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Good morning and welcome to In Our Range.
My guest this morning is Cindy Frank, Creative Producer with the Emberlite Festival.
Emberlite is a music, arts and cultural festival here on the range that brings world-class artistry right here to our neck of the Great North Woods.
This year features an expanded celebration of music, film, photography, and creative exploration across the western UP and northern Wisconsin.
Much of the festival takes place in our beautiful Miner's Memorial Heritage Park, with events also happening at Theatre North, the Ironwood Depot, the Historic Ironwood Theatre, the Hurley High School, and throughout the range.
These events include classical, Broadway, and operatic musical performances, art showcases, poetry, photography, and workshops.
Emberlite begins on June 27th and runs through August 22nd.
The festival culminates with a performance at the historic Ironwood Theatre by acclaimed operatic tenor and bestimers own Miles Mickenin.
Cindy Frank brings her masterful leadership, creative eye, and astute understanding of the human spirit to the Emberlite Festival.
She has been a member of Theatre North's board of directors for 44 years, where she currently serves as the production director.
She has directed 20 productions of plays and musicals and choreographed over 30 additional projects.
She's also a founding member of the Claudettes, a dance troupe that was honored by former Governor of Michigan Jennifer Granholm for their philanthropic work.
Cindy brings a diverse background in the arts, healthcare, public relations and philanthropy to her work in Emberlite.
Good morning Cindy and welcome to In Our Range.
Good morning.
It's good to be here.
Yeah, thank you for joining us.
Emberlite was founded by Miles Mickenin and yourself in 2021 and has become a beloved summertime tradition here on the range.
How did this festival come about and how has it evolved over the years?
Well, you know, I've worked with Miles since he was about seven years old.
So we have a long friendship going, but actually, you know, it was COVID time and Miles was back here at home and he and I sat down at
in the back room at Theatre North and hashed out a plan of...
what was his dream to give something back to his hometown and the area because everybody been so supportive of him over the years.
So I knew how to put on a play, you know, he knew how to perform.
You know, we've been involved in the arts, both of us.
So we kind of sketched out this dream of a festival, which was way too big and way too
many
ideas.
But that that's kind of the fun process of art is it's a process.
And that is actually where it all started.
And we knew the one thing I knew for sure was there are a lot of people in this area who are hard workers and like to see things like this happen.
So I knew we could get it done.
Yeah.
And summertime is so lovely here.
Yeah.
It couldn't be more perfect for an event like this.
Right.
And the thing that Miles brought to my attention that I had no idea about was that artists that we would bring in professional artists who are often
in bigger cities.
That's where they live and that's where the work is.
They just can't wait to get to a place like this.
The sigh, the quiet.
Oh,
yeah.
So that was something I just had never thought about.
And it turned out to be true.
And most of the artists, I think all of them that we've brought in have asked us if they could come back.
Yeah.
So it's not just a wonderful experience for the attendees, but the artists themselves are super jazzed.
They are unique.
performing area
and a beautiful area and they also remark all the time about how well they're treated here and how people know their names and they just feel really welcome so it's it's a really cool experience for them plus us
yeah I could imagine some New Yorkers experiencing a little bit of
comforting culture shock when they come to the UP.
I think that's a good
way.
Yeah, you know, they love going to the park.
Yeah, they love being out.
You know, we've done tours with them so they could really see the area too.
And they really appreciate that.
And I think it's just a nice
comfortable, quiet place for them to do their art.
It's a win-win for sure.
Excellent.
And as you mentioned, you know, art is a process.
It's not just a finished result.
One of the joys of art is developing and working through it.
So as this process, you have this expanded set of programs that you're bringing, including photography workshops and all sorts of wonderful events.
The Miner's Memorial Park features heavily in Emberlite and has from the beginning
with Art in the Park and other workshops.
I went to a basket weaving
performance
infusion workshop a few years back using Ash Park and it was amazing.
