FIA Offers Free Summer Art Sessions and Persian Art Lecture

FLINT, Michigan — The Flint Institute of Arts (FIA) is keeping busy this summer with two community offerings: a free weekly family art series and an upcoming lecture on Persian manuscript painting.

FIA’s free Funday Monday series runs every Monday through August 10, offering hands-on, nature- and art-inspired activities in Isabel Hall from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and again from 2:30 to 4 p.m. All ages are welcome, materials are provided, and children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. A $7 personal pizza-and-drink special is available at the Palette Café, and a Children’s Activity Poster is available at the front desk.

Remaining sessions include:

• July 20: Wear It Wild: Art You Can Put On
• July 27: Transparent Tricks & Shiny Things
• Aug. 3: Glow, Illusion & Impossible Designs
• Aug. 10: Cardboard Contraptions

And on Wednesday, July 22, at 6 p.m., inside its theater, the FIA will host this year’s Sheppy Dog Fund Lecture, “Painting Persian Potentates,” featuring guest lecturer Dr. Babak Elahi.

The talk will examine 16th-century manuscript illustrations from The Shahnameh (Book of Kings), commissioned by Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasb and based on the 10th-century Persian epic by Abolghassem Firdawsi. Elahi will discuss the poem alongside the paintings and the influence of Shah Tahmasb’s royal atelier painters on Iranian and world art.

Admission is free, and ASL interpretation will be provided.