The Ice Bear Cometh to Manchester

A giant polar bear will be carved out of ice on Thursday 31 March in Piccadilly Gardens in city centre Manchester.

London based Ice sculptor Mark Coreth and his team of three sculptors will spend six hours carving a four metre long, 2.2 metre high, 10 tonne block of ice into the shape of a life-size polar bear to celebrate the launch of The Manchester Museum's new Living Worlds gallery which opens on 14 April 2011.

The exhibit, commissioned by The Manchester Museum, will be located at the southern end of the gardens facing Oldham Street.  It will take anything from five days to completely melt away (depending on temperatures) and will reveal an artist's impression of a polar bear skeleton sculpted in bronze.
This is the fifth polar bear the Ice Bear Project has created and the first outside London.  Previously they have been featured in London's Trafalgar Square in December 2009, Copenhagen and three cities in Canada - Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.  The artist also plans to create a sculpture outside the Sydney Opera House this summer. 
 
Sculptor Mark Coreth said about coming to Manchester:  "It's fantastic to be able to bring the Ice Bear Project to Manchester, a city that has a great reputation for art and culture.  I'm also pleased to be part of Manchester Museum's celebrations for the opening of its fascinating new gallery."
 
About the Ice Bear Project Mark added: "While sculpting in the High Arctic I realised that I had to create a work that would speak loudly of the problems of climate change. As a bronze sculptor who was working on the ice, I decided to combine the two mediums of bronze and ice in one sculpture. The metaphors are numerous and obvious to the viewer, ultimately, there will always be a bear but when the ice goes it will be a very different bear and there will always be an Arctic but when the ice goes it  will be a very different Arctic."
 
Director of The Manchester Museum, Nick Merriman commented:  'The ice bear is a great way to link The Manchester Museum's new Living Worlds Gallery with the city, communicating the gallery's main message that we are all part of nature and through our actions we can make a positive difference.'
 
Councillor Pat Karney, Manchester City Council's city centre spokesperson said: "Manchester loves public art and this temporary installation is going to be a real show stoppers and get everyone talking.  To have this right in the centre of the city is great. We're really pleased to work in partnership with The Manchester Museum make this happen and help them celebrate the launch of their new gallery in such a unique way." 
 
Alex King, Piccadilly Partnership Manager said: "It's fantastic to have the Ice Bear here in Piccadilly Gardens, the heart of the city centre.  On an average day more than 80, 000 people walk through the gardens so it means hundreds of thousands of people will have this unmissable opportunity to see a stunning piece of public art."    
 
"We are also excited that Mark and his team will be giving local young people a taster of his craft in situ by running sculpting workshops in clay."
 
For more information on the Ice Bear Project in Manchester visit http://www.cityco.com/.
 
For more information on the Ice Bear Project and artist, Mark Coreth visit www.markcoreth.com/icebear
 
For more information on The Manchester Museum's Living Worlds Gallery, please visit http://www.livingworlds.co.uk/
 
The Portland Thistle Hotel is kindly hosting Mark and his team during their stay in Manchester. 

To celebrate, the hotel will be selling special Ice Bear Project cocktails in their bar, called Perishable Portland which is an ice blue fruity vodka cocktail. They also have a non-alcoholic version.