Gazette file photo Artist Mary Biekkola Wright stands by one of the Grandma Doors in her art project during the 2007 Heikinpaiva celebration. Wright was honored during that year’s celebration as Hankookin Heikki, who presides over the festivities. A new Carnegie Museum of the Keweenaw exhibit celebrates her life and public art projects.

HOUGHTON — A new exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of the Keweenaw pays tribute to the artist behind a series of large-scale community art projects in the Copper Country and beyond.

Friends from the community shared stories about Mary Biekkola Wright at a reception for the new exhibit Thursday night.

Some of the materials were on loan from the Beaumier Center of Northern Michigan University, which held a retrospective of her work over the summer. The Carnegie exhibit, retitled “Mary Wright in the Keweenaw,” adds pieces from some of the many projects Wright did locally, whether on stage or along city streets.

A blue-and-white Finn Fest chair sat below a string pieces from the Story Lines project, in which people submitted short profiles from the perspective of ancestors who had gone through adversity, which were then printed on cotton panels.

There were also Grandma Doors, which told the stories of people’s grandmothers. Or the colorful person-sized Heikinpäivä Mittens,

Faith Morrison, who helped organize the Carnegie exhibit, had known Wright since 2007. She worked with her through Rise Up on the Sunflower project, done to commemorate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage.

“Her legacy is every schoolchild she worked with, who sat down and asked their parents about their ancestors so they could do a Grandma Door or a Story Line,” she said. “There are people all over the U.P. who had that experience.”

A L’Anse native, Wright went on to attend several universities, including northern Michigan University, receiving a teaching degree and two master’s degrees. As a teacher and educator in Hancock, Marquette and other places, she began leading the way to create public art pieces.

She received the Governor’s Prize in 1999, which recognizes extraordinary achievements in volunteerism, service, and philanthropy.

She continued working on art projects until her death at Bayside Village in L’Anse in 2021.

It was never her alone. She would famously charm and cajole contributions from anyone who could lend material, space or a bit of their time.

As owner of 5th and Elm, Frank Fiala frequently saw Wright, who held court at the shop and used the patio as a workshop. After Finlandia University needed to free up storage space during the Sunflower project, she sought out Fiala for use of his basement.

“I said, ‘I can probably put a few in there. How many do you have?'” he said. “She goes, ‘We’ve got to put 100 together.'”

Sure enough, all the parts wound up in his basement. And a constant stream of conscripts kept coming and going until Wright’s vision was realized.

The people in the room Thursday, and countless more, had the experience of working with Mary, which they can take forward with them, Morrison said.

“Artifacts are one thing, but eventually those things become dusty, and they go in the closet, and they have to go,” she said. “But those memories and those impacts, those last forever.”

Morrison and other speakers Thursday night stressed the importance of keeping not just the memory of Wright’s work, but of keeping that creativity and persistence going in the future.

“We have other people in this community who build things and bring people together,” she said. “That is a spirit that we celebrate among ourselves here. Mary Wright did it through art and through these kinds of community projects. She just showed that it could be done with a bit of fun and a lot of determination. It’s amazing what you can do.”

People can see the exhibit at the Carnegie Museum from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays.