When it comes to celebrating its creative side, Marquette found a single weekend is not enough. Thus was born, eight years ago, the Marquette Art Week.
Last year at sunrise, the week started with a reading of “The Art of Reconnection” by Milton J. Bates, the 2020 winner of the city’s Annual Writer Award and a former Guggenheim Fellow.
During our darkest days artisans and artists continued to work, often in isolation. Now may their light tunnel through the darkness to reconnect us.
“No one wanted to wake up that early,” admits Tiina Morin, arts and culture manager for the city of Marquette, about that outdoor opening, “but it got to the essence of the entire week – someone simply reading their poem. It struck us all how powerful human expression is and how much the Lake, for Marquette, keeps us going and inspires us.”
Besides re-igniting community engagement after pandemic isolation, Milton’s poem also represents the city’s commitment to its creative side. The poem, like most of the Art Week activities, was commissioned by the city and this year funding also comes from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council.
The goal of the Marquette Art Week is full community involvement and the organizers encourage that by helping to fund ideas. Different themes are chosen each year and various groups and individuals apply to be part of the celebration. Art Week showcases local talent with live performances, artist demonstrations, studio tours, poetry, walking tours, artist markets and community art projects – all free.
This week helps everyone recognize their own inner artist, Tiina says. “Art Week reminds us to seek, share and cultivate our creativity alongside friends and neighbors, but also, to see our community in new ways, experiencing art in unexpected places.”
The Superior Watershed Partnership has joined with the other Marquette Art Week sponsors for the theme of “Water.” The focus strikes home for the shoreside city. “The community has fully embraced this year’s water theme,” says Tiina. “The Lake impacts everyone’s daily life, speaking to us all.”
“Water” also echoes planning objectives for the city, which owns 9.5 miles of shore, she says. “We are fortunate that 85% of our coastline is accessible for public use.”
As befitting the theme, this year’s Art Week centers along the waterfront and flows toward Lake Superior. Again this year a sunrise poem launches the week on Monday at the mouth of the Carp River. The poem is a father-daughter collaboration by Dr. Martin Reinhardt and his daughter, Biidaaban Reinhardt. Martin, a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, teaches at Northern Michigan University.
“That’s the edge of the Cultural Trail and Art Week goes from there to Presque Isle throughout the week,” Tiina says.
Each day from June 20-25 will include a Cultural Trail Conversation. These history tours span pre-Indigenous history to present day. Besides the Monday poem, Martin will share his knowledge of the six Anishinaabe villages in and near Marquette.
“Art Week provides a platform for a larger conversation about our place on this Lake,” says Tiina, “to share our stories, our history … to reexamine and deepen our relationship with water and how we can protect it for future generations.”
The number of organizations involved in the week reflects the full community commitment. Performances and activities are curated by, to name a musical few, Hiawatha Music Co-op, Superior String Alliance Chamber Players, Marquette Senior High School Chamber Choir, Marquette City Band, Marquette Symphony Orchestra Summer Strings and TaMaMa Dance Company. There will also be concerts by Waawiyeyaa, an Anishinaabe rock band, the Feltliners duo and other local musicians.
Each day centers on a different part of the city’s water-facing sections.
Monday runs the entire length of the bike path from the Carp River to Presque Isle. Tuesday is South Beach while Wednesday is downtown. Thursday returns to Presque Isle, Friday to Marquette’s Yacht Club and Lower Harbor and Saturday on the Lighthouse Grounds.
The fine arts portion of Art Week features multiple plein air opportunities, plus an art stroll to different galleries, studios and businesses. An Artists & Artisan Market comes to the downtown Farmer’s Market site on Wednesday and a Presque Isle Art Fair on Thursday.
Many activities encourage kids to get creative, like the Paint the Town Chalk Festival hosted by the Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum. Families are invited to create water-themed chalk art on sidewalks through the entire downtown.
On Thursday, the Superior Watershed Partnership is organizing a massive ephemeral illustration “etched by a local artist on 200 feet of Lake Superior’s sand canvas” and intended to disappear from the wind and water.
“What Water Wants to Be” is a Wednesday highlight, with Ore Dock Brewing Company hosting a community panel with from Trout Unlimited, NMU and the Superior Watershed Partnership. There also will be a performance by singer/songwriter Seth Bernard, founder of Earthwork Music, a pop-up art show featuring work by local and Great Lakes-based artists and brewery tours.
Also on Friday, Marquette Area Sister Cities Partnership gets involved to celebrate with a traditional Midsummer Festival that features Finnish live music and dance.
The beach becomes the stage for Saturday’s closing concert with Michael Waite and a dance premiere of “Sanctuary” from TaMaMa. But before that, Saturday brings perhaps the most popular recurring annual activity of the week – the Fresh Coast Plein Air Painting Festival on the grounds of Marquette’s iconic red lighthouse.
“What better way to be outside, really looking, and paying attention,” says Tiina.
And that well sums up the goal of a week of creativity – paying attention to the community’s past, its present and its artistic side.