Rabbit Island is 91 acres of forest and sandstone located in Lake Superior—the largest body of freshwater in the world—four miles east of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula within the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe. The island is composed of a native ecosystem and has never before been developed or subdivided. The weather is ever-present and can vary day-to-day, creating beautiful vistas and humbling experiences. A conservation easement assures the ecosystem will remain healthy in perpetuity. The island serves as a platform for contemporary art, science, and conservation. Founded in 2010, the Rabbit Island Residency is a platform to investigate, expand, and challenge creative practices in a remote environment. By living and working on Rabbit Island, residents engage directly with the landscape and respond to notions of conservation, ecology, sustainability, and resilience. With the idea that the intelligent organization and celebration of wild spaces is the most civilized thing we can value as society, the residency reflects on the continent’s four hundred year history of settlement and division of land. The island, an unsettled and undivided space, enables residents to present commentary on these ideas, creating creative interpretations and solutions to issues of global importance such as climate change and loss of natural habitat and pristine watersheds.
