A Summer Walk in Calumet
A salad from the market that includes flower blossoms. Photo by Miriam Pickens.
July is a great month for art exploration. Three of the best known events; the Hiawatha Music Festival and the KBIC 45th Annual Maawanji'iding are both happening on the weekend of July 21-23. The famous Art on the Rocks is the following weekend on July 29 -30. All of these festivals are great for families, with lots to do and see.
Closer to home, I enjoy taking a stroll in Calumet to visit the different galleries. I started at the Calumet Art Center on the South end, and enjoyed all the different spaces where art is displayed and classes are happening, as well as the community market.
Rachel Walls-White with her products from “By Nature’s Design.” Photo by Miriam Pickens.
Laura Hamlett teaches stained-glass classes and Donna Lenard teaches watercolor. There are many pieces of art for sale to help support the gallery and community events. I also really like walking around the rose garden, looking at all the flowers and the Peace Pole, placed there by the founders. The community market started on July 2, and features artists like Jeanne Medlyn selling homespun yarn, Annie Miller with painted rocks, and local food producers like Carla Beck from Second Chance Farms.
Next I went across the road to the Calumet Visitor Center for the Keweenaw Historic National Park. The sales gallery is on the main floor, where you can sign up for tours, and speak to the Rangers about all the Historic sites around the Keweenaw, from Copper Harbor all the way down to the Porcupine Mountains. The main focus of the park is preservation of the buildings such as this one—which was the Union Building—and others like the Quincy Mine Hoist and the Calumet Theater, as well as educating the public about the social and cultural aspects of the mining industry and that important period of time in our history.
The second floor has an amazing interactive exhibit where you can learn all about the history of the Copper Country. You can see wonderful old photos blown up into wall-size pictures revealing the incredible detail that was captured by old-fashioned cameras and then printed, one careful image at a time, onto gelatin silver prints. I really enjoy the intricate designs in so many of the objects, as well as in the buildings themselves. That, along with the music and voices that come alive as you enter each room, portray this spectacular time in Copper Country history.
Copper World’s display window. Photo by Miriam Pickens.
I stopped by Copper World next, where I found a copy of “Is this an Agate?” by Susan Robinson, and purchased a greeting card from the large collection of cards decorated with quilling. Quilling is an ancient art of rolling thin paper strips of different colors, and pasting them onto a card or board to create a picture, usually of flowers, but there are many animals in the collection by Iconic Quilling, a small business in Minneapolis, and it was fun to browse them. I was really impressed with the Copper World windows, all decked out with Copper Country History. One in particular has a painting done by the late Jerry Hammes, portraying downtown Calumet. Jerry belonged to the Copper Country Associated Artists, and he painted hundreds of Copper Country scenes, mostly people and buildings, in a folk artist style. He also baked a superb povitica, which he loved to share.
Inside the Copper Country Associated Artists gallery. Photo by Miriam Pickens.
My next stop was the Gallery on 5th, where a summer themed exhibition called “Thrive” is happening. It’s a collection of paintings depicting our wonderful summers with “beautiful depictions of wildlife, truly picturesque landscapes, colors of fresh water, hot sand, tanned skin, and blazing sunsets.”
Thrive will be up until July 12. Jerome Patryjak will have a display of his paper art starting July 15. The Gallery on 5th has a huge collection of paintings from artists such as Ellen Torola, Kevin Breyfogle, Mary Ann Beckwith and other locals, as well as many regional artists. There is a huge collection of functional pottery and sculptures, as well as impressive glass pieces.
Copper Island Clayworks was my next stop. I just like to look at Bill Thompson’s pottery with all the intricate designs carved out of the perfectly elegant vases and vessels. Most of the work in the gallery has been created in 2023. Bill told me that to create these patterns, first he lays 8–10 layers of brown color slip (a pigmented clay slurry) on the surface of the leather hard vessel, and then another 2–3 layers of black on top of that. Then he carves through all the layers down to the white clay for the white color; and a shallow carve through the black for the brown. It’s intense work, but a process that Bill has perfected over many years.
Inside Copper Island Clay Works. Photo by Miriam Pickens.
There are several other local artists represented in this shop. Paintings by local artists are on the walls, and Sherrie Thompson’s polymer clay jewelry is in the large metal vault that was salvaged from Copper Island Clay’s previous location. Bill’s studio is toward the back of the shop, where he works and teaches.
It was nice to see Jeanne Rosemurgy volunteering at the Copper Country Associated Artists (CCAA) Gallery. She creates amazing quilted pillows depicting butterflies, birds and local scenery, as well as handbags made with interesting fabric from her collection. Jeanne, along with Millie Little and Dolly Luoma, all fiber artists, will be featured artists at the Eagle Harbor Fair in August; which is run by the CCAA membership.
There’s always something new to see at this gallery, which, as a cooperative, is always welcoming new members. This cooperative has been a launchpad for many well known local artists for over sixty years, and I am grateful for the help they gave me in getting started on my path in the local art community.
My last stop was at the Calumet Farmer’s Market where I saw bountiful collections of vegetables, herbs and flowers, as well as artisan breads and kombucha. Rachel Walls-White was offering Henna designs, and at the Hepokoski Farm stand with Scandinavian home bakery and hand crafts, I found some delightful sweets, a perfect end to my Saturday exploration!