Took my kids and so it wasn't just artistic and practical but had this beautiful cultural relevance to it with the Ojibwe influence here on the range.
So it seems appropriate giving the parks importance to our history and culture here.
How special is it
to use this space at the Miners Memorial Heritage Park for this festival?
Well, it's one of the most beautiful assets that we have here, in my opinion.
And I think that it's just remarkable that it's in the middle of town.
So to me, I just think it's a gem.
And for us to be able to go into the park and offer art,
They had art in the park before the miners group did, and they just didn't have the people to sustain
it.
So it was like, okay, there's an opportunity here.
I wonder how they would feel about it if we asked to include it.
And they welcomed us.
us with open arms.
So to have artists in the park with outdoor installations for two months is a whole different world of challenges.
And I'm happy to say we have 18 installations this
year.
Yeah, and we have artists from Hancock, Washburn, also Nagani, and then local and regional artists, so and groups.
of people doing art and they're putting up installations right now.
It's an unusual offering and we find we have huge audiences of people coming through the park.
That's wonderful.
You have that history in the park as well.
Right.
The range of artists is so incredible because it's from folks who might be considered maybe less experienced artists to people who do this professionally.
Right.
And it can be so wonderful just to see the range of ideas and the execution and how the park gets used with these installations.
the natural beauty of the park.
Yeah, it really is.
It's a great platform.
And the theme this year is new ways to dream.
And I'm always the first one that gets to see all the descriptions that come back from the artists.
And I just can't wait to see everything this year.
And we have something new in Art in the Park this year as well.
We have instituted finally in our sixth season a student art project.
that has been something we've had to kind of hold off on just because we have so many things.
So we put a team together who created an Art for All project and we wanted to do a student component to that.
So in a nutshell, on Saturday this will be unveiled.
We have five different school districts participating.
We have individual pieces of art from over 250 students.
And the theme that we asked them, the teachers, to follow a lesson plan that we had given them, follow it to a degree.
But the theme is about learning about our communities.
So the Ojibwe
Culture is what we chose, the clan system and the grandfather teaching.
So they did a beautiful, incredible job with the art that they produced.
And these will all be put on totems that are in one installation in the park.
And it is impressive.
That's incredible.
So good to see the kids involved over 250 students and that will be unveiled on June 27th.
That's Saturday, which will be the opening of the Emberlite Festival.
What are some other events that are happening to commemorate the opening of the
festival?
Well, there's an opening ceremony right at noon and we'd really encourage people to come to that because we also, in addition to introducing the artists, we have the Woodland
Sky, Native American dance company coming.
They're wonderful.
Sorry.
I couldn't spit it all out at once.
Yeah, they're coming and they have hoop dancers that will be performing right at the opening.
So that's right when you pull into the park, that's where that will be.
And then after that, you know, the park is open and we will, you know, the artists are at their installations.
They can answer questions.
It's just
a beautiful thing to walk through.
It's about a mile, 1.2 miles, to walk the loop that the art's on.
And so that's our, that's our opening day and I'm hoping the weather's great, but we're going to be there and
it will be.
I already talked with the chalk, I already talked with the chalk fest people last week.
Yes.
And the chalk fest going on too.
We all agree that the weather is going to be perfect.
Yeah.
We're, we're good with
the
weather.
But also we have free photography class going on.
Our Emberlite photographers are all volunteers and they are teaching this class, which is really
really a cool thing too and the students that sign up for that photography class in the morning at 10 o'clock then they will will be producing there a photograph of their choice from what they shot that day and it'll be included in the photography exhibit that we do at the depot.
Yeah.
So not only are they getting to learn from the workshop, they're getting to apply those skills and then have their work exhibited.
Yeah.
What a tremendous interaction.
Yeah, it's really the connection that we want.
And I personally believe that everyone is an artist.
You know,
it's
inside of us.
And
Sometimes you just need to poke around at different things to decide what really feels right.
