Moody Gardens to debut SpongeBob ice sculpture exhibit

Moody Gardens Becomes The Coolest Holiday Destination In The Southwest With New Ice Sculptures Event Featuring SpongeBob SquarePants

Moody Gardens will transform into the premier holiday destination with the debut of ICE LAND: Ice Sculptures featuring Christmas with SpongeBob SquarePants on November 15. Being the only holiday ice exhibition on the Gulf Coast, this vast and amazing display of magnificent ice creations will add a frosty new addition to the Festival of Lights and other holiday attractions this year.

A skilled team of 20 professional ice carvers from Harbin, China will take 900 tons of ice and transform them into majestic marvels ranging from holiday-themed sculptures to a wide range of scenes featuring the beloved underwater characters from SpongeBob SquarePants.

Chilled and held at a temperature of 9 degrees, you can witness these works of art within a 28,000 sq. ft. insulated tent structure located on the property. This holiday treat for the whole family will be open through January 4 as Galveston makes its holiday transition into a Winter Wonder Island.

“We are very excited to bring such a unique experience to south Texas,” said John Zendt, Moody Gardens President and CEO, who added that carving giant ice sculpture scenes and holding them at 9 degrees outside on a sub-tropical island is a significant logistical challenge. “Our guests are in for a special surprise. There is no other venue in the Southwest that offers such a diverse range of activities and amenities for a complete holiday experience.”

Admission to the exhibition is $26.95 for adults, $21.95 for seniors and $15.95 for children.

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Award said:

It'd be cool if they did this somehow or hockey.

It probably goes against the laws of physics and all to have it look like any characters are frozen inside the ice sculpture, so hockey it is.

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SpongeBob SquarePants has always been one cool character. Come November, he'll be even cooler.

Actually he'll be ice.

The Nickelodeon star is the focal character of Ice Land, a $5 million holiday-themed ice sculpture park opening Nov. 15 at Moody Gardens.

The 28,000-square-foot Ice Land will include 900 tons of specially produced ice sculpted by 20 master carvers. The walk-through exhibit, which will run through Jan. 4, will be kept at a constant 9 degrees.

To tour Ice Land, visitors will don one of the 1,000 parkas Moody Gardens has purchased for the exhibit.

John Zendt, Moody Gardens President and CEO, said that an ice sculpture park had been on his radar for nearly a dozen years, but it was only two years ago that the project began coming together.

What had to come together?

First, Zendt and his team had to find ice carvers up to the challenge. They found them in Harbin, China, which is home to the largest ice festival in the world.

Next challenge: Where to get and then store 900 tons of ice?

No Galveston or Houston company made blocks of ice in the size required by the project, Zendt said. Enter Flying Penguin Ice in Bryan.

Flying Penguin began making the 300-pound colored blocks of ice in March.

Yes, colored ice. SpongeBob and his underwater friends are familiar to millions. Nickelodeon insists that the ice colors be true to the cartoon, which means constant monitoring for color consistency. SpongeBob alone requires 42 specific shades of ice. Zendt said milk and ecologically safe dyes are added to the ice to achieve proper coloring.

From Bryan, the massive ice blocks go to Glazier Food Company's refrigerated warehouses in northwest Houston.

On Sept. 27, 42 truckloads of ice will be moved to the exhibit's home, an insulated tent that will require 300 tons of cooling units. Then the Chinese carvers will work around the clock for approximately 45 days to complete the 30-foot-tall exhibit that will include bridges, caves and an ice slide.

Creating the only ice sculpture park on the Gulf Coast is a logistical challenge, but Zendt is excited about the project, which is guaranteed a three-year-run at the nonprofit Moody Gardens.

"The verdict is still out," Zendt said. "I'm either going to be thought of as a crazy man or a visionary."

Even more so when you take into account that when the exhibit closes in January, the tent around the sculptures will drop and the ice will melt. Then just 60 days or so later, the Ice Land team will begin the entire process again.

