The Juneau Arts & Humanities Council is delighted to announce the winners and honorees of the 2022 Wearable Art Extravaganza Oceanic Overtures - the 22nd annual Wearable Art in Juneau! Volunteer jurors Keren Goldbergbelle (previous Wearable Art artist), Jesse Riesenberger (previous Wearable Art artist and model), and Rick Wolverton (past Perseverance Theatre costume designer interviewed artists about their process and construction techniques and watched both the Saturday and Sunday performances before making their award decisions. The jurors scored pieces based on construction, innovation, overall performance, and wow factor. An online survey was provided to audience members, cast, and crew during the performance weekend and was available through the Living Gallery on March 4. This survey collected votes for the People’s Choice Award - now named after Sybil Davis, who began Juneau’s first Wearable Art Extravaganza in 2000, during her time as Executive Director of the Arts Council.
The Sybil Davis Award goes to “To Know, Water” by artist and model Georgia Post. Made from flowy organza, LED lights, fiber optics, moldable plastic and foam, this piece is inspired by the sea angel. The sea angel is an extremely small type of sea slug that is translucent and glows. This delicate creature is very light and elegant, it floats through the ocean using its angel-shaped wings for movement. The artist’s goal for her piece was to really capture this sense of awe, and still have its elegance. 2022 was the first year that Georgia has participated in the Wearable Art Extravaganza.
Juror’s First Place goes to “Cocktails!” by artists and models Amy Dressel and Nic DeHart. Made from Life Jackets, Foam, Felt, Pantyhose, Sea monkeys, 20 years of saved address labels. This year’s piece focuses on the ocean, specifically spot and tiger prawns. Thanks to Nicolas’s sewing skills and Amy’s hot glue desires the artists transformed these life jackets into imitations of our favorite childhood pets-brine shrimp (aka sea monkeys!).
Juror’s Honorable Mention goes to “An Eternity” by artist Jessica Hood, modeled by Ashia Skafelstad. Made from trash bags and plastic bags, the goal of this piece was to bring awareness to plastic pollution, specifically plastic in the ocean. The ocean is near and dear to the artist’s heart. She grew up with traditional Tlingit food and much of this was gathered from the ocean. In the recent past summers, her family would bring a bag with them to collect garbage off the beaches and trails around Juneau. Jessica noted how disappointing it was that they would fill up the bag on each outing, with the majority of the garbage from plastic.
Wearable Art is moving to a biennial schedule to allow for as the JAHC takes on another large program, in partnership with other organizations in town - Rock Aak'w! The next Wearable Art Extravaganza will be in February 2024, and every even year from here out. The Arts Council will begin taking votes for the theme and will make the announcement of the theme for 2024 in the fall of 2023.
About the 2022 Wearable Art Extravaganza Oceanic Overtures: This year’s performance marks twenty-two years of community creativity in Juneau. Wearable Art 2022 was sponsored by Alaska Airlines and KTOO. The event was directed by Margeaux Ljungberg, with Artistic Producer Sarah Wallace. The set was designed by Bing Carrillo, with construction assistance from Don Larson, Jim Simard, and Sue Schrader and Jim Heumann. Featuring lighting designer Mike Inwood, audio engineer Betsy Sims (Studio A Juneau), video and multimedia director Mikko Wilson (KTOO Public Media), and stage manager Kathleen Harper. Produced by the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council, and the many, many other event staff and volunteers that come together for one of Juneau’s favorite visual and performing arts events.
