Winter Carnival snow sculpture altered over anti-ICE statements

Less than an hour after the “tools down” call ended the 2½-day Minnesota State Snow Sculpting Competition at the Vulcan Snow Park at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds last Sunday, Jan. 25, sculptor Logan Thomas looked over at his team’s creation and was surprised by what he saw.

An inscription reading “ICE OUT MN” near the top of the sculpture, which resembles the bottom half of a face ascending into a tornado-like swirl, had been haphazardly and hastily gouged away, and a small whistle sculpture near the base was smashed.

None of the team’s three sculptors saw who had altered their work, and they still do not know for certain, though based on comments from several bystanders who did witness it, the team believes the inscription was removed by Snow Park officials, Thomas and teammate Siera Himmerich both said. The team’s third member is friend Nick Langer.

Attempts to contact Vulcan Snow Park organizers directly were unsuccessful. In response to several specific questions about the circumstances surrounding the sculpture’s alteration, the Pioneer Press received the following statement from the St. Paul Winter Carnival’s spokesperson:

“The Minnesota State Snow Sculpting Competition has been hosted by the Saint Paul Vulcans since 1985 to promote outdoor winter fun. This state sculpting competition, as with most sculpting competitions, has strict rules, regulations and guidelines shared in advance and reiterated onsite prior to the start. One of those rules requires sculptures to be family-friendly and non-political.”

The situation mirrors another incident this month at the World Snow Sculpting Championship in Stillwater, where organizers unilaterally deconstructed Team USA’s sculpture, which depicted peace signs and hand gestures in American Sign Language, including words for “love,” “unity” and “ICE out.”

At the Vulcan Snow Park, the core of Thomas’ team’s sculpture was reprised from sketches the trio had made for the 2025 competition, which they were unable to participate in due to illness. Their inspiration last year was the question, “What’s on your mind?”

In planning for this year’s sculpture, the team realized that their overwhelming answer — all that was swirling around their heads — was federal immigration agents’ conduct in the Twin Cities. So their updated design plans included a whistle, a tear gas canister, the hat a 5-year-old Minnesota boy was wearing when he was detained by ICE on his way home from preschool and other subtle nods to resistance movements.

The decision to add the inscription “ICE OUT MN” was made on-the-spot Sunday morning, in the final hours of the competition, after the trio watched the shooting of intensive care nurse Alex Pretti and the resulting protests unfold the day before. The sculptors knew they were taking a risk and had accepted that their decision would likely hurt their sculpture’s competitive chances, Thomas said.

“It was almost hard not to do something; it was so upsetting,” Thomas said. “We knew it might get disqualified. We definitely didn’t know it was going to get defaced.”

Thomas said judges were walking around the Snow Park while sculptors were working and representatives from the Vulcans did not express specific concerns about the team’s piece during the 2½-day work period. On the contrary, he said, one judge thanked the team for speaking out, as did several community members watching the sculptors work.

Snow Park officials also did not at any point communicate with the sculptors about their ostensible plans to alter the sculpture, nor did they offer for the sculptors to modify the work themselves, Thomas and Himmerich both said. As of Thursday evening, the sculptors had not been contacted directly by Snow Park officials to explain the situation.

This, to Himmerich, is the most disappointing part of the whole situation.

“I thought that they would be more collaborative and talk to us about it,” Himmerich said. “We knew that maybe they wouldn’t like it, but we took a chance and expected a conversation — not that they would go break stuff.”

This year is Thomas’ ninth competing in the state snow sculpture competition and Himmerich’s eighth. The team got its start in snow sculpting through the Vulcan Snow Park and hopes to be allowed to compete again next year, but Thomas and Himmerich both said they do not regret speaking out rather than staying silent to fit the competition’s rules.

“We do art that speaks to us,” Himmerich said. “I do want to say I think it’s interesting that it was perceived as so controversial. We’re putting on that sculpture what we see every day. I feel like ‘neutral’ isn’t really possible right now. Saying nothing doesn’t necessarily mean neutral. Saying nothing is supporting, and saying something is anti.”