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Juneau City Museum prepares for Gallery Walk with new ‘Art Scraps’ exhibit, holiday workshops

By: Grace Dumas, News of the North

Art Scraps features by Bo Anderson and Kathleen Harper, photos courtesy of Juneau Douglas City Museum

The Juneau-Douglas City Museum is gearing up for Gallery Walk tonight, featuring the opening of a new exhibition, “Art Scraps.”

Museum Director Beth Weigel said the annual downtown celebration will include a trolley stop at the Capitol, making it easy for visitors to drop into the museum and explore the new show by Juneau artists Bo Anderson and Kathleen Harper.

“It’s just so fun and whimsical.” She said, “There’s lots of pieces for sale, and it’s just going to be a super fun exhibit and opportunity at the City Museum.”

Anderson and Harper, partners in life as well as in art, said the exhibit grew out of both artists’ shared love of repurposing found materials.

“I will have piles of random things sitting in my house and go, what if I did this, with this material, and turn it into something completely different and new.” Said Harper.

Anderson and Harper met at Perseverance Theater.

“We met 21 years ago, Kathleen was a props master and a stage manager, and I was a young carpenter,” Anderson said.

Bo Anderson is known for his works that gained a local following through the museum’s free little art gallery.

“He was very famous in our free little art gallery for a long time. He kind of took that on as one of his passions during covid.” said Weigel, “So people have come to know his little sketches.”

The museum will also serve as a drop-off site for the Southeast Alaska Food Bank during Gallery Walk. Visitors are encouraged to bring canned goods and other nonperishable items.

“We’ve got some milk crates there, and you can bring in cans of food.” Weigel said, “It’ll be easy just to carry that along in your purse on the trolley when you come up and drop that into the containers, and then we send that off to the Southeast Alaska Food Bank, because everybody’s wanting to make sure that we get everybody fed this holiday season.”

Along with Art Scraps, both artists will lead workshops in December. Anderson will host a drop-in “sketch with Bo” session on Dec. 6, and Harper will teach participants how to craft roses from coffee filters on Dec. 20.

Gallery Walk festivities at the museum run from 4:30 to 7 p.m. tonight.

Parking will also be easier in the downtown core this evening, paid parking downtown will not be enforced and enforcement will end at 3 p.m. for the evening.

On-street parking will not be limited to two hours, and free parking will be offered at 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.

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New online art directory seeks to promote, connect Alaska Native artists across the state

By: Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon

Britt’Nee Brower of Utqiagvik peers through hanging jewelry at her table at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention on Oct. 16, 2025. Brower creates works of art out of a variety of media. Among her skills is carving, sewing, beading, etching, fashion design and poetry. She is among the artists listed in the Alaska Native Arts Directory. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

A new online statewide directory has been launched to showcase and connect Alaska Native artists across disciplines.

The Alaska Native Arts Directory is the work of the nonprofit Alaska Native Arts Foundation. Listing is free. The directory went live last week, timing that coincided with the Alaska Federation of Natives annual convention in Anchorage.

As of Monday, about 200 artists were listed, most of them with photos and biographical information. The Alaska Native Arts Foundation said it is seeking to expand that number to more than 1,000 by next year.

The Anchorage-based foundation said it also has a goal of holding a first-ever Alaska Native Arts Economic Summit next year, bringing together artists, policymakers and other partners to work on building the Indigenous creative economy.

There are other artists’ directories in Alaska, some of them with a focus on Indigenous artists. One, the Collective49 Marketplace, enables member artists to promote and sell their work online. And there are numerous local artists directories, such as those in Ketchikan and Homer.

The Alaska Natives Art Directory, however, is intended to be more comprehensive. Along with being statewide, the directory includes writers, musicians and other performing artists along with those who create carvings, paintings and other physical works of art. It includes contemporary art forms as well as traditional Indigenous arts.

“The Alaska Native Arts Directory celebrates the full spectrum of Alaska Native creativity, visual and written arts, performance, design, and traditional practices, reflecting the diversity and vitality of Alaska’s Indigenous cultures,” Gail Schubert, chair of the Alaska Native Arts Foundation, said in a statement.

Launch of the Alaska Native Arts Directory represents a renaissance of sorts for the Alaska Native Arts Foundation.

The foundation was created in 2002 and for several years operated an ecommerce site and a gallery in Anchorage. But it shut down those operatioons in 2016 after losing state funding and encountering other financial problems.

The directory project and other new activities now have a variety of funding sources, according to the foundation’s statement. The effort is backed by grants and other support from organizations that include the Rasmuson Foundation, the U.S. Small Business Administration, the office of U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Municipality of Anchorage, among others, according to the statement.

Britt'Nee Brower of Utqiagvik helps a custmoer at her table at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention on Oct. 16, 2025. Some of her earrings and prints are in the foreground. Brower creates works of art out of a variety of media. She is among the artists listed in the Alaska Native Arts directory. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Britt’Nee Brower of Utqiagvik helps a custmoer at her table at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention on Oct. 16, 2025. Some of her earrings and prints are in the foreground. Brower creates works of art out of a variety of media. She is among the artists listed in the Alaska Native Arts directory. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
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Elizabeth Peratrovich Mural restoration is complete in Downtown Juneau

Elizabeth Peratrovich Mural provided by CBJ- 2021

Artist Crystal Worl has completed restoration work on her mural honoring Tlingit civil rights leader Elizabeth Peratrovich in downtown Juneau.

The project was made possible thanks to equipment donated by Tyler Rental, which provided the use of a forklift from July 6 to 12.

The lift allowed Worl to safely access and restore the 60-by-25-foot mural that spans the south-facing wall of the Juneau Public Library and Marine Parking Garage.

The mural that Worl, who is Tlingit and Athabascan, began planning in 2018 was originally installed in September 2021, and is a tribute to Elizabeth Kaax̱gal.aat Peratrovich, a member of the Lukaax̱.ádi (Sockeye Salmon) clan. She is remembered for her advocacy in the fight for equality for Alaska Natives, and for her pivotal role in the passage of the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, the first civil rights legislation of its kind in the United States.

The restoration is part of an ongoing commitment to preserving public art that celebrates Alaska Native heritage and leaders. “We appreciate this generous support in helping to maintain a public artwork that honors the legacy of a great Alaska Native leader,” Sealaska Heritage Institute said in their Facebook post.

Located on Áak’w Kwáan territory, the mural is now fully restored.

Crystal Worl writes on her website about the mural, “Educating the public about the local Indigenous values, culture, and history is important for Alaskans and visitors alike. I hope that this mural will contribute to the movement to transform Juneau into the Northwest Coast arts capital of the world and will beautify and enhance the downtown Juneau area. With the world recovering from the COVID pandemic and embracing racial and social justice ideals, artists must also rise to the occasion to tell our history and our stories.”

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