News Release

Keweenaw National Historical Park Launches Commissioned Artist Program

Date: February 5, 2024
Contact: e-mail us

Calumet, MI – Keweenaw National Historical Park, its Advisory Commission, and Isle Royale and Keweenaw Parks Association seek an artist to create an art installation on the western side of US-41, near the Dry House Ruins.

The Keweenaw Peninsula has been the site of copper extraction for more than 7,000 years. Visitors come from all over the world to visit what remains of one of the Earth’s most productive mining regions. As people moved on, much of the industrial landscape has given way to the return of nature. Beautiful forests surround historic buildings, grasses and wildflowers reclaim open spaces.                                                                  

One feature of the mines is not visible to modern visitors – the workers and their families who once crowded Copper Country. The goal of this program is to use art to return the presence of people to these historic landscapes.

The Quincy Dry House represents the transition between the domestic and industrial sides of the miners’ lives. While the mines were in operation, miners changed into their work clothes at a Dry House before walking down to the shafts. After work, they would change out of their work clothes and wash up before heading home.

The artist will be contracted for a period of six weeks of the artist’s choice between July 8^th and August 30^th.

Applications open on February 1, 2024. All applications must be submitted electronically by 11:59 ET on February 26 for consideration. More information on the position, as well as the application form is found on our website https://www.nps.gov/kewe/getinvolved/commissioned-artist-program.htm.