In 2021, over 1,000 people attended the inaugural Artful Ice Shanties exhibit, presented by the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) and Retreat Farm.

The Artful Ice Shanties are back for 2022, generously sponsored by Foard Panel, Brattleboro Subaru, and The Marina, with 18 shanties on display and a week-long schedule of outdoor activities for visitors of all ages. Visitors are welcome to stop by Retreat Farm Feb. 19–27, dawn to dusk, to join the fun.

Here is a preview of three of this year’s wild and whimsical shanties.

Northern Light Box

Designers and builders:
Linda Whelihan, lead artist and appreciator of “shiny, sparkly things”
Liz McLoughlin, project manager and designer
Tom Grasso & Tom McLoughlin, “big idea guys, recyclers, and construction crew”
Mary K. McLoughlin, graphic designer

Artist’s rendering by Mary K. McLoughlin

“We hope to capture the essence of nature in winter in a whimsical and interactive way. The Northern Light Box reflects the winter light, recreating the Northern Lights at a slightly lower latitude right here in Brattleboro. Stand inside the Northern Light Box and see the show!”

“Reuse, repair, and recycle were the watchwords for this construction, using recycled lenses from Omega Optical, recycled windows from Thomas McLoughlin LLC Window Repair and Restoration, various reused articles, remnant wood, and an old bicycle wheel. Only the roof was newly purchased.”

Tom Grasso (left) and Tom McLoughlin working on the Northern Light Box

“Our shanty is a celebration of place. How lucky we are to have such exquisite natural beauty all around us. The Retreat Meadows is a magical place throughout all the seasons, but especially in the winter, when you can walk out onto the frozen water and look down through the clear ice or hear the springy ‘boing’ reverberations of the ice shifting underfoot and echoing off the shore.”

“I have been yo-yoing back and forth over the past year and a half from Vermont to Maryland, where I have been helping out my parents and getting into some arty fun in Baltimore. I miss all the folks I used to work and play with at BMAC and am thrilled to be collaborating on an Artful Ice Shanty!”

— Linda Whelihan, former BMAC Education Curator

“Obviously, Linda is a skilled art teacher, as she has made artists of us all.”

— Liz McLoughlin

Namaskônek [na-MAS-kô-NEK] (“at the fish camp” in Western Abenaki)

Designers and builders:
Erin Maile O’Keefe (Hawai’i Maoli), lead designer
Judy Dow (Winooski-Abenaki)
Patricia Sweet Austin (Abenaki)
Billy Austin (Abenaki)
Leah Summerfield (Mohawk)
Kay Kakendasot Mattena (Potawatomi)
Martha Newell (Passamaquoddy)
Dawna Meader-York (Passamaquoddy)
Lloyd Michael Austin (Abenaki)
Tiffany Menard (Chippewa)

Erin Maile O’Keefe is a designer, community project leader, and educator at Yestermorrow Design/Build School living on the unceded lands of the Sokoki Abenaki. Namaskônek was inspired by the Algonquin ancestors of this land and designed in collaboration with Gedakina staff and local Abenaki ice fishermen, with input from local architects. Gedakina is a multigenerational endeavor to strengthen and revitalize the cultural knowledge and identity of Native American women and their families from across New England, working to conserve traditional homelands and places of historical, ecological, and spiritual significance and to educate others as to their importance.

“Namaskônek celebrates the traditional and current traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Northeast. It is designed to honor the Algonquin wigwam. Though wigwams were not traditionally built on ice, we framed this in the traditional way with locally harvested beech sapling bents. We sheathed the structure with duck cloth instead of birch or elm bark. We chose durable materials in the build so the fish camp can be moved and used year after year by local indigenous families. This ice fishing shanty is a place to learn and nurture families engaging in their traditional ways of living.”

— Erin Maile O’Keefe

“To me, this project has been all about adaptation. We have adapted the old to provide for the new. It's traditional to adapt, and adaptation is traditional for survival.”

— Judy Dow, Executive Director, Gedakina

"After the event is over, this ice fishing shanty will serve as a place for indigenous families to practice and nurture their traditional ways of living."

— Erin Maile O’Keefe

Biringan City

Designer and builder:
Justin Kenney, Brattleboro-based painter and sculptor

After graduating from high school, Justin Kenney moved to southern Vermont, where he studied with oil painter Eric Aho. After receiving a degree in printmaking from the Pacific Northwest College of Art and interning with Oregon sculptor Lee Kelly, Justin headed home to New England. He now lives in Brattleboro and exhibits nationally.

“Last year, my oldest son requested that I build him an ice shanty made of concrete. I started thinking about how I might do that and eventually had a vision in my head of what my ice shanty would be like. A year later, this amazing opportunity [Artful Ice Shanties] came trotting along.

“On moonless nights, seafarers have reported seeing a dazzling city of light. In a few minutes, though, the manifestation was no longer visible.

“Biringan City is for me a conversation about understanding. What a strange experience to sit in a small building on the ice, to catch fish on the other side of that ice… It really is a remarkable thing.

“When we talk about Biringan City, we talk about a place between two other places where nothing ever happens, but also where everything happens. This is why I chose to build Biringan City out of wood and steel and glass. The floor, walls, and roof are rough sawn pine from Halifax, Vermont. The steel roof shingles have been salvaged from some old ductwork. As for the glass—well, I am not sure where that will come from yet. Sometimes you have to go to Brown and Roberts. The hinge to the door is some old pipe and plate I had laying around. I have absolutely no idea what will become of Biringan City following the celebration. I might take up ice fishing.”

— Justin Kenney