Frozen Forms

On view November 15, 2024 – April 6, 2025
Patricia B. Wolf Family Galleries

Frozen Forms fills the museum’s first-floor family galleries with giant sculptures and playscapes where visitors are encouraged to play, learn, and imagine within the context of Alaska’s winter mainstay: snow.

Created in collaboration with Collective Paper Aesthetics, a Netherlands-based architectural design group, an installation of large sculptures evoke ice crystal formations found in snow: stellar dendrite, needle, and capped column. While snowflakes’ crystalline structure forms through bonded water molecules, these forms are shaped by interlocking modular components made of recycled cardboard.

The exhibition also features hands-on drawing and building activities, encouraging learners of all ages to engage with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics) principles, inspired by snow and ice crystal geometry.   

Interact with CoLab Staff
The exhibition also features hands-on, facilitated sessions hosted by CoLab which provide opportunities for visitors to construct their own three-dimensional shapes and contribute to the installation. Just as snowpack moves and changes over time, this sculpture will morph and grow as visitors help build it.  Find CoLab staff in the exhibition Thursdays from 3 - 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., or visit CoLab for more information and opportunities to build.

About Collective Paper Aesthetics
Collective Paper Aesthetics is a design studio founded by architect and designer Noa Haim. The studio specializes in creating interactive installations and architectural-scale structures using modular, sustainable paper components.