- Tonight on "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories," a highlight of Watertown's Snowtown USA Festival is its many snow sculptures.

We discover what it takes to create these amazing works of art.

And the IGNITE Broward Art and Light Festival in Florida features a jaw-dropping assortment of light sculptures and installations that will leave you in awe.

Also, Malone musical group Bluebird performs their original song, "North Country Girls."

Your stories, your region coming up right now on "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories."

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] "WBPS Weekly Inside the Stories" is brought to you by.

- [Spokesperson] When you're unable to see your primary care provider, the Carthage Walk-In Clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and healing close to home, when you need it most.

- [Spokesperson] North Country Orthopaedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us.

North Country Orthopaedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- [Spokesperson] We are the North Country, where protecting one another like family is who we are.

And where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North Country strong at ClaxtonHepburn.org today.

- [Announcer] Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.

- Good Tuesday evening, everyone, and welcome to this edition of "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories," I'm Michael Riecke.

Watertown's Snowtown USA festival is an annual tradition celebrating the region's biggest winter asset, lots and lots of snow.

One of the festival's highlights is its snow sculpting contest, attracting participants from all over the country.

We learn what it takes to create these amazing works of art.

(shovel scraping) - [Eric] Here at the Watertown Municipal Arena Grounds these untouched blocks of ice will become temporary works of art for the community to enjoy.

As part of the annual Snowtown USA Festival, sculptors are invited to participate in an ice sculpting contest.

Sculptors like Paul Aubin, who have been attending the contest for years.

- Snow sculpture started for me many years ago when I took a college course with Klaus Ebeling, one of the starters, and he pulled me into his team and taught me what he taught me, and from there things begun, and from there, I started my own team.

- [Eric] Aubin's sculpture, Outside The Box, was given the name by his son.

- We were struggling for a title, and I sat with my eight year old son, who gave us the title.

We wanted to do an elephant, an animal, just simply because most of the sculptures that I have done in the past have been very abstract and linear, and this particular one was something new for us, so it was a chance to try an animal.

Elephants are pretty forgiving, very organic.

I wanted to have a contrast between the organic and the geometric in the box, and having it with some tension, so it felt like it was bursting and give some excitement to the sculpture.

- [Eric] Aubin adds this it's his fellow sculptors that make these contests enjoyable.

- What sticks out most about snow sculpting, I think the people that are involved.

I mean, I just sat down and talked with Jerry over there was saying there's only been one particular case of vandalism, and there was an extra block, and everyone decided to team up and help the person who had lost their sculpture by bringing them back to the point where they had gotten vandalized.

- [Eric] Then there are sculptors like Jerry Merrill, whose creations like Tipping Point have a special message.

- It's called Tipping Point, because mankind is chewing up mother nature and ruining the habitat of many of our plants and animals, and so we have polar bears, little baby polar bears on the tipping point of survival, because we're taking away the arctic ice and their habitat.

And so this is the North Pole facing here, and the South Pole, who's in danger at the South Pole?

Penguins.

So we have penguins on the back side, the South Pole side.

And then in honor of the girl who was gonna be on our team, that couldn't make it because of train problems, we drew an elephant on the other side, they're also in danger, habitat removal, and a lion on this side, just for something for the kids to comment on.

- [Eric] Merrill says he has traveled the world to participate in events just like this.

- I've been to 34 international competitions around the world, China, Japan, Finland a couple times, France a couple times, New Greenland twice, and I've been to 15 national competitions, and they've been scattered around, but right now, they're in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and that's what they're doing here today, they're picking a team from New York State to go to the nationals at Lake Geneva.

- [Eric] Merrill also says he prefers the block of ice for his medium to create.

- Well, you can't make any other sculptural piece this big in any other medium other than snow.

You know, if we carved this same thing in marble, you know, what are you gonna do with it?

You can't lift it, you can't move it, nobody wants it.

You know, where as here, you can have some fun.

People enjoy it, kids can have a good time.

- [Eric] For sculpting teams like Joshua Howland, it's a family tradition, taught and passed on through generations.

- Well, it started with my dad when I was 19 years old, and it's something that's always been in our family.

I learned from him since I was kid, and just wanted to continue on that tradition.

This is only the second time at Snowtown.

We did the state competition in 2017, which was in Lake Placid.

So it wasn't Snowtown.

In that competition we got the people's choice award, and the artist choice award, and second place, so.

- [Eric] Howland's team creation, The Shaman, was a chance to get back to the team's roots.

- I wanted to get back to the basics.

We've done a lot of natural stuff, like Native American stuff throughout the years.

The last couple years we've done like a super hero, and an abstract, and we wanted to get back to doing what we do best.

- [Eric] Howland is not only the team leader, he's also its chief designer, sketching the ideas first.

- I think we got a shot.

Well, I think everybody here's got a shot.

There's some really good artists here, some good sculptures, so I hope we do good.

