ALL ARTS COUNCIL
PRESENTS THE 35th ANNUAL
WORLD OPEN CHAINSAW SCULPTURE CHAMPIONSHIP
MONDAY APRIL 1, 2019
WORLD OPEN CHAINSAW SCULPTURE
BERKSHIRE--The 35th anniversary World Open Chainsaw Sculpture Championship comes to the new Wild Adventures Theme Park on Water Tower Road starting on Saturday and running through Monday.
Watch as chainsaw artists from around the world turn simple logs into stunning works of art. Judging of sculptures to announce the World Open Champions takes place on Monday at 1 p.m. Don't miss Grammy-nominated Beau Vine and the Buckamoos from the rolling hills of Franklin performing live before the ceremony.
The principle Sculpture Auction will take place at 3 p.m.
Wood carving is one of the oldest arts. Wooden
spears from the Middle Paleolithic show that humans began utilitarian woodwork
millennia ago and decorative carving about a minute later. "The beginnings
of the craft go so far back that, at least where timber is present, the use of
wood exists as a universal in human culture as both a means to create or enhance
technology and as a medium for artistry." Woodcarvings survive from ancient
Egypt thanks to the dryness of the climate there. The Cairo museum exhibits the
statue
of a man from the period of the Great Pyramid of Giza, around 4000 B.C. The current
fast-growing sculptural art began formally in the 1950s as artists Ray Murphy
and Ken Kaiser brought the modern technology of the chainsaw to the ancient art
of woodcarving.
The Saturday and Sunday schedules will include competition and guest carving, live music, inflatable rides, family activities, a quick carving competition, meet and greet with guest carvers, racing pigs, a barracuda race, and a benefit auction. Guest artists include Pennsylvania's Dennis Beach, Merlin Nichols of St. Johnsbury, Riley "Two Fingers" O'Donegal from Letterkenny, Ireland, and Liam Tromans of Boularderie Island.
Every day is Free Admission Day sponsored by the All Arts Council and Monday is Free Maple Smoothy Day. Click here or here for schedules and other background materials, and more info. Funds raised will benefit a new grant program and sculpture school in Franklin County.
The sculptures will stay on exhibit at the Wild Adventures Park through April 24, then move to Taylor Park in St. Albans for the 53rd Vermont Maple Festival.
Yesterday was the deadline for buying tickets to the Festival and Sunday is the deadline to realize that Monday is again April 1.
Editor's note: Check the date. Rest assured that no pigs will be raced
nor immortalized in pine and you have been fooled.
WOOD CARVINGS FROM ANCIENT EGYPT
ARE ON DISPLAY IN THE CAIRO MUSEUM
BUT NONE
WILL BE EXHIBITED IN BERKSHIRE.
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