The one advantage of this week’s cold weather is… drumroll please… The new ice sculptures from Tom Schiller should last the week. That is right, the Downtown Business Association’s annual Ice Sculpture Celebration took place on Saturday, January 18 featuring Hastings’ own Tom Schiller.
This year, the group had three different interactive ice sculptures downtown. Oliver’s Grove featured a snowmobile, the corner of Sibley Street and Second Street East in front of Level Up Games featured a photo frame and under the Highway 61 bridge there is a throne.
The process to create the two pieces took a few days with the snowmobile being the focus on Saturday with Schiller carving it live. Schiller carved ice blocks weighing several hundred pounds over the course of a few hours from ice chunk to snowmobile.
Schiller is a nationally renowned master ice carver that learned the craft in culinary school. That led to him working in a restaurant where he could create ice carvings for their Sunday brunch buffet. That snowballed into making bigger and bigger carvings that eventually brought him to the St. Paul Winter Carnival.
He ended up teaching ice carving at St. Paul College to culinary students before he switched to another business and back to the culinary side before COVID hit. Since then, he has done work all over including more for the St. Paul Winter Carnival, various ice bars around the state and ice lounges in Duluth.
Make sure you get out to walk Second Street and see the three creations at the above locations. The weather is supposed to hold below freezing until January 28, so there is still time to get a picture with the ice sculptures downtown.
The event was held by the Hastings Downtown Business Association and sponsored by The Busted Nut Bar & Grill, Hastings Minnesota Area Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Bureau, Treasure Island Resort & Casino, The Confluence Hotel, Hastings American Legion, Lock And Dam Eatery, Creative Hair Design MN, Level Up Games – Hastings.