You know, even get out of your way with those stories about how you're not exactly.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Exactly.
I don't know enough.
You know, yes, you do or you can learn.
But in addition on the evening of the 27th to Ken Wheely is one of our photographers and he'll be teaching an editing workshop to the photographers that came and shot in the park that morning.
So that's a new thing too for us.
So I can imagine with, you know, five, six weeks of events going on across all these different spaces, you probably need a lot of hands and help in getting this going.
And it seems like you have a good community of volunteers going already.
How can people get involved in helping out?
Well, I think the best way now our office is open.
We're right across from the Carnegie Library on Aurora Street in Ironwood and to stop in, we're open from 12 to 4.
every day Monday through Friday and just talk to Cass Bordner who's our administrative assistant and she will take your name and some information and I would say you know come in if you can let us know what you're interested in you know do you want to be an usher do you want to be hands-on building things do you want are you available for cleanup do you get whatever might be something that you've thought of and sometimes it's just good
to try and get on a team and it really this would not happen without volunteers period.
I mean there's
I'm sure there's well over 100 volunteers
for
these events.
Yeah.
Probably always use some more too.
Always.
Yeah.
It's always great.
Before we wrap up here, what are you most looking forward to over the next five, six weeks as Emberlite unfolds?
You're probably the shanty person that's asked me that
size.
Well, it's kind of hard for me to put my finger on it because I'm very excited about all of it.
I personally, this dream of having a student project, it's so nice for me to actually be able to see.
it.
I think just seeing it all come together, I really, there's so much.
I mean, if I can, to have Miles back here for a concert this year after he opened two operas at the Metropolitan Opera as the lead, I mean, this is an international opera star.
Not only is he from here, but
He's gonna be on stage here and the level of musicians we've brought in to be with him You know, that's really exciting the International Film Festival which we used to have about 18 or 20 people come to the first year to the screenings we sold out last year and This year we accept while we took I think 930 films were submitted to our film festival
Wow.
Yeah
And they're phenomenal and our reputation is really getting out there for this festival.
We had one of our films last year was nominated for an Academy Award that was shown here.
Wow.
So it's really exciting to see that we're going to be showing 22 films this year from all over the world.
So we're really doing some stuff that's super exciting.
You know and affordable.
Yeah.
So that's the thing and any student can get into any ticketed event for free.
So I think that's something if you haven't come to anything just come to something and try it.
I
think you'd be surprised.
It is really exciting to hear how much momentum the festival is gaining and you know consistent with your statement.
at the beginning of the interview, it seems like you're just enjoying the process.
That's for
me, that's it.
You know, it's, it's not just one thing.
It's, you know, it's sort of like when I was so involved with dance, we always had more fun practicing.
I mean, really, it's really cool to perform.
But I think the build up the work, the, you know, polishing it, that's what I'm so proud of with Amberlight, you know, wonderful.
Well, thank you so much, Cindy, for joining us this morning and sharing these details about Emberlite, wishing you a lot of luck as the festival progresses.
And maybe we'll have you back in here before August 22nd at the end
there.
I hope so.
And there is one more thing.
Go get the Community College Foundation Sponsors Art in the Park.
And those sponsors make a big difference for us.
So I needed to say that.
No, that's great.
Thank you to all the sponsors who make this happen.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, you have a wonderful day.
Okay.
Thank you.
We'll see you down the road.
Thanks, Mike.
Thank you, Cindy.
My guest this morning was Cindy Frank, Creative Director with the Emberlite Festival.
The Emberlite Festival kicks off on June 27th and runs through August 22nd across many venues right here on the range.
For more information and a complete schedule you can visit their website at emberlite.org.
They are looking for volunteers.
You can swing by the box office there on Aurora Street across from the Carnegie Library to check in with them and you can find ticket prices and all other information on their website.
Thank you for joining us on In Our Range this morning on WJMF.
Thanks.