In addition to SpongeBob's community and friends, Ice Land will include holiday-themed ice sculptures. It will be part of Moody Gardens' ever-expanding holiday lineup, which includes Festival of Lights with its more than a million twinkling lights; an outdoor ice rink; a 100-foot-long Arctic Ice Slide; and a holiday dinner show featuring a master illusionist.

Festival of Lights drew 130,000 visitors last year "We hope to double that this year with the addition of Ice Land," Zendt said.

Tickets for Ice Land will cost $26.95 ($15.95 for children). Additional admission fees are required for Festival of Lights and other holiday attractions.

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Moody Gardens is less than 100 days away from opening the only holiday-themed ice exhibition on the Gulf Coast on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2014. Construction for ICE LAND: Ice Sculptures with SpongeBob SquarePants began earlier this summer, kicking off the extraordinary process of erecting a 28,000 square foot tent that will be chilled and held at nine degrees for over three months, which is not an easy endeavor.

A skilled team from the Gilbane Building Company in Houston has been preparing for the construction of the tent for more than a year and the structure has already begun to take shape in the main parking lot at Moody Gardens. Once finished at the end of September, it will be ready to welcome 20 professional ice carvers from Harbin, China as they transform 900 tons of ice into towering creations from the depths of Bikini Bottom.

“The anticipation for ICE LAND is really building throughout the property after the tent took just one week to be fully raised in our parking lot,” said John Zendt, Moody Gardens President and CEO. “We can see our guests are very excited as we hear a lot of comments and questions about the new one-of-a-kind holiday attraction.”

There are four stages to the development process that will be executed by a team of roughly 48 people. The first stage of pouring concrete footers to support the structure has been completed. To make sure the space for the tent remains a usable parking lot for guests once the structure is removed in late January, the concrete for the footers was poured flush with the existing concrete so it is less noticeable and ensures that there is no damage to cars. The next step, currently taking place, is to erect the insulated tent and flooring before large chillers are brought in to bring the temperature down to nine degrees. Next, giant ice blocks will be transported in 42 truckloads to Galveston. Lastly, the ice carvers will begin sculpting shortly after the ice arrives.

“It’s a very exciting and unique project to work on for the first time,” said Angela Cotie, the Gilbane project manager for ICE LAND. “It’s not every day that you have the chance to design and build a tent capable of chilling at a consistent nine degrees to keep hundreds of tons of ice from melting.”

ICE LAND will be a holiday treat for families and groups. The exhibition will be open through January 4, 2015 as Galveston makes its holiday transition into a Winter Wonder Island. Admission to will be $26.95 for adults, $21.95 for seniors and $15.95 for children. For a list of peak, non-peak and group blackout dates, please click here. Guests can also click here to view the live ICE LAND web cam for a behind-the-scenes look at the construction process, as well as the ice carvings over the next few months.

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Moody Gardens And Nickelodeon Reveal First Glimpse Of New SpongeBob SquarePants Holiday Ice Sculpture Attraction

Moody Gardens and Nickelodeon have come together to create the Gulf Coast's only holiday ice sculpture attraction featuring the world-renowned underwater characters from Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants. ICE LAND: Ice Sculptures with SpongeBob SquarePants will debut on Nov. 15, 2014 and offer a unique and interactive holiday experience through Jan. 4, 2015. An image of one of the scenes was released today, offering the first opportunity for the public to see what the towering ice sculptures will look like.

A portion of the Moody Gardens central parking lot is the staging ground for a 28,000 square-foot, climate-controlled tent that will be chilled to a frosty nine degrees to house the most spectacular carved ice attraction on the Gulf Coast. An internationally acclaimed team of 28 artisan ice carvers from Harbin, China, will take 900 tons of ice and transform it into SpongeBob SquarePants' Bikini Bottom at holiday time, featuring SpongeBob, his pals and his neighborhood!

"SpongeBob has been delighting kids and adults alike with his nautical nonsense for 15 years, and fans continue to clamor for more," said Gerald Raines, Vice President of Recreation, Nickelodeon. "Through this brand-new attraction, Moody Gardens is giving fans of all ages an exciting opportunity to see SpongeBob and his Bikini Bottom friends like never before."