- [Eric] Howland and his team would go on to win first place in last year's contest.

To find out more about the Snowtown USA Festival and all its upcoming events, starting January 20th, visit SnowtownUSA.org.

For "WBPS Weekly," I'm Eric Cleary.

- This year's Snowtown USA Festival runs from January 20th to February 3rd.

Visit SnowtownUSA.org for more information.

Next, we travel to Florida to visit the IGNITE Broward Art and Light Festival, presented by the Broward County Cultural Division in partnership with Mad Arts.

This week long event features large scale projection mapping and an assortment of light sculptures and installations that leave visitors amazed.

Take a look.

(gentle music) (horn honking) (upbeat techno music) - I've always loved the concept of projection mapping and light festivals that utilize outdoor and public spaces and creating really unique environments.

Technology is so great and so much a part of our lives that as we looked at IGNITE in creating these experiences, we've really evolved the festival over the past few years to create something truly unique to Broward County.

This is our third year of IGNITE and we've essentially doubled the number of art installations that we have between Downtown Fort Lauderdale and here at the location at at Mad Arts in Dania Beach.

- This artwork, it's called "Resonances," it's by the French-Canadian artist LP Rondeau.

And it's a play on memory.

So basically when you pass through this triangle, your image gets recorded, and is playing in the screen, and it's a play on memory, so some things stay in time, and some things just disappear and get blurred.

(upbeat music) - I'm a fan of this type of artwork, I'm a fan of these artists.

I'm constantly engaged, looking and talking to artists you know, that work in this medium.

I often times see who they're fans of and then we reach out and we do just a lot of conversations with a lot of artists.

- We have artists from the US, artists from around the world, really, and we focus on art that is at the intersection of technology and art.

You'll see light sculptures, you'll see projection mapping, you'll see interactive pieces, you'll see things that you sit in the environment and enjoy.

- We have three local artists that we're working with, I feel like each piece is very unique and you don't have much overlap at all, you know, in the different pieces.

- [Presenter] So basically, all of these pieces are analogs, so he's recreating something (dramatic music) basically, a lot of things is computers, and electrics, and things like that, but he's doing all of it analog.

In this artist work, Richard Burgess manipulates life, sound, and light to create intermedia audio visuals.

The installation, he works with surveillance cameras, projection mirrors, and contract microphones to create an immersive hallucinatory reflection and refraction experience.

All of the work is analog in a way.

And so he can play with it, and he just tunes it, and he's constantly, you know- (electronic notes whirring) - We are Davy and Kristin McGuire, founders of Studio McGuire, and we do immersive art.

(gentle music) - [Davy] We have three pieces here.

We've got a piece called "The Hunter," which is a paper diorama that comes to life with projections.

- [Kristin] We've got "Ophelia," which is an underwater projection of Ophelia, which is a Shakespearean character of a young woman drowning herself.

And then we have "Sirens," which is mermaids projected into water.

- The public perception of immersive art has really changed and I think there's kind of an explosion at the moment.

- Just watching a couple of people, I have noticed what I expected, which a lot of immersive art is very big and spectacular and colorful and made for amazing Instagram moments, and this piece, I think almost is an antidote to that.

It's very small, very detailed, it's very slow.

- [Davy] Quiet.

- It's quiet, it's intimate, you need to sit down, you need to contemplate and just immerse yourself for 15 minutes and think about what you're seeing.

That is something that we really like doing is combining analog physical with digital, so the two, they work together, and we love doing that, we love animating surfaces and objects and water and all sorts of things with projections.

- [Presenter] This artwork is called "Core," it is by Adrien and Claire.

They are a group of artists collected from Paris, and it's a play on sound and the reaction of light, it's very meditative.

- We have to be really conscious about the accessibility of art and art experiences, and technology in art has a unique way to engage people in a way that traditional museums don't.

But since technology is such a prevalent part of who we are as humans and how we've evolved, technology based art helps break down a lot of those barriers and create accessibility in a way that isn't necessarily possible with other art forms.

- This one is called "Luminescent Sylva" and it's actually a work by our MadLabs, which is the partner of Mad Arts.

And this one is interactive, so.

(upbeat music) - Mad has been a great partner in developing IGNITE.

We wouldn't be able to do it ourselves, Mad knows the technology, they can talk to the artists, they bring such a wealth of knowledge that compliments the cultural division and what we're able to do.

- After IGNITE, some of the exhibits will go, and a lot of the exhibits here will stay as part of the museum.

- This is a permanent commission of the museum by artist Miguel Gonzalez, he's local, and it's a play with music and also light, so the music and light art synced.

(mellow music) - When we had the first IGNITE Festival, it just felt like it was for everybody.

And I saw the engagement with the art.

You had people that were definitely fans of this type of the art, knew the artists, and came to see the work specifically.

And you had other people that just came to take Instagram photos, and I thought that either of those were great.

