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Marquette artist Mary Wright led Arts and Culture Forum visitors in building the labyrinth in
Hancock today.
HANCOCK -- Saturday morning's drizzle did not discourage about 50 Rural Arts and
Culture Forum visitors from gathering near the Portage Lake Lift Bridge in Hancock to
construct a labyrinth -- a spiritual path for meditation or just slowing down.
Some members of the group tested the effect by walking through the spiraling circle of
stones, which also leads to a path going down to the waterfront.
"It's very soothing," said Cynthia Cote, director of Hancock's Community Arts Center,
which sponsored the forum for Midwest artists and art advocates. "As people walked it,
they commented that it took longer than they thought it would. The whole idea is to slow you down."
Marquette artist Mary Wright, who brought the idea of the labyrinth to the forum, said its purpose is reflection.
Artist builders discovered the labyrinth is meant to slow you down.
"It's a path to walk," Wright said, "to cast off your daily responsibilities and worries ... by
walking calmly and slowly. You walk to the center and from the center out. You can't get lost."
Writer and community leader/volunteer Betty Brooks of Detroit walked up to Wright
and gave her a big hug after the group finished building the labyrinth. Brooks, who is
vice-chairman of Brooks Group International, works in human resources and writes
inspirational columns for The Michigan Chronicle.
Darlene Basto, right, Keweenaw County Arts coordinator, joined visitors in building the labyrinth.
"I think it's wonderful. I found it very inspiring," Brooks said. "It was teamwork ... a lot
of sweat but lots of fun."
Bea Constantina, Continental Harmony chairman for the state of Ohio, came all the way from Carrollton, Ohio, for the forum.
"It's so great to be a part of it," Constantina said of the labyrinth project.
Another group participant, Annegret Goehring of Hessel, Michigan, in the Les Cheneaux
area, related the art project to local history. Goehring is Curator of the Les Cheneaux
Historical Association and a member of the Les Cheneaux Economic Forum -- a
community planning group. Representatives of that forum and The Nature Conservancy,
which partners with it, visited Houghton last fall for a land use forum sponsored by the
Copper Country League of Women Voters.
Cynthia Cotˆ© (left), director of Hancock's Community Arts Center, explains the purpose of the
labyrinth to graduate students Steve Gagnon and Heather Cabrera, Business Plan Initiative
consultants for the Keweenaw National Historical Park.
"We do displays of local artists' work ... combine local arts and culture in historical
displays," Goehring said. "The history is always involved in all of this."
The labyrinth attracted the attention of two graduate students involved in Copper
Country local history through their work at the Keweenaw National Historical Park.
Cotˆ© explained the purpose of the labyrinth to Steve Gagnon, a business student at
the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and Heather Cabrera, who is
studying at Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Gagnon and
Cabrera are working as Business Plan Initiative consultants for KNHP. Cote noted the
forum participants are artists as well as art administrators.
"We rarely get to make our art," Cote said. "We wanted to do a group project (as part of the forum)."
Gagnon asked Cote if the labyrinth would remain in place after the forum.
"We think it's going to stay," Cote said "I think it really is a beginning of a sculpture park.
The visibility is great. People can see it from the bridge and the (Ramada Inn) motel."
Cote noted the city of Hancock prepared the site and arranged to obtain the fieldstone used to construct the labyrinth.
Upper Peninsula/Rural Arts Coordinator Susan Burack, second from right, celebrated the
completion of the labyrinth with visitors and forum participants.
- Michele Anderson
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