Art Shanty Projects Hires Artistic Director

11 July 2019

We are thrilled to announce that Erin Lavelle has been hired as Artistic Director for Art Shanty Projects! Erin is a public artist, producer, and longtime audience member of Art Shanty Projects, as well as a 2-year on-ice installation artist with Slumber Party Shanty. Erin has also served as 4-time producer of the Northern Spark festival. 

We are thrilled to announce that Erin Lavelle has been hired as Artistic Director for Art Shanty Projects! Erin is a public artist, producer, and longtime audience member of Art Shanty Projects, as well as a 2-year on-ice installation artist with Slumber Party Shanty. Erin has also served as 4-time producer of the Northern Spark festival. 

Erin brings a background in artistically leading collaborative projects and working in uncontained environments. She has worked with hundreds of artists and partner organizations to help usher projects from proposal to production planning to presentation in unpredictable, changing, dynamic public locations. As Artistic Director, Erin will work with the Board and staff to re-envision the program and its future within an open, accessible and inclusive community process. 

“I am delighted to return to the frozen lake in a leadership role with Art Shanty Projects”, said Lavelle. “Their on-ice program has always been, for me, a joyful engagement with community through a platform borne of our unique northern region and winter culture. Since its beginning, artists have embraced the temporal nature of the season through wild, imaginative, bizarre and compelling reinventions of traditional ice shanties.”

During the past year, the organization has worked with the community to assess the program’s past successes and shortcomings, and has taken steps to move toward becoming a self-sustaining organization. During the month of July, Art Shanty Projects will be issuing its call for artists and performers for the 2020 on ice festival.