And then if you could convert the people that didn't know anything about the art and the fans of this type of art, you know, all the better.

We want everyone to enjoy themselves when they're here.

No pretentiousness, you know, you're here to enjoy it however you enjoy it, and that's fine by us.

- IGNITE Broward is returning for its fourth year, expanding to a 10 day festival in 2025, that will take place February 14th through the 24th, for more information visit IGNITEBroward.com.

Finally, we bring you the country singer-songwriter stylings of Bluebird.

What started as a jam session between band members Josee Allard and Tammy Myatt turned into a three piece band known for their folky and percussive sound that has entertained audiences across northern New York.

Here they are tonight with their original song, "North Country Girls," take a listen.

- My name is Tammy Myatt, I am a singer-songwriter, and we are Bluebird.

This is Josee Allard and Michael Dufort.

Bluebird was started when we were all kind of band-less for a little while after COVID, and still, it's an itch you've gotta scratch, it's an inspiration you've gotta follow, and we reconnected, I reached out actually to Michael first, because they were in a band together, and then I started spending some time with Josee, and we actually met up together at Titus Mountain and I was supposed to be skiing, meeting a friend to ski, and we started talking, writing, composing, and we realized that we were going to be a fantastic duo.

As a band, the three of us together, we have a great vibe, there's great energy.

It's very easy going, everybody does their own thing, and their own interpretation, and it just all fits.

I think we're all so open to that.

The inspiration behind "North Country Girls," I was at Josee's house up in Merrill, New York and we were talking actually about some other songs that we had started thinking about and it was like our first session, we wrote that song on our first songwriting session, and one of Josee's friends came into the house, and we started talking about how she lived in BC, British Columbia and moved over here.

You've been here for a long time now.

So she was like, man, the girls over here, the women are tough, they could change their own...

Right, they could change their own oil.

(laughs) I was like, yeah, they don't get it, we can dress up, we can look pretty.

Hello, right, I put on a dress for this.

They're comfy.

But we're tough.

So the lyrics just came and I think we wrote it in like an hour.

(chuckles) - We are Bluebird and this is "North Country Girls."

(mellow music) ♪ North Country girls can change their own oil ♪ ♪ They might mix it up in a bar fight ♪ ♪ They can drink you under the table ♪ ♪ Beat your Uncle Ed on a wrestling night ♪ ♪ Don't be scared if they're stronger than you ♪ ♪ North Country girls need loving too ♪ ♪ North Country girls need a little loving too ♪ ♪ We need someone to snuggle up to ♪ ♪ On those cold, cold winter nights ♪ ♪ We need someone to hold us tight ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Growing up here makes a girl grow tough ♪ ♪ You might think we're all a little rough ♪ ♪ No matter what the weather is outside ♪ ♪ We all know how to have a real good time ♪ ♪ Don't be scared if they're stronger than you ♪ ♪ North Country girls need loving too ♪ ♪ North Country girls need a little loving too ♪ ♪ We need someone to snuggle up to ♪ ♪ On those cold, cold winter nights ♪ ♪ We need someone to hold us tight ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ North Country girls, we know we got it so good ♪ ♪ Yeah, we do ♪ ♪ We camp, hunt, and we fish ♪ ♪ And all the guys thinks it's cool ♪ ♪ 'Cause they love it too ♪ ♪ ATV, (indistinct) and campfire lights ♪ ♪ Summer is short, so here we do it right ♪ ♪ North Country girls need a little loving too ♪ ♪ We need someone to snuggle up to ♪ ♪ On those cold, cold winter nights ♪ ♪ We need someone to hold us tight ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Come on, North Country girls ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ North Country girls need a little loving too ♪ - That does it for this Tuesday night, join us next time for a fresh look "Inside The Stories."

We talk with author Ann Callaghan Allen, whose latest books tells us the harrowing story of how Fort Ontario in Oswego gave shelter to hundreds of desperate Holocaust survivors.

And the Kingston Potters Guild encourages its members to explore new techniques and creative expressions in pottery.

Also, discover the improvisational sound of Massena, New York's jam band, Atom Ghost as they perform their original tune "Big Hand."

In the meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, we'd love to learn more, just drop us an email at WPBSWeekly@WPBSTV.org and let's share it with the region.

That's it for tonight, everyone.

On behalf of everyone here behind the scenes at WPBS, I'm Michael Riecke, thanks for joining us.

Until next time, have a great night.

- [Announcer] "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories" is brought to you by.

- [Spokesperson] When you're unable to see your primary care provider, the Carthage Walk-In Clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and healing close to home, when you need it most.

- [Spokesperson] North Country Orthopaedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries, with our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us.

North Country Orthopaedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- [Spokesperson] We are the North Country, where protecting one another like family is who we are, and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North Country strong at ClaxtonHepburn.org today.

- [Announcer] Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.

(upbeat festive music) (gentle music)