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Over Thanksgiving weekend, Centennial Hall in downtown Juneau was bustling with people browsing for holiday gifts fashioned by around 175 vendors.
Juneau Public Market ramped up the holiday shopping season with hundreds of people buying handmade art, jewelry, clothes and other goods. Vendors from near and far said it’s one of the most meaningful markets of the year for them.
One ceramicist has been selling her kitchen wares at Juneau Public Market for more than 40 years. Betty Bell lives in Milton, Washington. She travels for the market and to see her daughter and grandkids, who live in Juneau. She said this annual visit is meaningful for her family.
“It’s allowed me to get to know my grandchildren,” Bell said.
Bell said market sales pay for her plane ticket every year. Now that she’s 91 years old, she sells her pottery almost exclusively at this market, but it used to make up about a quarter of her annual sales when she was throwing more clay.
“Juneau has embraced me and supported me over the years, and I’ve kind of become your local, out-of-town potter,” she said.
That sense of community connection is what brings many artisans back year after year. Vendors pay between $250 and $1,200 for a booth space, and many say they rake in a large portion of their annual sales from this market alone.
Carley Thayer is an Aleut jewelry maker. Her business, Bering Sea Designs, features sharp lines, soft fur and colors of the ocean — inspired by the coastal cliffs of Unalaska, where she spent her early years.
“I make sea otter fur and metal jewelry,” she said. “So I’ve got earrings and bracelets and necklaces, some big pieces, like this body piece here that was on the Alaska Fashion Week runway.”
She said that selling her jewelry at Juneau Public Market makes up about half of her annual sales. But it’s about more than just the money for her.
“Growing up here, you know everybody, so it’s like a family reunion,” Thayer said. “It’s fantastic. We love Public Market.”
A woman wearing a pair of her earrings she’d purchased from Thayer in the past briefly stopped by the booth.
“It’s really incredible to see your art walking around,” Thayer said after greeting her.
It was Bailey Mccallson’s first time as a vendor at the market with his business, Tuskworthy Premiums LLC. He’s a Yupik artist who traveled from Fairbanks to sell his earrings and sculptures made of carved walrus ivory. He said selling art through markets and online is important, “especially for Native people in communities where job security is hard.”
Mccallson has been a full-time artist for six years. Beyond the income, he said it’s allowed him and other Native artists to maintain their way of life.
“They can stay in their homes rather than moving into the cities and be there for the elders so that apa doesn’t lose his grandchildren who pull the nets for him while they’re fishing and just to keep those cultural values strong and held together,” he said.
Camille Jones owns Treetop Tees, a shop in downtown Juneau with shirts featuring locally-inspired designs. One of her favorites right now is an Eaglecrest chairlift, packed with cartoon animals representing each lift.
“Porcupine, black bear, hooter and ptarmigan — especially with black bear closing — I was like, we need to commemorate all four ski lifts,” she said.
She said the market is important for business, particularly in the winter when tourists aren’t strolling into her storefront.
“This is our biggest weekend of the year,” Jones said.
Juneau resident Peter Metcalfe started hosting Juneau Public Market in 1983. He said vendors make somewhere between $5,000 and $8,000 on average over the three-day weekend. He said Black Friday this year was one for the books.
“A couple of my longtime vendors said they did more in two hours than they’d done in all three days of previous events,” Metcalfe said.
He said most makers are based in Alaska, and a little more than half are Juneau locals.
“I can’t put a figure on how important this is for Juneau’s cottage industries, but I know many people who participate — it means a lot to their annual incomes, and it keeps them in the game,” he said.
Artisans said it’s a warm and welcoming space that brings the art community together during the holiday season.
Metcalfe said he generates revenue from the $10 per person entrance tickets, while most of the vendor fees pay what it costs to put on the event, including rental space and staffing.
Metcalfe is 74 years old. After he had a heart attack while running on Brotherhood Bridge Trail in 2021, he says people have been asking him about the market’s future.
“I do have a succession plan, and they introduce themselves as the heir and the spare,” he said with a chuckle.
They’re his nephews.
“So this will continue on within the Metcalfe family,” he said.
Shoppers can continue gathering gifts locally at Juneau’s Gallery Walk this Friday.
