HANCOCK — The impact of Keweenaw County’s Silver Island on three area artists will be on display and the public will given the opportunity to meet the artists at an event in Hancock tomorrow.

The Keweenaw Land Trust (KLT) will host the Silver Island Artists in Residence from 2 to 4 p.m. tomorrow at the Copper Country Community Arts Center in Hancock.

Bonnie Loukus, Tom Oliver and Laura Smyth spent between three to seven days on the Lake Superior Island as Artists in Residents. They will present work inspired by their experiences on the island which is located between Eagle Harbor and Copper Harbor.

Silver Island is formed of basalt bedrock and topped with several mosses and native flora. Its geological makeup has been claimed to interfere with compasses due to magnetic pulls from minerals within the bedrock. The island has a rocky front facing Lake Superior and pine trees hugging its shore facing the Keweenaw Peninsula. The island also has human history present with ruins from a fishing village and an old mine shaft.

Silver Island was donated to KLT from its longtime caretakers Bill and Nano Rose in March 2023. KLT had been looking for a way to support public interaction with the island with a minimum of physical impact. The Land Trust Alliance, a national non-profit group that supports land trusts and their private land conservation granted KLT $2,500 to support the project which was spent on the maintenance of the island’s shelters and artist compensation.

Through the Artist in Residence program, KLT is looking to show the impact of the island on creative minds while practicing land stewardship.

KLT Executive Director B Lauer said there are many people in the area who have an interest in expressing their passion for nature through art.

“Nature connections is kind of the bucket for getting people outside and connecting people with the land that we protect,” she said.

“Having an Artist in Residence program where our artists are producing things that are inspired by the island is a way for us to share experiences of Silver Island with the public without inviting tons and tons of people out to the island and potentially ruining the ecosystem,” she said.

The three artists traveled to the island over the previous summer and early fall.

Loukus is a multi-medium artist, Oliver is a photographer and Smyth is a writer/poet.

The trio will be available to discuss with the public their creative process and time on Silver Island.