Art Shanties On Thin Ice: The winter festival is cancelled this year but looking ahead to 2020

Last year, more than 40,000 people visited the popular Art Shanty Projects, the on-ice public art program that took place on Lake Harriet for the first time, after moving from its previous location at White Bear Lake. Not only were there three times more people that attended the festival than the year prior, but donations as well as sponsorships went up from previous years, which is what makes the organization’s announcement that the program won’t take place this year all the more shocking.

Or maybe not that shocking, when you consider the reality of existing as an arts nonprofit. “I think people have a hard time understanding that the Art Shanty Projects is an expensive program,” says Ilana Percher, treasurer of the board for the festival. “People have this concept that it comes out of thin air — that it’s a labor of love.  You can’t continue a project that is only fueled by love and joy and enthusiasm. That’s not an infinite resource.”

 

 

Formed in the winter of 2004 by artists Peter Haakon Thompson and David Pitman, ASP was originally hosted by the Soap Factory and took place on Medicine Lake in Plymouth, Minnesota. It became a nonprofit around five years ago and moved to White Bear Lake in 2014, where it was held that year as well as 2016 and 2017.

Percher says that the idea with moving the festival to Minneapolis was to make it more accessible. While she wasn’t part of the leadership team at the time, she says, “They wanted to increase participation and introduce it to more people — make it more accessible to urban dwellers who could maybe help support it.”

At the time a couple of organizations in Linden Hills, such as the Linden Hills Neighborhood Council, had approached the organization, expressing a desire to help financially with the move. “They helped us work with park board to obtain necessarily permissions,” Percher said, noting that the Neighborhood Council were very supportive.

The move paid off in terms of increasing attendance. At Medicine Lake, Percher said ASP drew 18,000 in 2012. That number went down when they moved to White Bear Lake— drawing more like 10,000-12,000.

In 2018, "We did get more money than previous years, but the cost of the program ballooned, and definitely a smaller percentage of visitors donated,” Percher said.

The problem was that while there were more people attending, the number of board members shaking buckets was the same, so it was more difficult to reach everyone with a donation ask.

“There was a lot of learning after the fact,” Percher said. “We were kind of overwhelmed as an organization. We didn’t have the wherewithal to get the donations, but we didn’t figure that out before it was too late.”

Meanwhile, last year the organization had a bare-bones staff. “We had three people,” Percher said. “Two were all-year and one was for the better part of the year. They worked more hours than we paid them for.”

 

 

This year, ASP had hoped to receive the Festival Support Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, a process that took a number of years to even apply. “You need budget info from the last several years to even be eligible,” Percher said. “We were trying to scrape it together for a whole bunch of years so we could get this grant.”

Unfortunately, the organization didn’t receive the Festival Support grant and made the decision that the funding was simply not there to make this year’s festival happen. As a result of that decision, ASP will have to return a grant they did receive, from the Metro Regional Art Council.

While the festival is taking a hiatus, organizers have every intention of continuing the project in the future. “We are committed to having community meetings and catalyze a sense of personal responsibility in the communities we serve,” said Percher. “There are a lot of people that love the Art Shanties. If it wasn’t clear before— we need people to step up. This free festival is not free.”

Still, ASP isn’t planning on going anywhere. “We are 100 percent committed to being back on the ice in 2020. Nothing has changed there,” said Board Co-Chair Jason Buranen. They also plan to return to Lake Harriet, he said. “When we moved to Lake Harriet, we had said we would be there for three years,” he said.

Two community meetings are planning for Tuesday, October 23rd, at 6pm at Red Stag Supper Club and Sunday, October 28th, at 3pm at Can Can Wonderland, where attendees can hear more information and give input on the future of the program.

Meanwhile, Buranen said to watch out for the Art Shanties on Facebook and Instagram, as well as through the organization’s email newsletter.

 

 

All images courtesy of the Art Shanty Projects Facebook page.