The Ice Bear Cometh to Manchester

A giant polar bear was carved out of ice on Thursday 31 March in Piccadilly Gardens in the city centre of Manchester. Mark Coreth and his team of three sculptors spent 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.

The exhibit, commissioned by The Manchester Museum, was located at the southern end of the gardens facing Oldham Street. It took a week days to completely melt away to reveal an artist’s impression of a polar bear skeleton sculpted in bronze, to the delight of the fascinated crowds of on-lookers.

This was 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 to co-incide with Climate Change conferences.

The success of the project in raising awareness of the plight of the bears and the whole Arctic region has been sensational with massive press coverage all over the world. click here for more information about the Ice Bear Project

Ice Bear Project Videos

We have a series of videos showing Mark at work on the Ice Bear Project.

Click here for more information