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Colin Olito, Catherin Steele, and Kaitlin Perley pose for photos with Star the Reindeer and Albert Whitehead after Hal Gage made a photo of the group of local arts fans who showed up for the 20-Minute Beach Party on the Park Strip on Friday December 19, 2008. The photo will be used to promote Freeze which is billed as a celebration of Alaska and life in the North. The January events will include conferences, performances and exhibitions.

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Photo by BOB HALLINEN / Anchorage Daily News

Colin Olito, Catherin Steele, and Kaitlin Perley pose for photos with Star the Reindeer and Albert Whitehead after Hal Gage made a photo of the group of local arts fans who showed up for the 20-Minute Beach Party on the Park Strip on Friday December 19, 2008. The photo will be used to promote Freeze which is billed as a "celebration of Alaska and life in the North." The January events will include conferences, performances and exhibitions.

Fans of the arts stage beach party at 19 degrees to promote 'Freeze'

MONTHLONG PROJECT: movies, performances and exhibits to show how humans flourish in the cold.

By MIKE DUNHAM
mdunham@adn.com

Published: December 19th, 2008 10:49 PM
Last Modified: December 19th, 2008 11:40 PM

About 40 people bared as much as they dared Friday at a "beach party" held in the snow on Anchorage's Park Strip while the temperature flittered around 19 degrees.

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The partyers -- whose revels were mostly limited to posing for publicity photos and cracking jokes about their own intelligence -- had assembled to boost an upcoming monthlong project that aims to expand the way people think about the cold.

Organized by the Alaska Design Forum, Anchorage Museum and International Gallery of Contemporary Art, "Freeze" will kick off with a New Year's Eve party and wind up with a forum on the environment in early February. In between there will be movies, lectures, performance events and art exhibits, all tied to the theme of how humans can flourish -- practically, intellectually, creatively and otherwise -- in frigid regions.

The most visible art will be large-scale, temporary, outdoor installations occupying four blocks of the Park Strip, "creating experiences that highlight the exquisite northern elements of snow, ice and light," according to a press release. These "ice sculptures" will be constructed by teams of architects, contractors, designers and artists. The pieces will be linked by a groomed cross-country ski trail.

A number of the participants will come from out of state, from Yukon, Iceland and similar cold-weather settlements.

Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.