Stillwater chamber officials apologize for response regarding snow sculpture’s removal
Greater Stillwater Chamber of Commerce officials have apologized for the way the organization handled the removal of Team USA’s snow sculpture from the World Snow Sculpting Championship display.
Chamber officials removed the sculpture, “A Call to Arms,” because they said it included anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement symbols that violated competition rules.
The sculpture, which was a sphere of outstretched hands, included peace signs and hand gestures using American Sign Language. Among the messages spelled out in ASL: “ICE out,” “love,” “unity” and “resist.”
The decision “to remove the sculpture happened during a challenging time for the entire city and state,” Robin Anthony-Evenson, president of the Greater Stillwater Chamber of Commerce & Foundation, said Monday. “We respect and understand the intensity of the feedback from the community related to what has happened. … The (competition) was founded on a commitment to bring people together to celebrate winter and showcase amazing creative energy from around the world. We regret that our decision to remove the sculpture did not reflect this, and we are working through a process to move us all forward as a community.”
The removal of the sculpture made national news.
The original design submitted for competition did not include hand gestures of symbols. The decision to change the sculpture was made on Jan. 14, the first day of the competition — just one week after Renee Macklin Good, 37, was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, according to St. Paul artist and Team USA member Dusty Thune.
“Upon digging into the snow block, we found the snow pack to be so poorly packed and full of debris that the outstretched arms we were carving kept crumbling and falling off,” Thune told the Pioneer Press. “We made the choice to focus on bigger hands and shorter arms to try and salvage our piece. Sometimes the medium (snow) decides the way a piece is going to be created. Sometimes external events also have a hand in shaping what a piece will become.”
Officials discovered the modifications to Team USA’s sculpture after they had completed the judging process of the competition, which consisted of 16 teams from around the world. Team Canada won the event; Team USA did not place.
The World Snow Sculpting Championship rules state that “teams must adhere to their original submitted sketch” and “sculptures must respect cultural and social values, and avoid offensive, controversial, political, or inappropriate themes,” Anthony-Evenson told the Pioneer Press.
The hand gestures in the sculpture “did not align with these pre-established rules and policy,” she said.
‘Emotionally heavy’
In a statement posted over the weekend on social media, Chamber officials apologized for their handling of the situation.
“We want to acknowledge this clearly and collectively: in a fast-moving and emotionally charged moment, our response did not fully reflect our shared values,” they wrote. “Leadership is not about perfection. It is about the humility to pause, reflect, and adjust when something does not land as intended.”
Chamber officials said the past several weeks have been “emotionally heavy for many people in Minnesota and across the country.”
“In moments like these, fear, grief, anger, and uncertainty rise quickly to the surface,” according to the statement. “As leaders and as neighbors, we feel that weight too.”
Chamber officials said they are “committed to learning from this moment and turning reflection into action.”
“(We) are now focused on listening and learning, and on working with artists — including through an Artist Advisory Group — to review criteria and look at how situations like this are handled in the future,” they said.
Permanent sculpture?
Thune said he learned about the removal of “A Call to Arms” from someone who went to Lowell Park to view it.
Thune spent this weekend working on a snow sculpture called “Ice Out 4 Good,” a memorial for Alex Pretti and Renee Good, at the Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis. Pretti was a 37-year-old ICU nurse who was shot and killed on Jan. 24 by federal law enforcement agents in Minneapolis.
Thune said he also hopes to make a permanent “A Call to Arms.” A GoFundMe online fundraiser to help with that effort (gofund.me/69441a094) had raised $6,700 as of Monday morning.
“I think it is time to make this sculpture live forever,” he told the Pioneer Press last week. “We’d like to recreate it in iron, the lifeblood of Minnesota, and have it on permanent display in Minneapolis as a memorial to those who can no longer speak up.”
