Sculpting a winter city: Saskatoon students design ice sculptures as part of WintercityYXE strategy
Ice art part of Saskatoon's winter city strategy to get people excited for coldest season
Saskatoon is putting up ice sculptures around the city in its bid to promote itself as a vibrant winter city.
The sculpture designs, including a snowman and tuque-wearing penguin, were drawn by students at Aden Bowman Collegiate and turned into reality by ice sculptor Peter Fogarty.
The sculptures are connected to the winter city strategy, called WintercityYXE, that Saskatoon is working on.
"[The strategy will] celebrate what makes Saskatoon an inviting, vibrant and popular place to be and to be outside, even though it's the winter time," said Chris Schulz, the City of Saskatoon's manager of planning project services.
The sculptures are also a precursor to a series of events that start next week. The Winter Cities Shake-Up conference, running in Saskatoon Jan. 23 to 26, will hear from experts all over the world about how to make winter appealing in places that have a cold climate.
Funding for the project comes from the budget for the winter city strategy, which was supported this year and last year by the city.
The city plans to put up a map of the sculpture locations, and invites people to take a selfie with them, using the hashtag #WinterCityYXE, to win prizes like tuques.