PROGRAM ARCHIVES
Cruise down memory lane and explore all the exciting frozen fun from past years!
Art Shanty Projects was founded in by two artists taking inspiration from ice-fishing houses and pop-up communities that come together on Minnesota’s frozen lakes each winter. They saw potential to create an artists’ happening in an extreme environment; to embrace and reinvent a beloved cultural practice; and to encourage personal expression and community engagement through temporary structures and performances. This culminated in artists gathering to produce participatory shanties and integrated programming on Medicine Lake.
Art Shanty Projects has since shifted lake sites twice (White Bear Lake, Bdé Umáŋ / Lake Harriet) and grown to become an annual event. Attendance has risen from 5,000 in 2007 to more than 29,000 in 2025. The public program welcomes curious locals, regional artists, and visitors from beyond our borders to explore the shanty village, a one-of-a-kind art experience. Tens of thousands emerge to face subzero temperatures, deep snowfall, wind and even rain to experience this quintessential South Minneapolis event.
2026
The 2026 program occurred during the federal ICE occupation of Minneapolis.
As a public art organization we took our responsibility to serving the public during this time seriously, leaning into the value of having a diversity of tactics. We offered nourishment, spaciousness, release, tenderness, catharsis, and solidarity to 18,000+ visitors through creative exchange.
Artists and performers animated our mission to the fullest, inviting people to practice participation and build community amidst harsh conditions. This included recording visitors’ internal weather, casting spells and smashing little ice men, story exchange, and more. They did this with skill and open hearts.
2026 photos on this page by Erin Lavelle (top) and Drew Arrieta (trio)
2025
We celebrated our 21st year with a glorious full four-weekend program on Bdé Umáŋ (Lake Harriet) in South Minneapolis, greeting ~29,000 visitors over the course of the month.
Due to the past short & sweet 2024 program (CLIMATE CHAOS!) several shanties returned for their encore, and they were accompanied by many new ones too!
2025 photos on this page by Ryan Stopera
2024
2024 marked 20 years of weird and wonderful winters! To celebrate, we recreated the original shanty, dubbed Art Shanty #1, which hosted rotating artists making radio shows, a nod to the early days of K-ICE on Medicine Lake.
And, for the first time since the 2020 program and onset of the pandemic we welcomed visitors inside again, and had a mix of ‘classic’ and open-air shanties.
We also met the challenge of the warmest winter on record — and greeted 10,000 enthusiastic visitors in one glorious weekend before the ice melted.
Artists and staff members alike lived out our values to embrace challenges through creativity and acknowledge the impermanence of our art village. They did this with skill and good spirits.
2024 photos on this page by Ryan Stopera
2023
Due to a freak storm that dumped 2+ feet of snow, turning the solid lake ice to slush, we pivoted to Plan Beach just days before install!
With shanties interspersed all throughout Bandshell Park on shore, we were delighted to welcome grown adults and kids of all ages to play / learn / grow / laugh / smile / sing / groove / gather with us in a new, fresh way to experience the Art Shanty village. Staff and volunteers donned beach attire over their snowsuits, visitors and artists played in the snow, and shanties were bursts of color and activity interspersed between the quiet built environment of the park.
2023 photos on this page courtesy the artists and Erin Lavelle
2022
After taking 2021 off due to the mysteries and uncertainties of the global pandemic, we returned in 2022, ambitious in our desire to connect with our community and with the environment against challenges. This year we embraced all the things that came at us. We built community, encouraged sustainability, and took safety into account by requiring shanties to have exterior-only experiences for visitors, in order to prevent sharing air in typically small shanty structures. We are proud to continue providing a vibrant space for artists and visitors to eagerly exchange with one another during the isolating months of winter (oh, and also during the omicron surge when all indoor activities were cancelled…).
2022 photos on this page by Ryan Stopera
2020
After a one year pause in programming due to funding instability, we returned in 2020 stronger than ever! The shanty village featured 22 shanties and 12 performance groups this year, featuring more than 100 artists. Nearly half of the artist teams were new to the shanties, and several individual artists reported that they had never been on a frozen lake before! This was an expression of the extreme winter sport of art making (just in time, before the global pandemic hit).
2020 photos on this page by Ryan Stopera
More Shantiquity
More archival content from way back to our founding in 2004 is coming soon! Stay tuned, Shanty fans!
