The Keweenaw Community Foundation is proud to support the local arts! Jerome Patryjak, a local artist in Calumet, recently submitted a conceptual rendering for the Big Annie statue project and has received a $500.00 award grant funded by the KCF. 

According to Sara Fletcher with the KCF, the foundation is excited to put grant money toward the “ARTS” community. The goal of this conceptual rendering art competition was to facilitate community involvement in the Big Annie statue project through an artist’s eye. 

Jerome has Calumet roots and relocated to the Calumet area two years ago. Through his interest in this Big Annie Statue project and his research, he discovered that he has a historical relationship with Anna Klobuchar Clemenc through a friendship between Anna’s mother and Jerome’s grandmother. Jerome has an extensive art background, with an MFA from Southern Illinois University, experience in freelance art and book illustration, along with a career in Commercial Display. He talked about how his great grandparents migrated to the US as 17 to 20 year olds from southern Europe, created lives for themselves in the Calumet area within the mining industry, and raised families; all within a period of great social change across both the US and Europe. He expressed this through his artistic conceptual rendering of what he envisions the Big Annie statue to be. The Anna Klobuchar Clemenc Statue project seeks to increase Community awareness of Calumet’s historical significance, and the footprint this woman left behind. 

The Anna Clemenc Gala fundraiser will take place On June 22, 2024 at the Calumet Theater, during which the winning art piece will be unveiled. Calumet will celebrate Anna Clemenc week sponsored by area businesses from June 17th through the 22nd.

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