A sculpture designed by Team USA for the World Snow Sculpting Championship in downtown Stillwater has been removed by officials citing changes made by the sculptors in response to recent federal immigrant enforcement.
The original design, as submitted to competition officials, featured a sphere of outstretched hands. It was called “A Call to Arms.”
But the team of sculptors, which includes St. Paul artist Dusty Thune and teammates Dan Belcher and Josh Jakubowski, decided during the festival in Lowell Park to add peace signs and hand gestures using American Sign Language. Among the messages spelled out in ASL: “ICE out,” “love,” “unity” and “resist.”
“Unfortunately, Team USA did not comply with the rules of the competition,” Robin Anthony-Evenson, president of the Greater Stillwater Chamber of Commerce & Foundation, said Wednesday, adding that event organizers had received “several phone calls and complaints” about the sculpture.
The World Snow Sculpting Championship rules state that “teams must adhere to their original submitted sketch” and “sculptures must respect cultural and social values, avoid offensive, controversial, political, or inappropriate themes,” Anthony-Evenson said.
The hand gestures used in the sculpture “did not align with these pre-established rules and policy,” she said.
‘Events have a hand’
Thune, a veteran snow sculptor and the team’s captain, said his team, called House of Thune, “hadn’t necessarily planned on inserting any messages into the sculpture, other than hand signs for peace, love, unity and resistance, which would have been continued into the snow on the ground behind the sphere as if it were rolling toward the St. Croix River and leaving messages in its wake.”
Thune said the decision to alter the design of “A Call to Arms” came on Jan. 14, the first day of the competition. Renee Macklin Good, 37, was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.
“Upon digging into the snow block, we found the snow pack to be so poorly packed and full of debris that the outstretched arms we were carving kept crumbling and falling off,” he said. “We made the choice to focus on bigger hands and shorter arms to try and salvage our piece. Sometimes the medium (snow) decides the way a piece is going to be created. Sometimes external events also have a hand in shaping what a piece will become.”
After learning of the changes, event organizers modified the sculpture on Jan. 19 by removing some of the hand signs, Anthony-Evenson said.
On Monday, the entire sculpture was removed from Lowell Park, she said.
“In hindsight, we should have taken it down right away, but we were trying to be nice and manage the situation without having to do that,” Anthony-Evenson said. “We learned there were more hidden messages in the sculpture than first thought. That is why we decided to take the whole thing down. This event is about bringing people together, not dividing them.”
Anthony-Evenson, who knows ASL, said the hands spelled out “ICE out” by using the sign for “ice” and the “resistance fist.”
“It was very creatively done, and it was not very easy to read,” she said. “You had to look at it very carefully to notice it, but clearly it was noticed. We appreciated the positive messaging that we did see like ‘love’ and ‘peace,’ but at the end of the day, the sculpture was modified from the submitted design. The submitted design had open fingers.”
Was not a winner
The 16 sculptures created by teams from 16 different countries remained in Lowell Park open to the public after the competition, so organizers decided to remove “A Call to Arms,” Anthony-Evenson said. The removal was “procedural in nature, unrelated to judging outcomes, and did not involve penalties or sanctions against the artists,” she said.
Team USA did not place in the competition, which was won by a team from Canada, she added.
Team Fjordwitches of Quebec, Canada, pose with their winning entry, “The Inosculation of Souls.” (Courtesy of Peachiie Marketing)
“The whole point of the World Snow Celebration is to unify the world and bring the world to Stillwater and have a family event without any controversy one way or the other,” Anthony-Evenson said. “That’s really what we are trying to do.”
The Greater Stillwater Chamber of Commerce & Foundation “recognizes that conversations about artistic expression and free speech matter deeply to many people,” she said. “We respect the importance of open expression and creative exploration, while also carrying responsibility for maintaining a public event that is welcoming and appropriate for the broad community it serves.”
The organization that sponsored Team USA’s sculpture was Bayport American Legion Hesley Jensen Post 491 in Bayport. The Pioneer Press reached out to the post for comment Wednesday afternoon.
‘Unnecessary and divisive’
In a letter to Thune dated Jan. 20, Anthony-Evenson, Stillwater Mayor Ted Kozlowski and World Snow Celebration Co-Chair Sara Jespersen expressed their “deep disappointment” regarding the team’s actions.
“As you were made aware, the rules governing this international competition are explicit: political symbols, statements, or messaging of any kind are strictly prohibited,” they wrote. “Despite this clear policy, inappropriate content was incorporated into your sculpture. This was not an oversight. It was a conscious decision, and it was a selfish one.”
The letter went on to say Team USA’s actions negatively impacted event organizers, required financial resources to address and damaged the partnership with a nonprofit sponsor.
“At a time when unity and mutual respect are more important than ever, introducing this type of messaging into this forum was unnecessary and divisive,” the letter said.
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Thune, a special-education teacher for St. Paul Public Schools, has competed in four of the five World Snow Sculpting Championship competitions in Stillwater; House of Thune won the world title in 2023. Last year, Thune served as a celebrity judge for the competition and created the sponsorship walls and snow slide.
This year, Thune asked students and staff at the high school where he works “to give me their messages to convey in the piece,” he said. “It had to include their voices or it wouldn’t be as meaningful. I believe we followed the spirit of our piece: to stand up and to speak out. We stand behind our work.
“It seems that ‘A Call to Arms’ did exactly what its description suggested: it opened an avenue for our voices to be heard, as well as for the voices of those that can no longer speak out to be remembered.”
‘Call to Arms’ sculpture description
From the World Snow Sculpting Championship website (worldsnowcelebration.com):
“In a world where division is growing, we all have an equal responsibility to do our part to stay united. A Call to Arms is a figurative expression urging people to take action, often in response to a crisis or conflict. It is a rallying cry to engage in a particular cause. It is going to take each and every one of us to keep our democracy healthy and viable for future generations. Everyone needs to lend a ‘hand’ to keep our society moving forward.”
