Artful Ice Shanties 2024
Artful Ice Shanties 2024
A call for entries, and a date to mark on your February calendar
Fancy a little ice fishing, or maybe just creating an inspiring and arty shanty?
Artful Ice Shanties is Brattleboro Museum and Art Center’s and Retreat Farm’s annual nod to the unlikely marriage of art and ice fishing. It’s the fourth year for this very Vermont outdoors exhibition originally inspired in part by Art Shanty Projects in Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to BMAC Director Danny Lichtenfeld, “Artful Ice Shanties has become one of Brattleboro’s signature winter events.”
The exhibition of the colorful shanties will be held Feb. 17-25, 2024 with a closing ceremony on Saturday, Feb. 25, at 2 p.m. Per usual, the exhibition and closing ceremony will take place on the Retreat Meadows ice across the road from Retreat Farm, or, in case of unsafe ice, on the grounds of Retreat Farm itself, at 45 Farmhouse Square, Brattleboro, Vermont. Last year over 2000 art and outdoor enthusiasts visited the exhibition of 15 shanties.
“Artful Ice Shanties can be traditional or conceptual, functional or wacky, permanent or temporary—as long as they can be moved and can withstand the wind, snow, and ice in mid-February, as well as exploration by the general public throughout the week. Past entries have included a translucent box that used recycled lenses to simulate the experience of the northern lights; a shanty in the shape of a giant fish, made from bent willow branches [oh, that fish! Do click on the hyperlink]; an enormous black die with moons as dots; a seascape featuring a three-dimensional octopus; and Namaskônek, a shanty inspired by the Algonquin ancestors of the region.” —Brattleboro Museum
Want to construct and present your own ice shanty in the exhibition? The deadline to register a shanty is Dec. 15, 2023. The first 15 artists or groups to register will receive a $200 stipend upon delivery of their shanty. There is no fee for entry. Registration forms and details—dimensions, due dates, further descriptions—are available at the link: brattleboromuseum.org.
(Photos courtesy of Brattleboro Museum and Art Center)
———————————————————
Big news . . . we are well over 2600 subscribers. Thank you! You’re reading Artful, a blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley, and I hope you’ll subscribe and then share this with your friends and on your social media.
And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.