Tonight at 10 pm Fairbanks time, the Ice Park will close and this year’s World Ice Art Championships will be over. The webcams will be shut off and the sculptures will be left to fend for themselves against the warming temperatures of Spring. In recent years, at this time, I usually would start to think about what I’d like to sculpt at the next year’s event. As I write this, however, I am not as certain that there will be another Championships to sculpt at and I am waiting to see what happens before I dare to dream about a return to Fairbanks.

    At the Championships this year, there was a different feel from years that I’ve been there before. After twenty-one years, it sounded like it really could be the last year for the Championships. Either that, or it might be the last year before the start of a brand new era for the Championships. You see, there have long been rumblings that each year might be the end for the event, at least in its current form. Sometimes, in the past, there was talk of moving the Ice Park to another site. What’s really different is that this year, the talk was that if something didn’t happen, it would just be over. At issue is the land that the Ice Park sits on: the landlord and the tenant seem to have reached a stalemate in their the long running quest for a workable relationship.
    Here’s the basic gist of the situation as I understand it. The Ice Park sits on land that’s owned by the Alaska Railroad, which is an entity that has both commercial and governmental aspects. Some would say that it can act like either depending on what best suits its needs. The railroad is mandated to lease the land that it controls at a “fair” value. Unfortunately, this fair value is a price tag that isn’t within the reach of Ice Alaska, because the Railroad’s formula apparently considers uses that generate a lot more hard currency than a wintertime tourist attraction like the Championships. Thus, the railroad and Ice Alaska are constantly at odds over the amount of the lease payments. The Railroad has no incentive (or mandate) to consider the benefit to the community (economic impact, for example) that Ice Alaska provides. (Here’s a link to a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner article that gives you a glimpse into how complicated the situation is.)

    According to Dick Brickley, Ice Alaska’s chairman, the Championships generate 14-18 million dollars of economic impact annually. This doesn't include Ice Alaska’s direct expenditures of about $450,000 to put on the event and maintain the Ice Park. Also, apparently, only about 20 percent of the visitors to the Ice Park are from the Fairbanks/North Pole area. Another 20 percent are from the rest of Alaska, while a whopping 40 percent are from the lower 48 and an impressive 20 percent are international visitors. The event attracts nearly 50,000 visitors to an outside event while it can be REALLY cold out. The event also generates positive press and exposure for Central Alaska and meshes well with other cold weather attractions like the Ice Hotel at Chena Hot Springs and, of course, the Northern Lights. You would think that this is an event that’s worth a little effort to preserve.

    Alaska’s Legislature has the power to solve the problem. The Legislature is in session, and will be until April 18. So far, there is a Fairbanks North Star Borough resolution (2010-10) that asks the Legislature to pass a bill that transfers the land from the railroad to the borough in a land swap. As far as I can tell, there isn’t yet a bill under consideration that would transfer the land. However, Dick Brickley has said that he thinks it’s likely that there will soon be a bill and that it will come out of one of the legislative committees. Once there is a bill, it will be a little easier to follow the situation, because you can track a bill’s progress on the Alaska Legislature’s website.

    As it is with anything political, speaking up and making yourself heard means almost everything. Even the most self-serving politician will be moved to action by the will of public opinion. And make your voice heard even if you’re not a citizen of Alaska. Like many places, Alaska depends heavily on money generated by tourism. If the end of the Ice Art Championships would mean that you don’t visit Alaska and spend money there, then that WILL make a difference if they know about it. There are several ways for you to add your voice to the chorus of Ice Alaska supporters:

1. You can send a message to Alaska Governor Sean Parnell. Governor Parnell knows about the Ice Park and the Ice Art Championships because he was at the event this year. And I’m sure that somebody has informed him of Ice Alaska’s plight. A copy of the message that I sent to the Governor is included near the bottom of the page.
   

2. You can send an email to Melissa Stepovich, Governor Parnell’s assistant. A copy of the email that I sent to her is included at the bottom of the page.
   

