Events
‘North Country Seasons’: An Invitation to Area Artists to Collaborate By Marina Lachecki The Four Seasons are a foundation for our life here in the North Country. We sing, dance, paint, draw, write, and tell stories about the four seasons. We have ancient cultural teachings which can deepen our understanding of them (Ojibwe, Celtic, European ethnic, African).
2021 exhibit, performances, and workshops If you are a visual or performing artist in the Chequamegon Bay area, you are invited to exhibit existing work on the theme of the four seasons in a yearround art show, “North Country Seasons,” to be hung by the end of 2020. The project will also involve four seasonal performances and workshops (where you can collaborate with other artists to create new work) scheduled for January, April, June, and September 2021. Think: music, dance, storytelling, poetry, prose, pastels, pen and ink, photography, acrylics, watercolors. All these activities will take place at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center outside of Ashland, Wisc., or with some virtual applications as we continue to monitor the health needs of the region.
How did this project come about? The project was inspired by the Chequamegon Bay Arts Council’s 2019 spring community art show, “Art Heals.” The call for entries for that show said: “Art heals. It can lift, brighten, lighten, and enlighten. It informs, teaches, edifies, and can sanctify. It helps us uncover, reveal, confront, forgive, descend, ascend, and transcend.” To build upon that foundation, CBAC applied for and received a Creative Communities Grant this year from the Wisconsin Arts Board. The Creative Communities Program is a statewide competitive process which supports the creation and development of the arts at the local level. The planning, teaching, and performing team are working now and will be advertising the details of these opportunities to all area artists and aspiring high school students as the project develops. If you are interested in being a part of this adventure, please email Marina at mdlachecki@gmail.com. If you know of someone we should invite, let her know that, too.
“Maple Wheel,” by Janet Moore
The project is coordinated by Marina Lachecki (a retired minister, singer, writer, and storyteller from Ashland): She has directed community arts grants (La Pointe Center and WI Arts Board) to develop a community choir and organize Marina Lachecki cabarets, festivals, and musicals on Madeline Island for the past 20 years. Her primary art is one of interdisciplinary collaboration, working with musicians, actors, dancers, potters, weavers, mixed media artists, painters, and playwrights. She is an author of three books (1990, Teaching Kids to Love the Earth; 1995, More Teachings Kids to Love the Earth; 1999, These Twelve Days), a published essayist (2009, 2019, 2020 in Lake Superior Magazine), and has produced two CDs as a community arts project on Madeline Island (2011, Across the Water, and 2018, Lake Affections).
The following area artists will participate as workshop teachers and performers:
• Rob Goslin, Sr. (an Ojibwe storyteller and cultural educator from Bayfield): Rob is a tribal member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Indians. He holds a master’s degree in Education with an emphasis in Higher Education. Rob has spent his career of over 40 years in American Indian communities The project is in partnership with the Northern Great Lakes Visitor both on a local, regional, and national level, with the majority Center and is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts of his experience focusing on community wellness. He has Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. served as a national consultant in early childhood develop-
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