JANUARY 22-28, 2008
Breckenridge, CO - Experience the visual grace of the creation and exhibition of fleeting art as the Budweiser Select International Snow Sculpture Championships return to Breckenridge Tuesday through Sunday for the 18th year. Sculptures will be on exhibit at the Riverwalk Center, located in the heart of the Colorado ski resort town between Main Street and Park Avenue.This year, 16 teams from around the globe will gather to compete in this prestigious event from countries including the USA, Canada, China, Mexico, France, Germany, Spain, Lithuania and the Netherlands. The states represented include Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Wisconsin. Snow Sculpting is attended annually by more than 30,000 people of all ages from across the U.S. and the world, organizers say.
Each year, four-person teams are assigned 12-foot-tall, 20-ton blocks of machine-made snow. These teams work within a five-day period to create sensational sculptures. From these blocks of snow, the teams often create enormous pieces of whimsy, although some deliver powerful political or social commentary. Some sculptures are even interactive and allow spectators to experience the tactile as well as visual grace of the fleeting exhibit.
The finished pieces are achieved after a total of 65 intense hours of work without the use of power tools, internal support structures or colorants – just the ingenuity of man and a medium that lends itself, if only temporarily, to the persuasion of chisels, saws, chicken wire and even carrot scrapers.
When the sculptures are finished, a panel of well-known artists and patrons of the arts serve as judges and present awards to the first, second and third place sculptures. Awards are also given for People’s Choice, Kids’ Choice and Artists’ Choice. There are no cash prizes; the artists instead revel in the reward of hard work, forged friendships, freedom of artistic expression and the satisfaction of long hours of preparation that lead to the event. - from
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