3. You can sign the online petition on Ice Alaska’s website
   

4. You can contact Alaska’s legislators and let them know what you think
   

    If you are an ice sculptor, you have an interest in the continuation of Ice Alaska and the Ice Art Championships. If you are simply a fan of ice sculpting, you will want the Ice Art Championships to continue. The Ice Art Championships are the Super Bowl of ice sculpting, the Tour de France for ice artists. It is the ultimate destination for an ice sculptor: a place where the weight of the ice is measured in tons rather than pounds, the size in feet (or meters) rather than inches. Instead of mere hours, sculptures are completed over days. Even the simple words “ice block” have a completely different meaning in Fairbanks than they do almost anywhere else. The ice sculptures at the Ice Art Championships are some of the best the world has ever seen and they set a very high standard for future sculptors to try and match or exceed. Photos of sculptures from the Championships circulate endlessly on the internet, immortalizing the sculptures and keeping their memory and magnificence alive long after they’ve melted away!  Please take a few moments and help save this event by making your voice heard! If you spent all this time reading this article, surely you have a few seconds to register your name amongst those who would preserve the Ice Park and the Ice Art Championships. Thanks in advance for your help!

Also, feel free to link to this or send this article to others who like ice sculptures. Below are the emails that I sent to Alaska Governor Sean Parnell and his assistant, Melissa Stepovich.

Dear Governor Parnell,

I am an ice sculptor and have participated in the World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks four times. I live in Alabama and Louisiana, so it takes me longer to get to Fairbanks than it would to get to Europe. However, the Ice Art Championships is such a spectacular event that I and many other ice sculptors are willing to travel long distances, spend lots of money, and sculpt ourselves into a state of exhaustion. And the end result of what we do helps attract people to your beautiful state at a time when most are thinking that the last place they want to be is someplace cold! Please help me and my colleagues help you by insuring that Ice Alaska has a permanent home. I don't want to have to go to China or Russia to carve at the best ice sculpting event in the whole world! Thank you!

Sincerely,
Dawson List, ice artist

Ms. Stepovich,

I am an ice sculptor living in Alabama and Louisiana. I have been an ice sculptor for over 20 years. In my two decades plus of sculpting ice, easily some of my most rewarding experiences have been the four times I've participated in the World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks. It can take me over twenty hours and a lot of money to get to Fairbanks by plane, but every time I get back from Alaska, I can't wait to go back! But now I am concerned about the future of the Ice Art Championships and afraid that I won't get the opportunity to return to your beautiful state!

For several years, I've heard rumblings that the future of the Championships were in doubt because of the relationship between the event organizing group, Ice Alaska, and the Ice Park land holder, the Alaska Railroad Corp. But it's now become pretty evident to me that it's reached a breaking point: either your Legislature acts to preserve the event or it ceases to continue. I follow ice events and ice sculptors around the world and it's clear that there is no other event to compare with the World Ice Art Championships. No other ice event annually attracts as high a level of talent from around the world that Fairbanks does. The ice sculptors at the Championships create some of the most amazing ice sculptures the world has ever seen. Some of them are over thirty feet tall and truly massive while others are ridiculously daring and delicate! Yesterday, I heard about a Japanese piece that was so fragile that it was recently knocked down just because they were using a leaf blower to blow snow off of it!

When I first started sculpting ice just as I was finishing college, I was fascinated with ice sculptures. All these years later, I'm still fascinated with them. Many others share my fascination, which is what has allowed me and other ice sculptors to make careers out of what might have been just a hobby before. In a world that's always looking for the biggest and the best, Fairbanks has the biggest and the best ice sculptures! Despite it's worldwide reputation, I believe that the potential of the Ice Art Championships has scarcely been tapped and that helping Ice Alaska get a permanent home will be the next step in creating something truly wonderful in Fairbanks. Please give me and my colleagues a reason to return to Fairbanks so that we can help you show the rest of the world how spectacular Alaska is! Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Dawson List