Duane Hicks
With the deadline to enter the Rainy River Arts Collective’s inaugural snow sculpture project coming up Saturday (Feb. 4), organizers are hoping more teams will sign up to participate.
As of yesterday afternoon, there has been little response to the call for entries, noted Fort Frances Museum curator Sherry George, who also is a RRAC member.
George said the RRAC has worked very hard on the “Winter Sculpture Garden” project, attending council meetings, writing letters, and calling businesses seeking their help with the event, and then following up to see that all falls into place.
She added that, as usual, the community—primarily businesses—have stepped up to help out.
A number have donated materials, others have built boxes, and still others have been hauling snow to fill those boxes so all will be in place.
“What we need now are individuals and groups to sculpt,” stressed George.
“We need to get the word out there and encourage the community to participate in this great event.”
Fellow RRAC member Lindsay Hamilton, who has been spearheading the snow sculpture project, said she “would love to see groups of people from our community getting together in the spirit of creativity and collaborating to see what they can come up with.”
She offered some words of encouragement and advice to anyone wanting to enter a team—no matter if they’re first-timers or experienced artists.
“The snow form is a blank cube full of possibilities,” she explained. “People can approach the sculpting of their form like the process of building a sandcastle, except this is much bigger than wet sand in a pail.
“Through extraction and subtraction of the snow, the form can be made,” she noted. “Use shovels, gardening tools, spoons—any utensil for cutting will work.
“You can also spray water on the form to make interesting textures, or to make ice.”
But Hamilton said the most important part of this project is the collaboration between local businesses, the Town of Fort Frances, RRAC, and the artists creating and sharing the sculptures with the community.
“This project is meant to bring us together as a community,” she stressed.
“The memories made during the process of making these sculptures are what has [to be] the lasting impact from this project.
“These sculptures are temporal in nature,” she added. “[They] will have a precious moment in our public spaces, for only a few weeks.
“They are passing articulations of a collaborative creative endeavour. The time spent participating through the creation is what is most valuable.”
Organizers are planning on having at least six teams entered, but could go up to eight if enough sign up.
Registration forms are available at the Fort Frances Museum and the Fort Frances Times office, as well as online at www.rrarts.net
There is an entry fee of $25/team. And each team must submit a concept sketch to demonstrate what they plan to build.
The snow sculpture competition hopes to feature three divisions (school, general, and business).
As noted, the deadline to sign up is this Saturday. Bring completed entry forms and the entry fee to the museum.
The carving then will take place from Feb. 8-17, with the unveiling and awards presentation slated for Saturday, Feb. 18 at 8 p.m. at the museum.
