Artists Selected for Fifth Annual Artist-in-Residence Program

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Mackinac State Historic Parks is pleased to announce the artists selected for the fifth annual Mackinac Island Artist-in-Residence program, which is housed in the remodeled second floor of the Mackinac Island State Park Visitor’s Center, formerly the 1915 Mackinac Island Coast Guard Station.

 The Mackinac State Historic Parks Artist-In-Residence Program is designed to promote and encourage the creation of artistic works inspired by the history, natural wonders, and beauty of Mackinac Island. The two-week residencies will begin in early June and continue through late September.

 The selected artists will provide one public presentation (workshop, lecture, reading, demonstration, etc.) on the second Wednesday of their residency at 7:00 p.m. and contribute one piece of their work to Mackinac State Historic Parks within 12 months.

The residents for 2023 include:

  • Sample piece from Dustin Hunt.

     – Dustin Hunt, June 6 – June 18, workshop June 14: Hunt, from Ann Arbor, is a muralist. Their work begins with inquiry: who and what are valuable to a community, overlooked, and worthy of acknowledgment in a community? What stories have yet to be told? Who and what makes a place rich with character, history, and culture? Regional history, archives, interviews, and conversations lead the way to inspiration and often become the focal points of murals. When the focal points are determined, Hunt mixes techniques to create an eclectic mural composition. While on the island Hunt is interested in seeking out narratives often misunderstood yet worthy of highlighting.

  •  – Andrew David Perkins, June 20 – July 2, workshop June 28: Perkins is a composer, conductor, and GRAMMY® nominated music educator from Fenton. Their compositions for wind ensemble have been finalists for The National Band Association Revelli Award, Merrill Jones Award, and The Ravel International Composition Prize. Perkins’ music is regularly performed at state, national, and international contests & conferences, and at the Midwest International Band Clinic. Perkins won the National Band Association Alfred Publishing Young Band Composition Prize in 2018, and the 2021 American Prize in Wind Band Composition. Perkins is looking forward to the opportunity to do deep work surrounded by Mackinac Island’s natural and historical beauty.
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  •  – Lauren Carlson, July 4 – July 16, workshop July 12: Carlson is a poet from Manistee. In Carlson’s work the quotidian violence of rural life, domestic duty, and dailiness give way to lush accommodating reveries. Grounded in landscape and rhythm, the body and soul are intertwined. Carlson is seeking a more holistic yet nonetheless rigorous approach to the spirit and its raptures, one that resists binaries and engages paradox. The natural environment is essential to their writing, and Carlson often use their observations of both violence and beauty in landscape and place to inform poems. Carlson is looking to become immersed in Mackinac Island’s singular environment for their current project.

  • Photography by Marilyn Murphy-Feather

     – Marilyn Murphy-Feather, July 18 – July 30, workshop July 26: Murphy-Feather is a photographer based out of Sterling Heights. Always having a passion for photography, Murphy-Feather embraced it just over a decade ago. Inspired by the great outdoors, Murphy-Feather’s ambition is to photograph landscapes and immerse themself in nature to enjoy emotions of awe, joy and serenity while creating fine art. While on the island Murphy-Feather will be able to continue their quest of “Find Your Park through Art” to preserve all national and state lands for current and future generations to enjoy and explore.

  •  – John Dempsey, August 1 – August 13, workshop August 9: Dempsey is a landscape painter originally from Southeast Michigan who now resides in Hillsborough, NC. The residency will allow Dempsey the opportunity to continue research for a contemporary landscape painting studio practice and spend extended time drawing and photographing on the island for future landscape painting projects. One of Dempsey’s extended series of contemporary landscape paintings is titled the Michigan Chronicle Series. Those paintings include a wide variety of environments from all over the state, and the residency will allow them to continue and expand on that series.
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  •  – Patrick Mohundro, August 15 – August 27, workshop August 23: Mohundro is originally from Iron Mountain who now resides in New York City. For the past eight months they have been combining cast porcelain ‘canvases’ with stained glass. The new development is huge for Mohundro’s work, dealing with the structures around painting: form, texture, and color. Color has been one of the most challenging aspects of this project and stained glass has provided a beautiful solution. Each piece of stained glass is its own color field painting. While on the island, Mohundro will be mostly soldering the porcelain/stained glass constructions and getting to know the lay of the land.

  • Starling Shakespeare Company

     – Heron Kennedy and Jessie Lillis, August 29 – September 10, workshop September 6: Kennedy and Lillis are co-founding artistic directors of the Starling Shakespeare Company, a migratory theater company. They intend to adapt William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, to create a Mackinac Island-specific production. Not only will it tell the story of Prospero, Miranda, and the island-dwelling creatures in Shakespeare’s text, it will also serve as a celebration of Mackinac Island’s scenery, history, and atmosphere. They intend to combine their expertise– Shakespeare– with a deep love of the island by immersing themselves further into the community and setting, and creating something truly unique. This updated version of The Tempest will be performed on the island in 2024.

