Thin Ice Doesn't Stop Medicine Lake Art Shanty Projects

Peter Haakon Thompson grew up by Medicine Lake in Plymouth. The Minnesotan has seen his fair share of winters on the lake and always been fascinated with ice fishing house.

Maybe that's why years later Thompson's creative, artistic side saw a chance to combine his interest and spice up the winter doldrums in January for thousands of Minnesotans.

Since 2004, Medicine Lake has been the epicenter of a fun, new way to bring art to an otherwise unused space with the Art Shanty Project, which brings interaction to art.

For Thompson, building his first art shanty was a way to have a studio and hang out with friends in a unique space.

"I mentioned the idea to build my own shanty at an artists' talk and another artist, David Pitman, got excited and then a bunch of artists wanted to do something like it," Thompson said. "With David's energy and everyone's work we made it into what it is today."

The Art Shanty Project includes a call for entries by artists who want to build a unique shanty who submit proposals and a jury of people from the art community picks 20 proposals each year.  Each unique group of artists that were chosen gets a stipend of $1,200 to build their cool masterpiece. The money comes from a variety of funds, the most of which is from the state arts board and Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, he said.

This year's weather has brought an interesting challenge to Art Shanty Project. Though artists have gotten the go-ahead from the Hennepin County Water Patrol to have their shanties on the lake, they are restricted to being close to shore.

The shanties could not be moved onto the ice by vehicles so there has been more labor moving them around near the lake's shore. Groups have their shanties on two-by-four wood blocks to help glide them around.

Otherwise the nice weather has been more enticing for artists to be out on the lake to work on their projects. After all, 6,000 to 10,000 people come to the Art Shanty Project. The Project was not done last year, which was a "dispersed" year to help plan and prepare for 2012. From now on, the Art Shanty Project will be on Medicine Lake every other year instead of annually, Thompson said.

Hot dogs, baked potatoes, hot beverages and T-shirts will be on sale during the Project's nearly month long run, which runs on the weekends 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14 through Sunday, Feb. 5. It will also be open for free public viewing on Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday, Jan. 16.