Arts & Culture

Arts & Culture in Edison Neighborhood

Welcome to Kalamazoo's Budding Arts District

Edison Neighborhood continues to establish itself as a growing center for arts and culture in Kalamazoo with theaters and performance spaces like Dormouse Theatre, Clover Room Sugar Bowl Bar & Grille and Move with Joy Studio as well as galleries, beautiful murals and artists studios studded throughout! Edison Neighborhood Association aids in this journey by creating public art and paid art opportunities through our Edison Market Gallery artist in residency program, Washington Avenue Arts & Culture Crawl and more!

Upcoming Art Events and Opportunities

We are so excited to announce an incoming public arts pocket park that will feature a monumental sculpture by local artist James Gordon Jackson. Jackson has over 40 years of experience and involvement in artistic and design endeavors, having presented numerous showings of his paintings, sculptures, and furniture designs, throughout Michigan and the Midwest. He has created large sculptures (all within 1200to 1800 pounds) and one 26-ton sculpture. Jackson has also been recognized internationally at the Modern Art Gallery in Pushkin, Russia exhibiting a one-man show of his works. We are happy to be sharing his inaugural piece in Kalamazoo right on the corner of Lake St. and Portage.

The Artist's Philosophy

Jackson draws inspiration from the gracefulness and magnificence of materials arts.

"As a martial artist, Aikido is a fundamental part of my philosophy for art and life. I believe a person's involvement with the universe and his fellow man should be three- sided: Ai, which is harmony or coordination with we the universe; Ki which is spirit or energy; and Do, which is the way or method. Ki is the center, the universe and everything in it has its own Ki, and it is tns moves before anything else does. Your Ki moves to shape a sculpture before your hands ever do moves r d anything. The sculpture also has its own Ki. Finally, you must create, and for that you need Do, or develop a method. A part of my method is to balance out some of the wrongs society is doing to our earth. 1 use materials others throw out. My mission is to find the natural beauty in those materials and present it back to the world with that beauty revealed. Through this method, I work in harmony with my fellow man."

WAACC