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The
annual Art Shanty Projects drew crowds onto Lake Harriet for the
first of four weekends of interactive, often silly and
occasionally downright strange art events. The art was presented
in or near shanties, a repurposing of the shelters often seen on
Minnesota lakes for hardy souls who ice fish in the frigid
depths of winter.
Minnesotans are passionate about water and view the state’s
thousands of lakes as public spaces to enjoy, even during
winters that would keep people elsewhere deep under the covers,
sai Erin Lavelle, the organization's artistic director.
“In the summertime you'll see people in boats and swimming, in
canoes and kayaks. And in the winter you'll see people on the
frozen lakes,” Lavelle said. “So they bike and ski and ice skate
and ice fish, and we happen to make art on the frozen lake.”
In the 21 years the event has been held, Lavelle said it has
been curtailed by warm winters a few times but never because it
was too cold. On this weekend, temperatures weren't expected to
top the single digits.
That cold has frozen the lake surface to a depth just over 13
inches (33 centimeters) — plenty thick enough to support the
commotion on the ice above.
This year's projects include some elaborate and innovative
displays, such as a knitting pavilion in which visitors weave
hand-dyed yarn into panels to complete the roof and walls; a
three-ring circus with music, poetry and clowning; a Cat World
where people can be transformed into felines; dancing in a
“Disco Inferno Hot Box”; and a film studio where people create
their own short movies.
Plus there are singing and theater opportunities, ice biking and
open air painting.
Although Minnesotans take pride in getting outside even amid the
snow and cold, Lavelle said the event's surveys show it's the
first time on a frozen lake for 10% to 25% of the roughly 25,000
people who typically attend the four-weekend event.
“Getting people to feel connected with friends and strangers and
winter is the greatest thing we can do,” Lavelle said. “We just
want to be a social place for the public to visit and feel like
they're a part of something bigger.”
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