Downtown Juneau’s annual Gallery Walk is Friday evening.
More than 50 businesses and organizations will feature art exhibits, activities, live performances and holiday cheer.
One of those organizations is local conservation nonprofit Southeast Alaska Land Trust, also called SEALT. This gallery walk will be the second year of their “Conservation Art Show” featuring local Juneau artists Teri Gardner Robus, Patrick Ripp and others sharing work that was created on conserved lands in Southeast Alaska.
Bailey Williams is the outreach and development specialist at SEALT. She spoke about the upcoming event and the meaning behind it during KTOO’s Juneau Afternoon on Tuesday.
“This project came about kind of very organically, because there are so many amazing artists in this town, it was probably inevitable that our paths would cross with some of them,” she said. “We had this idea of local talent going out onto our conserved sites and painting what they saw.”
Other artists will be featured at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, like Bo Anderson and Kathleen Harper. Their joint show, “Art Scraps”, opens this Friday with a reception at 4:30 p.m. It features art created using a variety of upcycled, recycled and reused materials.
The couple also spoke about their upcoming show during Juneau Afternoon on Tuesday. Harper said she’s always had a knack for making art out of odd objects and is excited to showcase it during the exhibition.
“I’ve always been very drawn to mixed media since forever,” she said. “Even in college, I was always like, ‘I’m going to take all of these weird screws that I found in a scrap heap and turn them into a cathedral by gluing them together.’”
This Gallery Walk will also represent the last for some businesses, including Cordova’s, Sketch Studio and Ben Franklin. Front Street will become pedestrian-only starting at 3 p.m. and a Gallery Walk shuttle will run from 4 to 8 p.m.
Parking during the busy downtown event is available at the Juneau Arts & Culture Center, the Driftwood Lodge lot and the Juneau District Heating lot.
The city says it will not be enforcing paid parking downtown after 3 p.m. on Friday. Free parking will be offered at city-owned parking garages and lots, which are the Shopper’s Lot, the North Franklin Lot, the Downtown Transportation Center Garage, the Marine Parking Garage, the Whittier Lot and the South Franklin Docks & Harbors lots.
More information about the events and artists is available on the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council website.
Correction: The photo caption has been updated to reflect that Gallery Walk is a collaborative effort between the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council and Downtown Business Association.
