Photo by Ackerman + Gruber
Art Shanty Projects on Lake Harriet
The Art Shanty Projects, 2016
What’s more Minnesotan than a tiny art gallery on a frozen lake? How about a whole village of ’em?
The Art Shanty Projects started on a whim in 2004, when two local artists, Peter Haakon Thompson and David Pitman, planted an art installation on Medicine Lake. The next year, some 20 artists showed up with their own huts, filled with DIY crafting, music, snacks, and some high weirdness, too.
This year’s edition includes 22 shanties and 13 performance groups. It’s an exuberant return after last year’s snafu, when organizers had to cancel the project, having failed to receive a key grant from the State Arts Board.
“We went to the community and held a series of meetings to see how we could return to the ice and think more strategically about fundraising,” says Erin Lavelle, the Art Shanty Projects’ new artistic director.
The festival lives on (with at least one more scheduled in 2021), mostly thanks to an anonymous donation that Lavelle won’t tell us anything about, other than to say it was “very generous.” Warms your heart, right? To help with fundraising, this year’s event will present an official entrance gate with donation stations. (The suggested donation is $10–$20, by cash, card, or app.) But, Lavelle adds, “No one will be turned away.”
In 2016 and 2017, the festival camped out on White Bear Lake. Or, rather, the slushy beach: Warm weather drove the entire village off the ice. “I was an artist both those years,” says Lavelle. “It was disappointing.” This time around, however, BYO... swimsuit?! New this year is a 160-to-190-degree sauna shanty, complete with a changing room and deck to cool off. You know, in case you’re too hot standing on a frigid lake in February.
The city of Minneapolis doesn’t allow vehicles on the ice, so food and bev vendors will stick to the shore, by the bandshell. Visitors can park on surrounding neighborhood streets. The Art Shanty Projects received an accessibility-related grant this year that will bring a ramp to the ice and provide kicksleds—one of which can attach to a wheelchair.
To visit the village, head to Lake Harriet (over by the bandshell and Bread & Pickle) Saturdays and Sundays through February 9.
By the Numbers
40,000
Visitors at 2018’s Art Shanty Projects (pictured above), the first year it was set up on Lake Harriet.
50,000
Square feet of the shanty village. Yes, it looks tiny in the photo, but that’s almost three NHL rinks.
18
Shanties that are new to the project this year.
$2,400
Stipend amount for artists to buy materials and build their huts—almost 50 percent more than the stipend in previous years.
44
Pollinator-themed costumes available to borrow for a flash mob by the Pollinator Shanty. Yes, they’ll fit over snow pants.
