The Art Shanty Projects were founded by artists Peter Haakon Thompson and David Pitman in the winter of 2004 with one shanty on Medicine Lake in Plymouth, Minnesota. The Projects initially grew out of a fascination and interest in the traditional uses of frozen lakes in Minnesota, namely ice fishing and ice fishing shanties. In summer 2004, Pitman and Thompson partnered with the Soap Factory to present Art Shanty Projects as a gallery show for the following summer, which enabled the second year of the Art Shanty Projects in the winter of 2005. The 2005 season saw eleven Art Shanties and projects with thirty artists involved. In 2006 the season expanded to twenty-five Shanties and sixty artists, with recognition that the project need to increase quality and programming rather than size. A partnership with mnartists.org in 2007 allowed the size to remain stable with twenty-five Shanties and sixty-five artists, but increased the event and performance programming, involving 100 artists total. Since 2004, the Soap Factory continued to present Art Shanty Projects as a winter program with support from the McKnight Foundation, Plymouth Fine Arts Council, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and mnartists.org.

The Art Shanty Projects attempted to answer the question of how artists (in the broadest sense of the word) re-imagine the frozen lake as a place for interactions, art making, and community. The result was part artist residency, part art gallery, and part social experiment for five weeks on the frozen surface of Medicine Lake in the northwestern suburb of Plymouth.

Historical sketch written by Molly Tierney and Peter Haakon Thompson.