Harrison Lake World Competition of Sandcastles
Vandalism Proves even Ephemeral Art Boosts Tourism
Aug 15, 2008
Everyone knows that art galleries and museums are major visitor attractions. Public art forms like well-conceived architecture and landscaping, sculptures and two-dimensional works such as murals also not only beautify cities and towns and make them better places to live in, but signal pride and success to tourists and investors alike. It is not so well-known that hosting a world-calibre sandcastle or ice sculpture competition can attract hundreds of thousands of dollars to a community.
This lesson became abundantly clear after midnight on 7th August, 2008, when vandals evaded a security detail to climb a fence and destroy nine of the world-famous "Tournament of Champions" sandcastles at Harrison Lake near Vancouver, BC. The estimated cost of damage reported by CTV's Darcy Wyntonyk ranged around $120,000 in lost revenue if the unique art pieces couldn’t be fixed. Not bad for an art form which began with little more than buckets and sand.
Of course, ephemeral sculpture competitions are a serious business now. One world class competitive team from California made over $300,000 in 1990 demonstrating the art at beaches and malls alone. Professional sandcastles can take a doubles partnership around 50 man-hours or a team of 5 to 6 sculptors over 100 man-hours to complete and are reinforced with environmentally friendly white glue or other agents. Many of the participants are trained as professional artists in other media such as ceramics or bronze, and their aesthetic knowledge shows.
Often the competition includes a People’s Choice award where the appeal tends to range from comic narrative to popular beauty. Sculptors’ Choice awards incorporate more intricacy and difficulty of engineering. Often the images include fairytale or historical elements, allegorical tableaux or even religious iconography.
Snow sculpture competitions have become a favourite art event held during Winter Olympics. Peter Vogelaar, a contestant from the BC interior, won gold as a member of the team which sculpted at Torino in 1996. He has also won several sand sculpting awards at Harrison, showing how versatile the skills are for producing ephemeral art, and his public demonstrations included a well-publicized event at Metrotown Mall in Burnaby.
Harrisand, Harrison Lake's famous sand sculpting contest began in 1986 as a demonstration event. To be sure, the town has a number of significant advantages. It is already a resort, blessed with awe-inspiring scenery, a beautiful public beach, hot springs, marinas and other tourist amenities. The International Champions Competition moved there in 1989 from White Rock when the angular grains of the local mountain lake sand trumped the spherical "tumbled" ocean grains for durability and ease of production, but this was after the purse was sweetened by the local Lion's Club.
As with every venture geared towards tourism, such competitions only work if the local community support them meaningfully, by offering sufficient prize money and perks to attract the good artists and audience numbers. Vigilant security also helps.
Competitors at Harrisand vet themselves through elimination rounds at other competitions, by apprenticeship for a minimum of 3 years to master sand sculptors, by endorsements from mayors or other major public figures, or by proving their worth as sculptors with successful careers in other, less ephemeral media. The standard is high and this is reflected in the quality of the finished pieces.
The 19th Annual Sand Sculpture Competition at Harrison Lake starts on the 2nd of September, 2008. The exhibition continues until October 19th. Over 60 teams are expected to participate. Information, competition entry details, rates and hours are available online at the Harrisand official website.
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