Calling all Artists: Mackinac Island Lilac Festival Art Print Call for Entries Announced

MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. - Dec. 12, 2013 - PRLog -- The Call for Entries for Series III Mackinac Island Lilac Festival Art Print has begun. The 65th Annual Mackinac Island Lilac Festival takes place June 6-15, 2014 on historic Mackinac Island and over 100,000 people visit the Island during the festival. This season, Ste Anne's Church is the theme.

"We are always looking for compelling themes for the Lilac Festival Art Print. Series III will feature all of the historic houses of worship on Mackinac Island and this season's theme is Ste Anne's Catholic Church," shares Mary McGuire Slevin, executive director of the Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau and also the festival director. "Ste Anne's Church was pivotal in the early history of the Upper Midwest. The dedication of the early missionaries such as Claude Dablon, Claude Allouez and Jacques Marquette is well documented and incredibly important to our region.”

British authorities moved the Michilimackinac community to the safety of Mackinac Island during the American Revolution. In 1780, Lieutenant Governor Patrick Sinclair ordered Ste. Anne's to be dismantled and taken to the island. The church was rebuilt along the shore of the island and through centuries of steady growth and rebuilding was renovated over the last two decades to ensure her structural stability for centuries to come.

Madame LaFramboise, likely the most prominent fur trader and Native American woman to ever live on Mackinac Island, donated the property adjacent to her home (today's Harbour View Inn) when parish leaders decided to move the church and priest’s house from their original location in the village to their current location east of downtown in the mid-1820s. In exchange, LaFramboise asked to have pew #1 and be buried beneath the altar at the end of her life. Father Henri Van Renterghem honored her request when she died in 1846. She is credited for starting the first school on the Island for children with the assistance of Italian-born Dominican, Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, who was Ste. Anne’s first resident priest.

McGuire Slevin shares “Madame LaFramboise’s dedication to Roman Catholicism and financial support ensured the church’s survival architecturally when she moved it from town next to her home and funded its growth. Today’s congregation is filled with the same spirit and vigor, the church was renovated extensively in the early 1990’s and in the past several years, all of the stained glass windows were recently saved and restored through an outpouring of funding by the community.”

Mackinac Island is a national historic landmark located where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet. This designation is due in part to over 300 years of architectural styles found on the car-less Island. Considered the best example of Victorian-era style blending, is Ste Anne’s Church began as a log structure when it was on the mainland, then was transformed on the Island to a Stick Style building when it was moved and enlarged on the Island. As the congregation grew, so did the church. Elemnents of Gothic, Greek Revival, Shingle Style and Queen Anne architectural styles were incorporated and seamlessly blend together to create a soaring monument reaching out and up towards heaven. The church remains an active church and an iconic landmark on Mackinac Island.

Entries must be sent electronically and the committee will select their top three. The one with the most votes will be the official festival art print. The winning painting will be selected on St. Patrick's Day and announced just after.

For the entry form and more information, click on www.mackinacislandlilacfestival.org.