As part of the Public Art Program’s public outreach strategy, the Winnipeg Arts Council wanted to create an opportunity for the community to come together and celebrate the art and public space in Millennium Library Park, which was designed to be used year round! On February 1, 2014, families and fun took over the park to celebrate winter and create an art filled, child-sized snow maze. WAC and the Library hosted workshops over the winter break where families were invited to create drawings inspired by their favourite children’s book or quote. These were then frozen into panels of ice to be embedded into the walls of the maze. Sentinel of Truth by Darren Stebeleski, a wall of weathering steel with literary quotes, served as the inspiration for the idea of freezing children’s artwork into the maze. On the day of the build, people from all over the city joined the Winnipeg Arts Council. the Winnipeg Public Library and the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ in constructing a maze of snow blocks. When taking a break from construction, people were able to warm up with some hot chocolate, or head indoors to enjoy their favourite winter stories, word games and crafting in the Library.
Thanks to Hilderman Thomas Frank Cram and Erica Swendrowski for the conceptual design and execution of the snow maze.
In the Media:
- Global News, posted Feb 1, 2014: SnowMAZEing family fun
