Photos Fish carving, by Guy Chambers Carved fish decoys Warren Arcila View full slideshow (8 images) Resources Ely Voyageur Winter Festival Tools E-mail this page Print this page Sponsor

Changing the face of Ely with art
by Bob Kelleher, Minnesota Public Radio
February 4, 2005

This realistic sunfish is actually a wood carving by Ely artist Guy Chambers. (MPR Photo/Bob Kelleher)

One of the state's oldest mining towns is finding new life as something of a north woods arts mecca. Ely may be best known as the launching place for canoe trips into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. But the little town in the forest is becoming a destination of its own -- for people with an artistic persuasion -- that's drawing a new kind of tourist with money to spend. Ely may never be the same.

Ely, Minn. — A walk through Ely with Dayna Mase is a whirlwind of free-flowing thought. One after another, Mase points out window displays in 45 buildings downtown -- each filled this week with surprisingly good art.

"We have everything from canoe building and printmaking," Mase says. "And we have carved decoys ... come up here, you've got to look at these."

On the other side of the glass are colorful wooden fish -- maybe intended as bait, but worthy of a gallery.

"They're amazing," Mase says. "Look at the fish. I mean, these are carved out of wood. Most of them are out of basswood. And these guys have won awards."

The art fills window after window. The paintings and handiworks of more than 100 local residents -- most of whom, Mase says weren't living here just a few years ago.

"Refugees. We're all refugees," says Mase. "I'll bet you maybe 10 percent are actually Ely people, and the rest are from other towns and cities - and big towns and cities."

The artists are moving to Ely -- a little town with no Walmart, no McDonalds, and a single ancient movie theater with only one screen.

"I think people move here because they want to get of the rat race, and they really want to slow down a little bit," says Mase. "Everybody realizes how precious time is, and what are you going to do with the rest of time that you have?"

Ely has become a town with two serious art galleries. There's a rotating art show in the Piragis outdoor clothing store, and another upstairs in the Northern Grounds Café down the street. That's where we find Warren Arcila and a dozen of his paintings on large canvas.

"I'm originally from New York City," Arcila says. "So the opposite, I guess, was the greener pasture -- small town, woods, wildlife -- just the inconvenience of it I guess."

If wildlife is his inspiration, it's hard to tell from his abstracts. Instead, they're filled with bold colors and shapes that might spring from his Columbian heritage.

"I get inspired by my surroundings," says Arcila. "And then I chew on it, and it comes out in my own particular way - not necessarily trying to represent what's here."

The people of Ely, and the place, have become Arcila's inspiration.

"Part of it is these long winters," says Arcila. "There aren't too many ways of going to be entertained -- no 12-plex theaters and dance clubs and this and that. So a lot of people, especially the more creative ones -- it gets to a point where boredom will either drive you nuts or drive you to be creative."

Brett Ross has a pretty good photography teacher. His father-in-law is world-famous nature photographer Jim Brandenburg. Ross' photos get window space this week in Brandenburg's Ely gallery. Six years ago, Ross says he packed his bags in the Twin Cities and moved to the end of the road.

"It really is the end of the road. It's an escape for a lot of people -- people who want to get out of the Cities. That was the case for me and my wife," says Ross. "To come here -- you're surrounded by wilderness. You can disappear into three million acres of wilderness to the north of us. And I think that attracts a lot of artists."

In Ely, the sons of iron miners and lumberjacks are mingling with the long-hairs and the cappaccino drinkers.

"It's been a little uncomfortable. There's been definitely some clash of cultures here," says Ross. "But there's a gradual acceptance that's taking place, I think because the sort of old town -- the old timers -- are beginning to accept the fact that the transplants like us aren't leaving."

And it's not just artists coming to town -- it's cash. No one really knows exactly how much, but Ross says it's clearly having an impact.

"This is what's really driving the economy now," Ross says. "The tourism and the fact that we do things like these big art shows, and our winter festival, that draw a lot of tourism here. Because without the tourism, Ely would really be struggling."

The artists are on display in Ely this weekend, for the town's Ely Voyageur Festival. And they'll stay on display for the coming week.