WINNIPEG – This city’s love/hate affair with winter is warming up with a temporary art gallery on river ice at The Forks.
The artists that form the Chris and Kine collective have built a history-inspired gallery on an ice surface that already boasts a restaurant, skating path and a collection of warming huts designed by world-renowned architects. The art gallery and restaurant both open Thursday night.
READ MORE: Raw/Almond’s restaurant on the ice prepares to open
“People complain about winter in Winnipeg, but I think it can be really great when you get outside and enjoy it,” said Christopher Janes, one of the artists who dreamed up the gallery. The collective came up with the design, crowd-funded it using Kickstarter and built it entirely on their own initiative.
Janes, a carpenter by trade, enjoys Winnipeg winters and has made the city his home for decades after growing up in Newfoundland – roots that influenced the design of the gallery, which was built to resemble an upside-down York boat. Janes’ grandfather was a boat-builder.
“Building a boat has always been a dream of mine, but I don’t like actually taking the boat on the water, so this is a good way to deal with this,” he said with a smile.
York boats were once used to navigate and transport goods on the Red and Assiniboine rivers, which were the main highways of the region. In winter, they were stored upside down until the rivers thawed.
The art in the gallery will also have a link to Winnipeg and The Forks’ past – the four artists involved are all creating history-inspired works.
WATCH: City artist creates a boat not meant to float.
The art gallery is part of a new approach to winter that has taken root in Winnipeg, said Chelsea Thomson, communications manager for The Forks.
The Forks North Portage Partnership, a non-profit organization that runs and markets the area where Winnipeg’s big rivers meet, started the move onto the ice with the skating trail built annually for more than 20 years.
READ MORE: Winnipeg’s Red River skating trail opens on New Year’s Day
But the warming hut program that started in 2010 – the jury-selected, architecture-designed structures are sometimes more art than protection from the elements – really caught people’s attention and focused it on the river, Thomson said.
“We brought high-end art and architecture” to the ice, she said. “You access it on skates and wearing a tuque.”
World-renowned architects such as Frank Gehry and Antoine Predock have been involved in the creation of the huts; this year, Rojkind Arquitectos of Mexico was invited to participate and created the Hybrid Hut. Other years’ huts that survived past winters and being moved off the ice are already set up along the Red River Mutual Trail; the new huts should be up by the end of the month, Thomson said.
IN PHOTOS: New huts and designs to help warm up winter at The Forks
The RAW/Almond pop-up restaurant, which offers high-end cuisine in a limited-time structure on the ice, is another unique attraction. Local chefs and restaurateurs worked together to create the wildly successful temporary dining experience, which is in its third year.
Judging by social media, outdoor winter activities have a new cache with the cool kids, Thomson said.
“It’s become a first date and a family outing,” she said.
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People outside of Winnipeg are also starting to take notice of the unique opportunities offered in a city that has in the past been derided as Winterpeg.
“What’s unique about Winnipeg is that we have extreme and harsh winters,” Thomson said. “This is what we have. Let’s make the most of it.”
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Tourism Winnipeg senior vice-president Chantal Sturk-Nadeau echoed Thomson’s statement.
“Winnipeg is Canada’s newest hot winter city,” Sturk-Nadeau said. “It’s a wonderful winter experience.”
Outsiders are being drawn to explore the area, people visiting family and friends stay longer to take in events and activities and locals’ attitudes towards their home have improved, she said.
Attractions built by local people, such as the art gallery and the pop-up restaurant, show the spirit of the place and bring more people to catch the buzz, she said.
“There are remarkable things going on in our city,” Sturk-Nadeau said. “We’re owning winter now.”
WATCH: Winnipeg artists design river ice art gallery.
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