors singling out ARTworks as a reason for visiting.