Wearable Art 2021 is newly reimagined and features a variety of pandemic-safe activities. At last year's event, “La Fauna et La Flore” by Jessica Sullivan and modeled by Jesse Riessenberger earned the third-place juror's award at  Wearable Art 2020: Joie de Vivre. (Courtesy Photo/Ron Gile)

Blast off to Wearable Art 2021

Reimagined festival offers something for everyone

If you’ve been yearning for an otherworldly adventure but feeling a little grounded and uninspired, climb aboard the Starship JAHC and blast off to the re-imagined Wearable Arts event.

For the last 20 years, the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council has sponsored the much-loved runway show each February as a fundraiser for fine arts scholarships, artist grants and to support operations at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center.

With COVID-19 rendering a runway show with an audience of 900 people impossible, organizers got to thinking about new ways to bring the event to life. The result is a newly envisioned festival that includes in-person and online events that deliver a combination of experiences around the intergalactic theme.

“We expanded what’s normally two days into a week-long festival and threw in a bunch of events,” said Kathleen Harper, co-production manager of the event.

This year’s main event is still a runway show on May 14 and 15, but it was pre-recorded. It will be accompanied by live narration over the radio with several opportunities to see the show from a personal device and an encore performance at the drive-in theatre on May 22. Themed partnerships with local restaurants and drink specials at breweries come together to offer special VIP packages.

A living gallery on May 21 and 22 will offer an opportunity to see the models up close.

The online shows will be supplemented with an app-based scavenger hunt, an online silent auction and trivia contests on May 18 and 20. An awards ceremony will be held on May 23.

Prices vary for each event, and different packages are available.

“This is not going to be a talking head Zoom show,” Harper said.

Nancy DeCherney, executive director at Juneau Arts and Humanities Council, said she expects the new format will deliver for a Zoom-weary audience.

“This is not your average runway show, and this isn’t your average Zoom thing. We are shaking things up,” she said. “COVID has brought forward resilience, and you have to take a positive approach. We’ve been doing this for quite some time, and we were thinking maybe it’s time to do something new. This gave us a chance to do that,” she said.

DeCherney acknowledged Zoom fatigue and said the event organizers took that concern to heart. She believes that the revised format will still yield fun and essential community benefits. She’s more cautious about the fundraising aspect.

“My goal is to break even. I don’t think we will make the money we normally do. But, we love the community-building, energy, and excitement about the arts in Juneau.”

About the theme and the process

Coincidentally, the intergalactic theme was selected last year, about a month before widespread pandemic restrictions arrived in Juneau. But, it proved perfect for the revised format.

“There’s so much sci-fi, fun geekery to be had with that theme,” Harper said.

Harper explained that the theme lends itself to the format as the hosts will imagine traveling through space to examine art and fashion on other planets.

“We are working through a spaceship idea and just rolling with it. We are having fun with campy references to science fiction and space-related stuff,” she said.

Margeaux Ljungberg, director of the livestream, said the video format allowed for a different view of the pieces and offered viewers new ways to see the finer details of the finished pieces.

“In a live show, the audience can choose where to look. In this way, we get to control what our audience sees, especially for those artists who work in fine detail,” she said.

Live theatre is coming to a park near you

Auction items

DeCherney said that the raffle and online auction are highlights of the event each year and that she’s happy to replicate both in the revised format. She said the auction includes fabulous treasures, including a custom-made guitar and opportunities for unique experiences.

The silent auction opens to the public on May 14, with JAHC members able to bid beginning May 10.

Raffle tickets for two round-trip Alaska Airlines tickets are available for $10 each.

Contact reporter Dana Zigmund at dana.zigmund@juneauempire.com or 907-308-4891.

Know & Go

Visit www.jahc.org/wearable-art/ to find a complete list of events, the festival app, and to purchase tickets.

If you are interested in the deal and show packages, act fast—they blast off the site on Friday, May 7.

More in News

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Aurora forecast for the week of March 25

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

The aging Tustumena ferry, long designated for replacement, arrives in Homer after spending the day in Seldovia in this 2010 photo. (Homer News file photo)
Feds OK most of state’s revised transportation plan, but ferry and other projects again rejected

Governor’s use of ferry revenue instead of state funds to match federal grants a sticking point.

The Shopper’s Lot is among two of downtown Juneau’s three per-hour parking lots where the cash payments boxes are missing due to vandalism this winter. But as of Wednesday people can use the free ParkSmarter app to make payments by phone. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Pay-by-phone parking for downtown Juneau debuts with few reported complaints

App for hourly lots part of series of technology upgrades coming to city’s parking facilities.

A towering Lutz spruce, center, in the Chugach National Forest is about to be hoisted by a crane Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015, for transport to the West Lawn of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to be the 2015 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service)
Tongass National Forest selected to provide 2024 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree

Eight to 10 candidate trees will be evaluated, with winner taking “whistlestop tour” to D.C.

Annauk Olin, holding her daugher Tulġuna T’aas Olin, and Rochelle Adams pose on March 20, 2024, after giving a presentation on language at the Alaska Just Transition Summit in Juneau. The two, who work together at the Alaska Public Interest Research Group’s Language Access program, hope to compile an Indigenous environmental glossary. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Project seeks to gather Alaska environmental knowledge embedded in Indigenous languages

In the language of the Gwich’in people of northeastern Alaska, the word… Continue reading

The room where the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee holds its meeting sits empty on Tuesday. A presentation about an increase in the number of inmate deaths in state custody was abruptly canceled here. (Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
Republican lawmakers shut down legislative hearing about deaths in Alaska prisons

Former commissioner: “All this will do, is it will continue to inflame passions of advocacy groups.”

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Monday, March 25, 2024

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

Employees at the Kensington Mine removing tailings from Johnson Creek on Feb. 17 following a Jan. 31 spill of about 105,000 gallons of slurry from the mine, although a report by the mine’s owners states about half slurry reached the creek 430 meters away. (Photo from report by Coeur Alaska)
Emergency fisheries assessments sought after 105,000-gallon tailings spill at Kensington Mine

Company says Jan. 31 spill poses no risk to Berners Bay habitat, but NOAA seeks federal evaluation.

Dozens of people throw colors in the air and at each other during a Holi festival gathering Monday night outside Spice Juneau Indian Cuisine. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Holi festival in Juneau revives colorful childhood memories for some, creates them for others

Dozens toss caution and colored cornstarch to the wind in traditional Hindu celebration of spring

Most Read