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Tagged: Artists

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Arts/Culture
6:00 am
Mon September 26, 2011

North Woods: An artist residency on Rabbit Island (with photos)

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Rabbit Island lies about three miles east of the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Credit Jennifer Guerra / Michigan Radio
Artist Andrew Ranville and his girlfriend make the three mile trek to the island in a motor boat
Credit Jennifer Guerra / Michigan Radio
Wading in with the help of a rope
Credit Jennifer Guerra / Michigan Radio
The Adirondack shelter will serve as the headquarters for the Rabbit Island residency
Credit Jennifer Guerra / Michigan Radio
The kitchen
Credit Jennifer Guerra / Michigan Radio
The bookshelves house the Rabbit Island library
Credit Jennifer Guerra / Michigan Radio
Artist Andrew Ranville surveys the island
Credit Jennifer Guerra / Michigan Radio
A view from main camp
Credit Photo courtesy of Rob Gorski
Two fiddle players perform on Rabbit Island as the sun sets
Credit Jennifer Guerra / Michigan Radio
Andrew Ranville may use this area to build tree-house studio on Rabbit Island
Credit Photo courtesy of Andrew Ranville
Ranville built this seven-tree installation in the Lakeland area of Finland. This is an example of what the future tree-house studio on Rabbit Island could look like.
Credit Jennifer Guerra / Michigan Radio
Tom Rudd and Margo McCafferty-Rudd in their garden. The two artists would like to see an artist exchange program between Rabbit Island and Manhattan.
Credit Jennifer Guerra / Michigan Radio
This sculpture by Tom is a work in progress
Credit Jennifer Guerra / Michigan Radio
Margo, a painter, says the artist residency she did on Isle Royale was one of her favorites.
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Earlier this summer we told you about a remote island in Lake Superior called Rabbit Island:

New Yorker Rob Gorski saw the 91-acre island listed for sale on Craiglist. At first, he was skeptical. But after talking it over with his brother, both of whom are Michigan natives, they bought the island for less than $150,000.

The land, known as Rabbit Island, is about a half hour boat ride from the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Gorski says the plan is to preserve the island as is, and build only a small, green cabin where future artists can stay.

"We’d like to be able to send an artist, maybe two, out to the island to practice their creative process within an entirely isolated environment. We think it’d be a very remote experience, it’d be very difficult in some ways, but I think the end result could be very interesting."

As part of my series, Stories from the North Woods, I took the 3.5-mile boat ride from Rabbit Bay to Rabbit Island to see how the residency is coming along.

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ArtPrize 2011
5:04 pm
Tue September 20, 2011

This year try listening to ArtPrize

Credit Lindsey Smith / Michigan Radio
The Total Blam Blams play at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids Saturday night. Jason and Nora Heystek front the band which is entering ArtPrize for the first time this year.
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ArtPrize 2011 begins Wednesday afternoon in Grand Rapids. Sound and performing arts will play a bigger role in this year’s contest. Music, ballet, and other performances are, after all, art. But there haven’t been a lot of entries in the past.

The winner of the art competition gets $250,000 in prize money. Organizers claim it’s the world’s largest art prize.

This is the third annual ArtPrize. The third time I’ve seen giant sculptures, breath-taking murals, funny and eye-opening drawings take over a three-mile zone in downtown.

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Arts/Culture
12:38 pm
Tue August 9, 2011

Ypsilanti studio space "spurs" on artists, musicians

Credit Doug Aikenhead / Michigan Radio Picture Project
James Marks, SPUR Studios founder, in front of the building on Railroad Street in Ypsilanti
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You can file this story under "silver lining."

Michigan's recession has left a lot of empty buildings in its wake. When James Marks was looking for a larger building to house his t-shirt and flat screen printing company, VG Kids, he looked at a two-story brick building on Railroad Street in Ypsilanti.

The building had plenty of space, but was divided into dozens of small rooms. Marks says the space wasn't a good fit for his company, but it was perfect for artists’ studios:

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