Blog

Open Call: 2025 Ice Sculp­ture Show

Oct 23, 2024 9:53 am

New York City-based artists and col­lec­tives (of up to four peo­ple) are invit­ed to sub­mit ideas for an ice sculp­ture, to be com­plet­ed at the fourth annu­al Gov­er­nors Island Ice Sculp­ture Show, pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 8, 2025. The theme of this year’s com­pe­ti­tion is Gov­er­nors Island + Nature. Appli­cants are encour­aged to think out­side the box and share with us a cre­ative inter­pre­ta­tion of this theme.

Ten pro­pos­als will be select­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the live carv­ing event. Select­ed appli­cants or teams will receive an award of $2,000 to par­tic­i­pate, and will be pro­vid­ed with tools, pro­duc­tion mate­ri­als, and will be matched with a pro­fes­sion­al ice carv­er to com­plete the work on the day of the event. The dead­line to sub­mit pro­pos­als is Sun­day, Novem­ber 17, 2024.

Click here to learn more and apply by Novem­ber 17, 2024.

Impor­tant Dates

• Dead­line to apply: Sun­day, Novem­ber 17, 2024 at 11:59pm
• Select­ed appli­cants to be noti­fied: Mon­day, Novem­ber 25, 2024. Note: Select­ed appli­cants must accept invi­ta­tion to par­tic­i­pate by Wednes­day, Novem­ber 27, 2024
• In-per­son ori­en­ta­tion: Date TBD. Appli­cants should plan to be avail­able on week­days between Feb­ru­ary 3 – 7, 2025
• Event date: Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 8, 2025 (Rain Date: Sun­day, Feb­ru­ary 9, 2025)

Appli­cant & Project Eligibility

• Artists of all back­grounds and dis­ci­plines are encour­aged to pro­pose a design for an ice sculpture.
• Appli­cants will need to be com­fort­able and able to oper­ate pow­er tools (with instruc­tion) and lift ice and heavy objects dur­ing the event. Appli­cants will be under the coun­cil of a pro­fes­sion­al ice sculptor.
• Appli­cants can sub­mit inde­pen­dent­ly or work as a team. Each select­ed work will receive a sin­gle award of $2,000.
• Appli­cants need to be avail­able for an in-per­son ori­en­ta­tion week­day between Feb­ru­ary 3 – 7, 2025
• Appli­cants should pro­pose a work based on the use of a clear ice block sized approx­i­mate­ly 40” x 20” x 9”. Please make sure to detail dimen­sions when sub­mit­ting any sketch­es or renderings
• The work does not need to remain in block dimen­sions. It will be con­struct­ed with ice carv­ing tools allow­ing it to be cut, remold­ed, and shaped to vary­ing dimensions.
• Please note that any addi­tion­al mate­ri­als required for the pro­posed design, not out­lined above, should be sup­plied by the artist.

Pub­lic Event & Selection

• Sculp­tures will be carved in a two-hour pub­lic event on Gov­er­nors Island, from 12pm – 2pm on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 8, 2025 (Rain date on Sun­day, Feb­ru­ary 9, 2025).
• Ten projects will be select­ed noti­fied by Mon­day, Novem­ber 25, 2024. Select­ed appli­cants will need to accept invi­ta­tions by Wednes­day, Novem­ber 27, 2025
• Win­ning sub­mis­sions will be announced and pub­lished online by Jan­u­ary 2025.
• Appli­cants will be required to be on site on Gov­er­nors Island start­ing at 10am on the day of the show (Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 8, 2025. Rain date on Sun­day, Feb­ru­ary 9, 2025).
• The carved sculp­tures will remain on view on Gov­er­nors Island until they melt.