  •  – Amy Haimerl, September 12 – September 24, workshop September 20: Haimerl is an author and journalist from Detroit. Haimerl will spend their time on the island interviewing residents, taking oral histories and researching the island’s history. Haimerl looks to record the sounds of the island to make a mini soundscape documentary of life there, and they want to get a sense of the day-to-day rhythms of Mackinac Island and the people who keep it alive, something that reporters can only do by being present for an extended period of time. Haimerl is also interested in the “off-season” months, before and after the tourist season.

“Mackinac State Historic Parks looks forward to welcoming a very talented group of artists to Mackinac Island throughout the 2023 season,” said Mackinac State Historic Parks Director Steve Brisson. “We’re excited to see how each is inspired by Mackinac and how they share their creativity while on the island.”

A jury of representatives from Mackinac State Historic Parks, the Mackinac Arts Council, and the Mackinac Island Community Foundation selected from a pool of 197 qualified applicants. Selections were made solely on the basis of merit and how the artist’s work can advance the program’s goal of encouraging the creation of artistic works inspired by the history, natural wonders, and beauty of Mackinac Island.

More information on the Mackinac Island Artist-in-Residence program can be found here.

Artist-in-Residence Workshop with Playwright Alexander Utz

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Utz will present a staged reading of his new play, which he’s currently developing, called Gut. It is about the experiments conducted by William Beaumont on Alexis St. Martin, beginning on Mackinac Island and continuing until their time together came to an end. The presentation will include a brief introduction on how the play came to be, including how specific places in the story like Mackinac came to influence the telling of the story itself. Then the presentation will move on to a staged reading of the play, which will be performed outdoors (most likely in Marquette Park). Because a lot of the play deals with travel, the outdoors, and the idea of exploring frontiers in that time period, it should be very interesting to perform it outdoors, and something very powerful about enacting these historical events in one of the places they actually took place. After the reading, Utz will lead a discussion with the audience about the themes explored in the play, the process of writing it, and the potential for more development going forward.

This workshop will begin at the Station 256 Conference Room, located above the Mackinac Island State Park Visitor’s Center. This is a free event. #thisismackinac

What Can I Find at the Mackinac Island State Park Visitor’s Center?

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Ready or not the 2021 season is ready to start.

The Mackinac Island State Park Visitor’s Center from Fort Mackinac.

  If you’ve visited Mackinac Island, you probably remember the Mackinac Island State Park Visitor’s Center. It’s the building with the red roof just past the Chippewa Hotel. Today, we would like to share with you what the Mackinac Island State Park Visitor Center on Mackinac Island is all about and what you can find there.

  It’s simple, really: at the Mackinac Island State Park Visitor’s Center you can find out about all things Mackinac Island State Park. Want to know what demonstrations are going on at Fort Mackinac, or are interested in buying a ticket? Wondering what all comes with your Fort Mackinac ticket? We can help! Wondering about special events like Movies in the Fort or Music in the Park? Talk to us! Curious about the juried art exhibition at The Richard and Jane Manoogian Mackinac Art Museum, the Artist-in-Residence program, or the new exhibit at the Biddle House? We have the info. Want to know about the Botanical Trail, what’s at British Landing, or the status of M-185? That’s what we’re here for.

  There are some things we cannot help you with, though. Wondering who has the best fudge or how much a taxi ride is up to the Grand Hotel? You’re out of luck. If you’re interested in a Carriage Tour you’ll need to head down to the stand on Main Street. If you’re curious about hotels on the island, or dinner reservations, or who has the best night life, the Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau is your best bet, and that building is just down the road.

A new Arch Rock t-shirt available for the 2021 season.

  Starting in 2021, the Mackinac Island State Park Visitor’s Center will also serve as the home to the official Mackinac Island State Park Store. We will have great new souvenirs and merchandise: Arch Rock t-shirts, M-185 mile marker stickers, ornaments, mugs, and magnets, just to name a few. We also have all the Mackinac State Historic Park publications pertaining to Mackinac Island and as well as a few about our Mackinaw City sites.

U.S. Coast Guard Life-Saving Station stamp.

  Did you know that the Mackinac Island State Park Visitor Center was originally the site of the Coast Guard Life-Saving Station?  It was built in 1915, the year the Life-Saving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service were merged to form the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard closed the Mackinac Island Life-Saving Station in 1969, transferring operations to its new base in St. Ignace. In 1970 the Mackinac Island State Park Commission acquired the building, and the Visitor’s Center was born. We have a passport stamp available at the Mackinac Island State Park Visitor’s Center for the Mackinac Island U.S. Coast Guard Life-Saving Station if you would like to stop by and have your book stamped for a donation.

  The Mackinac Island State Park is also home to the Mackinac Island Artist-in-Residence Apartment, on the second floor, as well as the Station 256 Conference Room, also on the second floor. The conference room can be booked for small meetings and gatherings.

  The Mackinac Island State Park Visitor’s Center and official State Park Store open May 7. We hope to see you this summer!