annual PUBLIC arts EVENTS
Every year during the Residency we engage with the local community during a one-day public clay workshop.
day in clay 2025
Saturday August 2nd, 2025
Ewen Trout Creek School
Drop in anytime between 10am - 2pm
FREE and OPEN to ALL
Join us for a free, all-ages clay workshop, led by VCAC staff and visiting artists. Make your own mug or sculpture from the LOCAL red clay, detail it with your own designs, and we will fire it in our kiln at VCAC! Watch a slideshow and see samples of the clay process and finished clay artworks, and enjoy exhibits of artwork, surprise performances, and live music!
Day In Clay 2025 is supported by a Michigan Arts and Culture Council Experience Support Grant!
PREVIOUS YEAR’S EVENTS
In previous years, we have hosted public workshops in raku-firing and aluminum-casting, presentations on art and culture, and music performances by fiddlers, guitarists, accordionists, and bagpipers!
A DAY IN CLAY! 2024
Day In Clay 2024 is supported by a Michigan Arts and Culture Council Minigrant, administered by the Upper Peninsula Arts and Culture Alliance, and matched by generous donations from businesses and individuals.
A Day In Clay: A DECADE IN CLAY! 2023
Our 10th Annual PUBLIC Arts Event!
Day In Clay 2023 is supported by a Michigan Arts and Culture Council Minigrant, administered by the Copper Country Community Arts Council.
Day In Clay: 2022
Our 9th Annual Ewen Arts Event!
FREE and OPEN to ALL - Ewen Trout Creek School
Day In Clay 2022 is supported by a Michigan Arts and Culture Council Minigrant, administered by the Copper Country Community Arts Council.
2021… A Day In Clay: Make a Mug!
Saturday July 31st, 2021
FREE and OPEN to ALL - Ewen Trout Creek School
A Day In Clay: Make A Mug! is supported by a 2021 Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs Minigrant, administered by the Copper Country Community Arts Council.
FOR 2020, “A DAY IN CLAY” TRANSFORMS INTO “STAY IN CLAY!”
STAY In Clay will run August 1st - August 8th, 2020, in partnership with the Ewen Trout-Creek School in Ewen, MI. We will be distributing FREE do-it-yourself kits to Make-Your-Own-Mug at home, using Ewen’s local clay, harvested and prepared by our artists at the Visitor Center Artist Camp.
The kit will come with a clay slab, paper patterns for cutting out the shapes, written and illustrated instructions for building a mug from the cutout shapes, and all the tools needed. We will also be posting a video tutorial online!
This is our 7th Annual Arts Event in Ewen, and we are thrilled to announce that “STAY In Clay!” is supported by a Mini-grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, through the Copper Country Community Arts Council, and matched by donors: ETC School, Ewen Building Supply, The Colemans, The Allens, Cori Champagne, and Jason Friedes.
2019 : A Day In Clay!
6th annual ewen arts festival
Ewen Trout Creek School
This free, multifaceted, local-clay workshop for all ages was led by VCAC staff and resident artists from around the country. Attendees made sculptures from the soft red clay, and painted glazes on pre-fired figurines. There was a slideshow of the clay process with sample pieces from digging to firing, an exhibit of art by the resident and local artists, local musicians, and refreshments.
“A Day In Clay” was Supported by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, through a Copper Country Community Arts Council 2019 Minigrant.
2018 Ewen Arts Festival - A Day In Clay
international Visiting Artist 2017
The Visitor Center was excited to host our first visiting artist, Mari Mathlin, from Finland, in2017!
Mari currently lives in Reykjavik, Iceland, and works at the Nordic Cultural House. Mari prepared an exhibition to bring to the United States, featuring fresh investigations into materials and methods she has been working with previous the past year.
After her solo show opened in Minneapolis, Mari travelled to the UP of Michigan and joined us for the 2017 Sustainable Practices Symposium, where she worked alongside US artists-in-residence, making handmade recycled paper, turning a wood bowl, and creating drawings of the camp's unique architecture. Mari also exhibited her artwork in an exhibition at the local High School in Ewen, MI, and presented a special lecture on Finnish and Icelandic art, sharing examples from art history and contemporary art in Finland and Iceland through the concepts of otherness and familiarity.
The public joined us for this presentation and exhibition at the Ewen-Trout Creek High School, which also included a potluck featuring Finnish and Scandinavian foods, and an ASM-sponsored raffle of a Finland-inspired weaving by local UP artist Patsy Daniels, to support the Ewen-Trout Creek School art program!
Mari Mathlin was born in 1980 in Pattijoki Finland and currently lives and works in Reykjavik. She received her BA in Fine Arts from The Swedish Polytechnic, Nykarleby in 2006; her MA in Art Education from the University of Lapland, Rovaniemi 2010; and her BA in Art History and Theory from the University of Iceland, Reykjavik. Mari has participated in numerous residencies around Europe that have had great impact on her work, including at Drake Arts Center in Finland, Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus in Germany, and most recently the Old School Residency in Iceland. Her work has been exhibited in group and solo shows in galleries around Europe, including The Nordic House, Iceland; Valve Gallery, Vaasa City Art Gallery, Gallery Carree, and a traveling exhibition through Oulu City Art Museum, Finland. Mari´s work mixes drawing, painting and printing techniques. She uses varied types of paper both as a surface when creating two-dimensional images and as a construction material for three-dimensional works. She has also worked with place and space specific projects in schools and communities.
2015 Sawmill Ballet
Performance on the Cedar Stage in the woods at Camp
Sawmill Ballet is a collaborative performance orchestrated by Kristen Tordella-Williams featuring artists Mel Seeger, Lindsey French, and Hannah Givler, performed at the Visitor Center Artist Camp during the 2015 Sustainable Arts Symposium.