Iron County Residents Find Cultural Resources Just Across Wisconsin Border

Iron County sits along the border of Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and that geography, so often thought of in terms of roads, snowfall, or hunting grounds, quietly opens a door to something else: a fully functioning arts center that explicitly counts U.P. residents among the communities it serves.

Established in 2008, Land O' Lakes Area Arts, known as LOLA, is dedicated to promoting the arts in Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan through classes and cultural events for all ages, year-round. For Iron County families who have never made the short drive south to Land O' Lakes, that mission statement is worth reading twice: the Upper Peninsula is not an afterthought in LOLA's programming. It is written into the organization's core identity.

What LOLA Is and Where to Find It

LOLA Arts is a non-profit community arts center in downtown Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin, offering art classes, workshops, and cultural events for all ages, all skill levels, all year round. The physical address is 4262 County Highway B, Land O' Lakes, WI 54540, and the center is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The phone number is 715-547-3950.

Land O' Lakes sits in Vilas County, just south of the Michigan state line, making it accessible to Iron County communities along the U.S. 2 corridor without a lengthy trip. For residents of Iron River or Crystal Falls, the drive is a reasonable afternoon excursion.

A Breadth of Programming, All Year

The range of what LOLA offers is wider than many people expect from a small-town arts organization. The non-profit arts center provides enrichment and education to all ages year-round in art, music, dance, theater and more. A wide variety of art classes, workshops, homeschool courses, cultural events, and more are available throughout the year. Classes are appropriate for varying skill levels, from beginner through advanced, which means there is a realistic entry point for someone picking up a paintbrush for the first time and for someone looking to refine an existing craft.

Current and recent offerings have spanned a particularly wide creative range:

• Acrylic painting workshops with artist Sue Schurch, including self-paced sessions where participants have the opportunity to create two paintings.
• Watercolor classes led by instructor Lisa Krueger, covering techniques from loose pigment washes to detailed wildlife subjects.
• Metal Poetry with Mavis, where participants learn to design and hand-stamp meaningful words and textures into brass and copper to create one-of-a-kind charms and pendants.

Visual and performance art classes, demonstrations, lectures, and exhibits are held year-round, so there is no off-season dead zone of the kind that limits cultural programming elsewhere in the northwoods.

Summer Focus on Families

For Iron County families looking for structured creative programming during the school break, LOLA's summer calendar is particularly worth noting. From mid-June through mid-August, classes are focused toward families and are held every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. That rhythm makes it easy to plan regular visits rather than treating LOLA as a one-time destination.

Free Community Events Open to Everyone

One of the most important things to understand about LOLA is that participation does not require signing up for a class or spending money. LOLA has a variety of free community arts events open to the public. The organization has built a calendar of recurring events that bring creative energy directly into the town and its surrounding communities.

LOLA hosts many free events looking to bring creativity and vibrancy into the community, including the Porch Songs Summer Music Series, Arty Parties, and art demonstrations covering pottery, carving, indigo dyeing, plein air painting, and more.

The annual event calendar reflects that same philosophy throughout the seasons. On June 21st, LOLA celebrates Make Music Day with live performances throughout town. September brings Art Harvest, featuring artist demonstrations, tours of the Community Garden, and a quilt show. Winter brings National Youth Art Month in March, where local students feature their artwork in a gallery. That last event is especially relevant for Iron County families with school-age children, offering a chance to see young artists recognized and celebrated in a formal setting.

A Community-Centered Operation

As a non-profit with just two staff and a volunteer board, "the heart of LOLA is still the community," according to the organization. "Without the support the community has shown for us, we wouldn't be the Arts Center we are today."

That structure matters for Upper Peninsula visitors. LOLA is not a commercial art studio importing outside talent for paying customers. It is a grassroots organization built on the same model of community interdependence that defines how life works across the border in Iron County. LOLA supports local artists in fulfilling their artistic potential while bringing enrichment, arts education, and beautification to the people of the area, which contributes to the vitality of the larger community.

Why the State Line Shouldn't Be a Barrier

The southern border of Iron County, Michigan follows the Brule River, which also serves as the boundary between Michigan and Wisconsin. That boundary defines a political line, not a cultural one. The northwoods communities on both sides share geography, climate, economic pressures, and the same scarcity of arts infrastructure that makes institutions like LOLA genuinely valuable.

Iron County has its own rich cultural history, rooted in a diverse mixture of ethnic groups, each contributing various traditions, customs, and religions to create a particularly rich cultural heritage for the county as a whole. LOLA represents a chance to continue building on that tradition through active participation rather than passive preservation. For any Iron County resident who has wished there were more places to take a class, see a demonstration, or simply spend an afternoon making something, the answer has been sitting just across the state line for nearly 20 years.