Call it the Burning Man of the Midwest: a temporary city built around artistic expression. Only this one takes place in the suburbs of Minneapolis in the middle of winter.
Minnesota is known for its 10,000 lakes. When the lakes freeze for the winter, the state is known for its ice fishing and its ice shanties — little homemade fishing shacks full of heaters, radios and bottles of schnapps.
On Medicine Lake, 20 shanties are part of a festival called Art Shanty Projects. They're filled with art and dance parties. The festival closes next weekend, and organizers expect about 10,000 visitors before it's done.
Although it's a bitter 15 degrees, hundreds of people are out, bundled in winter coats, long underwear and the occasional neon jumpsuit.
"This whole project kind of expands people's ideas of what art can be," says Peter Haakon Thompson, who co-founded Art Shanty in 2004. "I think a lot of people are intimidated by museums and galleries, and think that they're going to do something wrong when they're there. And there's definitely not that feeling out here."
Link:
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/29/146042470/minnesota-festival-on-ice-melts-arts-boundaries
