by Art shanties can come in all shapes and sizes.
Art Shanty Projects is a Minneapolis-based group that creates space on Lake Harriet each winter for artists to share their work inside of their shanties.
I spoke with the group’s artistic director Erin Lavelle about the event.
“Two artists came up with arts shanty projects in 2004, and they built one shanty on a frozen lake near a fishing village and they used it as their art studio,” Lavelle said.
This year Art Shanty Projects has 37 shanties and performances. One of which is Club Medusa.
“We basically, we’re running a nightclub in the middle of a frozen lake, that’s it we’re not aliens, we might be harnessing people’s energy to power our ship but that’s probably not going on,” said Nick Knutson, the artist behind Club Medusa.
Some shanties are more educational in nature. The University of Minnesota set up what they called the beaver shanty.
“This is a beaver lodge built to scale,” said Emily Fairfax, a researcher at the University of Minnesota.
Visitors of all ages can put on a beaver tail and walk through the beaver nest and learn about their life cycle.
“This is fabulous, it’s a great venue, you know being out on the ice in Minnesota, it’s perfect,” said Steven Halverson.
Visitors like Steven Halverson also recognized that this event brings a great sense of community in difficult times.
“We have to unite against this evil that is in our state right now,” said Halverson.
“We need to have space for fun, we need to have space for community and coming together,” said Knutson.
“I think it’s the strongest activation of our mission to bring people together, to have a space to process what’s going on and to connect with each other,” said Lavelle.
Art Shanty Projects wrapped up its last weekend on the ice a couple of days ago, but they’ll be back next year. To learn more you can visit their website at artshantyprojects.org.
