Three bears out tonight

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This article was published 19/02/2021 (1888 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three polar bears have made a temporary home out of Kildonan Park. The fact that they’re carved from snow doesn’t make them any less lively. Each with an instrument in paw, the 3 Bear Band aims to bring positive vibes to Winnipeggers during tough times.

The snow installation was sculpted by Grant Park artists Jodi Pratt and Wayne Stranger, and funded by councillors Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan), Ross Eadie (Mynarski) and Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) through the City of Winnipeg Wellness Fund, in partnership with Rainbow Stage.

“During the pandemic, we’ve all been outdoors, exploring and enjoying nature even more this year. And this sculpture is sure to bring a lot of joy and happiness to park visitors,” Sharma said.

Polar bears and music were two themes suggested by the councillors to represent the nature of Manitoba and Rainbow Stage’s contributions to the music community.

“I like doing a lot of cartoon-style things, and playful sculptures. So I thought, well, bears playing instruments seemed like an easy enough answer to both of those,” Pratt said.

Pratt is a self-taught carver who has been working with snow for two decades and has competed at Festival du Voyageur and the International Snow Sculpture Symposium, whereas Stranger is a stone and bronze sculptor with a fine arts degree.

“It’s a big contrast from what I’m used to working with. (When) I’m working with bronze, I’m working with molten metal (at) 2,100 F, and you go to this and it’s like, -35. It’s a nice change,” Stranger said.

Sitting at 12 feet high, 12 feet wide and 10 feet deep, the massive sculpture was carved out of 30 to 35 tons of snow, during the same week a polar vortex scared many Winnipeggers into hibernation.

“When you do these silly kind of sculptures … it just brings people happiness and something to smile about. That’s really a fun thing about snow (carving) — it’s something anyone can do. We started out as kids playing in the snow and we just kept going,” Pratt said.

Rainbow Stage’s 3 Bear Band is one of nearly 30 sculptures being installed around the city. They can be found on the CN Rail Snow Sculpture Adventure through an interactive map: heho.ca/en/snow-sculptures/