Art Shanty Projects: 6th annual celebration

The annual Art Shanty Projects is one of Shedworking's favourite shedlike celebrations. Based on Medicine Lake in Plymouth, Minnesota it runs until February 14 and is open to the public at the weekends from 11am to 4pm. This is how they describe it:

A six-week exhibition of performance, architecture, science, art, video, literature, survivalism and karaoke, ASP is part sculpture park, part artist residency and part social experiment, inspired by traditional ice fishing houses that dot the state’s lakes in winter.

Which sounds marvellous but still doesn't do justice to a true community carnival of shedlife.Among the shanty stars are ones made of paper, the only Post Office on ice, the Black Box theatre, one devoted to family games, another to Shackleton's journey to the South Pole, a specialist knitting shanty, the Ship in the Bottle Shanty, The News Shanty and many, many more. A few examples above and below but hundreds more at their Flickr site. Well worth a browse.

View the Northern Lights shedstyle

A marvellous article in The Observer by Doug McKinlay, about the Ark Hotel which consists of several fishing huts/sheds on frozen lake Tornetrask in the Arctic Circle (a little like the splendid Art Shanty Project) from where you can view the Northern Lights. Here's what he says:

"The idea behind the Ark Hotel comes from a local tradition: men have been building these huts for decades, dragging them out on the ice every winter and fishing from a hole in the floor and ice below...Each is about six metres square and sleeps three comfortably on single beds. The best part is that by each bed is a resealable hole in the wooden floor, allowing guests to fish from the comfort of their down-filled sleeping bags."

But while the piece is nice, the photos by McKinlay from the accompanying slideshow are spectacular. Definitely worth a browse.

Art Shanty Projects - new photos

David Pitman, co-curator of the marvellous Art Shanty Projects which we have covered before has been kind enough to send me through some photos of the latest shedlike atmospheres taken by his fellow co-curator Peter Haakon Thompson. Pictured above is the Mobile Home Shanty, below the MedLake Drawing Club, Kice Studios, and MedLake Fisheries.

Art Shanty Projects

Pictures of this year's Art Shanty Projects are starting to roll in. For more details, go to the Flickr pages here and here.

Art Shanty Projects

Shamefully late to mention this marvellous annual project which started today on Medicine Lake in Plymouth, Minnesota. Go here and here for more information. Apparently the ice is the thickest it's been for three years and they are installing away from the shore... We're looking forward to the photos! For background details of last year's event see this story.

Ice sheds

A marvellous piece by Geoff Manaugh in Metropolismag looks at an annual architecture experiment on the frozen Medicine Lake of Minne­apolis called Art Shanty Projects. It includes 20 sheds/cabins taking their inspiration from local ice-fishing shed architecture. Pictures courtesy Art Shanty Projects. Geoff is the clever chap behind the marvellous BldgBlog which is full of interesting posts on the themes of Architectural Conjecture, Urban Speculation, and Landscape Futures. It will soon be available in book format too. Well worth a browse. [update - Geoff Manaugh is now the Senior Editor at the equally marvellous Dwell magazine. Thanks to Justin at materialicio.us for getting in touch]