Art Shhh-anty (Silent) Auction 2026

Art Shanty Projects is proud to bring you our 2026 Shhh-anty (silent) Auction! Check out the super cool stuff, services, and experiences we have from our wonderful, winter-loving artists and community partners! Auction items are curated in the spirit of the shanty village - supporting creativity, adventure, love for the outdoors, and connection. And FUN!

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

May 26 - June 1: scope out items in advance + tell all your friends about it!
June 2: start placing your bids at noon
June 15: get your final bids in by 8pm; check to see if you won
June 17: pick up winning items at our Summer Snowcial

Summer Snowcial
June 17, 6-8pm
@ Sociable CIder Werks, 1500 Fillmore Street NE, MPLS

Whether your bid wins or not, please join us at our Summer Snowcial!  We'll have sno-cones, live screen printing, shanty swag, and a lot of summer fun to go around. Interested in getting involved in our 2027 season? Our Artistic Director Erin will be on hand to answer all your questions about applying to be an artist, and our Board Co-Chair Mike will be there to chat with you about joining the board.

(Winners do need to pick up physical items at the Snowcial - if you can't attend, send a friend!)

Since 2004 Art Shanty Projects has created whimsical, weird and joyful winter art experiences for grown adults and kids of all ages. Inspired by pop-up ice fishing villages, artists use the frozen lake as a public platform to create a temporary, interactive community. With few regulations and no building codes – and against intense and unpredictable winter weather conditions – artists have the freedom and challenge to create wild and wonderful work that can’t be experienced anywhere else. Together, with our visitors, we celebrate, champion, and embrace the extreme winter sport of art making. 

Our four-weekend, winter art program attracts over 27,000 annual visitors of all ages to explore interactive public art in an extreme environment. ~40 artist teams are given stipends to use the frozen lake as a public platform to create and present interactive art shanty installations and a rotating schedule of daily performances. Visitors can race bicycle contraptions, cast spells with witches, research good vibes with aliens, or boogie down inside the world's only dance club on ice.

Mission: Art Shanty Projects intentionally creates an impermanent art village on Minnesota lake ice amid changing climate and environment. With a spirit of embracing challenges through creativity, we support an ecosystem that inspires everyone to create and participate in art, thrive in winter, and build community.