If you’ve ever visited Michigan’s Mackinac Island in the summer, it probably brings to mind horse-drawn carriages, fudge, and Victorian homes. With a year-round population of only around 600, the community sees a stream of more than one million visitors each year. As winter wanes, the island awakens to seasonal tourism, welcoming people to attractions that range from sailing to bicycling, since cars aren’t allowed on the island, to basking in the sun on the Grand Hotel’s porch—the world’s longest at 660 feet.
The island’s luxurious and historic Grand Hotel opened in 1887, its broad expanse visible upon approach from Lake Huron. While the history of the Grant Hotel is fascinating in and of itself—it’s provided the set for films and has hosted more than five million guests in its 137 years—it’s also a logistical feat requiring an enormous influx of hardworking staff to keep the operation running smoothly each year.
Many of the island’s businesses depend on international workers to fill vacancies and continue to provide beloved services. For example, nearly half of the Grand Hotel’s 600-strong workforce comprises foreign nationals on the H-2B visa, a temporary visa for non-agricultural work that helps the hotel—among many other establishments like restaurants and inns—perform necessary work during the busiest months. Employees hail from dozens of countries, chief among them: Mexico, Australia, and Jamaica.
SHAWN FEARON, HEAD CHEF OF KINGSTON KITCHEN“It makes me as a Jamaican, an immigrant, very proud to showcase my culture, my music, my food, certain traditions that I am proud of.”
The art of building community
With a population that swells dramatically in the summer due to visitors and employees streaming across Lake Huron, the Mackinac Arts Council (MAC) carefully considered what types of programming could be beneficial to bring to the island. The MAC, established in 2003, continually works to provide the area with enriching and empowering arts programming. The organization collaborated with the Mackinac Island Community Foundation in 2021 to perform a survey of island employees, with the goal of observing the unique demographic profile of the summer community and identifying unmet arts needs.
“The board of the Arts Council identified three major key communities on Mackinac Island: the island residents, the island visitors, and the island employees,” says Mark Ware, president of MAC and CEO of the local resort Mission Point. “We committed to bringing the arts to each of the communities… It is important that we offer rich and meaningful cultural experiences for all of the island community.”
The research spurred a series of annual International Employee Concerts, showcasing music and fare from regions of the world that the island’s summer employees call home. Lisa Craig Brisson, Executive Director of the Michigan Museums Association, also headed up a subsequent Bridging Michigan grant-funded program to interview more than a dozen long-term Jamaican employees and learn about their experience on Mackinac Island and how the organizations could better serve them.
Serving up a taste of home
This year, the MAC has organized a program of four concerts throughout the summer, including the Jamaican Celebration on June 13, proudly supported by Arts Midwest’s GIG Fund. The grant supported an energetic performance by The Ark Band from Columbus, Ohio, whose Roots Reggae, Calypso, and Soca performances have captivated audiences since 1987. Attendees were loving the music; one visitor said, “I love the people, and hospitality; I felt so welcomed.”
“This event creates a sense of community and meaning, and brings people together who might not otherwise see each other,” says Laura Raisch, executive director of the Mackinac Arts Council. “We work really hard for the six months of the season, it is a chance to kick back and enjoy.”
“The event is really cool, because it brings together staff from many different businesses and gives them a chance to meet and connect with others on the island,” Mark Ware says.
Marsha Orr, Director of Development for the MAC, reports that more than 240 attendees turned up for an enthusiastic evening of food and music. The event was accompanied by food prepared by Shawn Fearon, head chef of Kingston Kitchen at the Village Inn, whose cuisine focuses on American fare with Jamaican inspiration.
“When I first started on Mackinac Island, for a while I didn’t know there were so many different ethnic groups on the island—people from all over,” Fearon says in a video made last year during the inaugural Jamaican Celebration. The event, he says, “makes me as a Jamaican, an immigrant, very proud to showcase my culture, my music, my food, certain traditions that I am proud of.”
MAC’s Jamaican Celebration was made possible in part by the GIG Fund. The GIG Fund provides flexible grants for nonprofit organizations to support programs and activities featuring professional artists.
The GIG Fund is a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, Indiana Arts Commission, Iowa Arts Council, Michigan Arts and Culture Council, Minnesota State Arts Board, North Dakota Council on the Arts, Ohio Arts Council, South Dakota Arts Council, and Wisconsin Arts Board.