Community members meet to discuss moving beyond 'The Way We Worked'

By RICHARD JENKINS

rjenkins@yourdailyglobe.com

Hurley - Ten organizers of the recent "The Way We Worked" exhibition and other interested members of the community gathered in the court room on the second level of the Iron County Historical Museum on Saturday for a debriefing session following the conclusion of the Smithsonian's stay in town.

Among the items discussed were lessons learned from hosting the exhibit and how the community can move forward with other events.

Most of the meeting revolved around a slide presentation made by Paul Kostelnik, one of the primary organizers. The presentation looked at some of the statistics associated with the various events held throughout the region during the exhibition.

According to Kostelnik, 50 venues - including 26 on the Gogebic Range - hosted 72 events or performances in the western Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin as part of the exhibition. While it would be a while before complete attendance numbers would be compiled, preliminary figures showed 4,263 visitors or students on field trips toured the main exhibits at the Ironwood Memorial Building as well as the one in the Downtown Art Place and the "Experience the Way We Worked" exhibit in the DAP basement.

Kostelnik estimated that considering the advertisements in various media sources and his efforts on Facebook, roughly 857,600 people saw something about the exhibition over the eight weeks it ran.

Looking back, Kostelnik said despite all the work to include as much as possible, he lamented there were a lot of groups and stories that were left untapped. Among the items he wished thad been developed were partnerships with the local veteran's organizations and Native American communities, as well as the development of driving tours of the area.

He said these are places to go with future events.

"These are places that we could still go if we were to do more heritage things, that we haven't even gotten to yet," said Kostelnik.

Kostelnik said there were several ways - such as a pasty competition, a themed bar crawl to local establishments or highlighting the local mom-and-pop motels - that local businesses could be tapped in future efforts.

"We're too used to what Ironwood is, people coming from outside the community think this is amazing," said Kostelnik, referring to the area's motels. "All these mom-and-pop places, all the space, they don't see that in the big cities ... Heritage (tourism) people really like (this)."

Among the benefits, the organizers felt the exhibition offered training opportunity for volunteers as how to host a specialized exhibit and the event motivated various local historical societies to complete a number of projects they had been putting off. Kostelnik also said the exhibition created a number of partnerships in the area that would be beneficial in the future.

Moving forward, the group agreed promoting the area's history as a tourism draw was a worthwhile activity and should be followed up. While there was some talk of a more expansive effort to stretch events over the summer, the group agreed to limit their initial focus to coordinating an effort in conjunction with the Iron County Heritage Festival.

There was also an agreement that future efforts to promote tourism and have special exhibits would be easier with money and that seeking grants was another effort that needed to be pursued. Another priority the group identified was continuing the regional partnerships that were developed for the exhibition and that the success of the whole region would benefit everyone.