“Nature is capable of making art” It is almost February, and in Fairbanks, Alaska this means only one thing: the World Ice Art Championships presented by Ice Alaska will be here soon. This event began in 1990 and has grown from a one-week competition to a month-long celebration of the exquisite art of ice sculpting. This year’s event will run from February 15 through March 31. Last year, thousands of spectators came to the Tanana Valley Fairgrounds to watch nearly one hundred sculptors chisel and shape over four million pounds of ice. Watching these blocks of ice turn into dragons, butterflies, flowers and ballerinas is magical and breathtaking. The origins of ice sculpting go back thousands of years. You could say the igloos made by the early Inuits were the very first ice sculptures. Farmers in China used to make lanterns from ice. Today, ice sculpting is often incorporated into the culinary arts. Many of the sculptors who come for this competition learned the art while at culinary school, carving fruit, vegetables and ice used primarily for decorations. The ice harvested for the competition here in Fairbanks comes from a local pond near the fairgrounds. It is known as the “arctic diamond” because of its crystal clear and gemlike qualities, so clear you could read a newspaper through it. I have been volunteering at this special Ice carving competition for years now. Fairbanks and Ice Alaska are very dear to my heart; the volunteers have become like family. This is an event like no other and will challenge your mind and inspire your imagination. In addition to the ice carving, this year there will be a new event: a family snow competition with teams of four family members each. Each team will have a block of snow measuring 4’ x 4’ by six’. The competition will take place on February 20th and 21st. See you all at the Tanana Valley Fairgrounds this February and March for the 2021 World Ice Carving Championships. “She had never known that ice could take on so many shades of blue: sharp lines of indigo like the deepest sea, aquamarine shadows, even the glint of blue-green where the sun struck just so.”