Guests will be on a real adventure as Plankton has another villainous plan up his sleeve. This time, not only does he want to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula, but he wants to ruin Christmas! Can SpongeBob save the holiday? Guests will find out as they witness the majestic marvels in ICE LAND's SpongeBob SquarePants experience.

The decision to feature the Bikini Bottom inhabitants for the inaugural year of ICE LAND was only fitting as the family-oriented message, marine life education and island setting are seen throughout the Moody Gardens property and mission statement. There was also a very positive response from guests to the SpongeBob SquarePants 4D film at the 4D Special FX Theater.

ICE LAND will be a frosty new addition to the Festival of Lights and other holiday attractions this year as Galveston makes its holiday transition into a Winter Wonder Island. Admission will be $26.95 for adults, $21.95 for seniors and $15.95 for children. Courtesy parkas will be distributed to each guest. For a list of peak, non-peak and group blackout dates, visit www.moodygardens.com/holidayschedule. Guests can also visit www.moodygardens.com/icelandwebcam to view the live ICE LAND web cam for a behind-the-scenes look at the construction process, as well as the ice carvings over the next few months.

For more information, call (800) 582-4673 or visit www.moodygardens.org.

Moody Gardens® is a public, non-profit, educational destination utilizing nature in the advancement of rehabilitation, conservation, recreation, and research.

©2014 Viacom International Inc. All rights reserved. Nickelodeon, SpongeBob SquarePants and all related titles, logos and characters are trademarks of Viacom International Inc. SpongeBob SquarePants created by Stephen Hillenburg.

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Even those workers born up north shivered as they toiled Saturday inside the 17,000-square-foot refrigerated tent that will house a massive SpongeBob SquarePants ice sculpture this holiday in Galveston.

Thirty professional ice carvers from China started 47 days carving around the clock on the freezing ICE LAND exhibit at Moody Gardens this weekend.

Bundled up like Artic elves, sculptors will use forklifts and chainsaws to start and then chisels and ice picks to detail. Temperatures inside the tent are kept at just 9 degrees.

By Nov. 15, 900 tons of ice blocks will be transformed into a walk-through winter wonderland with some ice statues towering over 30 feet high.
A 100-foot-long ice slide will complete the attraction with tubes provided for sliding. Shin-length thermal parkas will also be handed out, the kind of cold-weather clothing unlikely to be part of any Gulf Coast wardrobe.

This is part of the effort to expand the 11-year-old Festival of Lights.

"We wanted to take it to the next level," said John Zendt, Moody Gardens president, sporting a SpongeBob SquarePants tie for the occasion.
That next level is costing $5 million. "The challenges have been numerous, we erected our tent during hurricane season ... then of course there's the issues of humidity and temperature," Zendt said.

For the carvers, though, 9 degrees is practically balmy. From the far northeastern city of Harbin in China, the team usually work in lows sometimes falling to 40 below.

"(Galveston) is very different from Harbin, China. You have the beach and also the palm trees," said master carver Qiu Guanghui via an interpreter.

Qiu leads the so-called VYA team, many of whom are career carvers who started working with ice while they were still in elementary school.
Harbin is full of these life-long ice sculptors. An annual ice festival there attracts worldwide attention, featuring a full-scale ice city sculpted in an area of around 400 acres.

"It's a difficult skill to learn. It takes many years of experience, and many years of practice with older more experience masters ... practice, practice, practice, practice," said Qiu via his interpreter.

Qiu has won many awards for his elaborate sculptures in China, including ice dragons and lanterns, ice statues of Confucius as well as other cultural figures. He says Moody Gardens' SpongeBob SquarePants will be the best so far.

"In Harbin, everybody's heard of SpongeBob," said Qiu. His carvers have been practicing since April.

The ICE LAND exhibit should be completed by Nov. 13 for a Nov. 15 opening. Entry will be included with Festival of Lights tickets, which cost $26.95 for adults and $15.95 for children.

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