Watercolor event set for First Friday

IRONWOOD — An area watercolor artist will provide a virtual demonstration event as part of March First Friday activities in Ironwood. The theme for this month is “An Artful Community.”

Artist Peg Sandin will provide the demonstration from the classroom studio of Downtown Art Place at 6 p.m. Friday. The event will be broadcast on Facebook Live with links to the event from felivelife.org, travelironwood.com and DAP websites or Facebook pages.

In his report to the Downtown Ironwood Development Authority on Feb. 25, Tim Erickson, city community development specialist, said the idea of an arts event for March got started with Arlene Schneller of DAP, and Mayor Annette Burchell, who is also a DIDA member. The idea was to continue the successful cooking demonstration in February with an arts event.

The group contacted Sandin, who designed an art project where viewers could create a watercolor work using paper, three colors of paint, wax paper and a credit card, according to Burchill.

“There would be a minimal amount of tools in order for people to do it from home,” Burchell said. “It took just 17 minutes to do in practice and people could take shorter or longer times if needed.”

DIDA members suggested that in addition to the watercolor class that the First Friday live event take viewers on a walk-thru of the DAP gallery, studios and classrooms. Not everyone has seen the entire building and are not aware of what DAP has to offer, Burchell said.

Bruce Greenhill, DIDA member, said that organizers should determine a location to store the First Friday videos and make them accessible to the public. In his experience with the Historic Ironwood Theatre weekly entertainment videos — some which have served as First Friday videos —there are more views of the recordings after the event than there are during the live event itself, he said.

Tom Bergman, director of community development for the city of Ironwood, said the snow hill at the Downtown City Square is built to a height that is appropriate for younger children and will be available as a First Friday activity, if weather allows. Nancy Korpela, DIDA vice president, said it would be nice if the city could use various colors on the snow to make it more fun for the kids.

Bergman also said that Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs mini-grant funds will be up to $4,000 for 2021. The funds now total $8,000 from local matching funds, donations and in-kind contributions that have traditionally been used to bring in regional performers for First Friday events.