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‘Keep Bears Wild’: Winning art celebrated downtown, along with awareness and opportunities for trash containment
- Jasz Garrett
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 6 hours ago
Dozens of trash cans with a colorful facelift and easy-use handles to be placed downtown
By Jasz Garrett and Ellie Ruel
Crystal Jackson was announced as the winner of the community art contest “Keep Bears Wild” on Tuesday morning at the Elizabeth Peratrovich Plaza.
“I’m beyond myself,” Jackson said. “I work with alcohol ink so I’ve been really excited to see these blown up on a big scale in a very meaningful way. Especially with the trash, and the bears are really bad this year, too, so being able to support anything that can keep them wild in a way, but also, I'm really a big fan of great rainbow colors.”
Following thousands of votes on social media, Jackson’s design was selected for a three-panel mural at Warners Wharf, above a newly constructed bear-resistant garbage enclosure. Jackson’s artwork will also be featured on 44 bear-resistant trash cans throughout downtown as a daily reminder to “keep bears wild.”
Jackson said the three panels were inspired by showcasing different personalities of wild bears.
“Like a playful laziness of the one that's kind of laying on its backside, rolling around. I’ve got one with a ‘keep wild, keep fish, not trash,’ kind of thing,” she said.
The third panel shows a mother and two cubs, meant to commemorate the cubs who died fleeing up an electrical pole last year. Jackson lives downtown and said the event stood out to her.
“I really wanted to kind of capture and commemorate those cubs,” she said. “Not in a mournful way, but we’re just celebrating them to keep wild, keep being themselves, running around, cohabitating with them.”
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings partnered with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Wildlife Conservation and the city to lead the contest, which invited artists from across the country to submit original artwork while promoting responsible coexistence with bears. The initiative is part of the cruise line’s Sail & Sustain program.
“We focus on protecting the environments we visit and strengthening the communities that we're privileged to be a part of,” said Dan Farkas, executive vice president and general counsel for Norwegian Cruise Line. “Thank you to every artist who submitted a design, to every person who cast a vote, and to all our partners who helped make this initiative the success that it is.”
Over the last two summers, Abby McAllister, ADF&G wildlife education and outreach specialist, said she noticed tourists were confused by trash cans downtown and placed their litter on top of or beside them. These existing trash cans will not be replaced, but she hopes the new “beautified” bins may make a difference.
“The previous design of the bear-resistant can had an internal latch that visitors and residents had to put their hand inside to activate and then pull open the can, which is OK,” she said. “But a lot of people are intimidated by putting their hand into a hole that they didn’t know what was inside, or they didn’t know that’s how the can worked, and so this mechanism is more simple.”
The idea of improving the design evolved into incorporating public art and the cruise line created the community contest to raise further awareness. Norwegian Cruise Line donated funding for the public campaign and its awards. With a conservation message in mind, the city and cruise line partnered with Fish and Game. The project began last October.
McAllister said along with easier usability, downtown needed more trash cans due to overflow. She said the initiative may make it easier for tourists to throw away garbage, but it’s a small piece of the puzzle.
“We still definitely need to tackle some of the attractants that are not being secured in our adjacent residential neighborhoods because while we may be securing attractants in a better way downtown, those bears are still food-conditioned and they're still habituated,” she said. “So they're still going to go elsewhere and look for those things. So really, it is something that we can still prevent and we still need to do our due diligence elsewhere in town.”
McAllister said once a bear learns to associate humans with a food source, it creates a habit where they seek it out.
“It’s just moving the problem and really what needs to happen is there needs to be a broader effort by Juneau residents to really make a choice,” she said, encouraging residents to secure their trash.
Last week, the state euthanized a yearling bear after it was shot by a man downtown. Fish and Game made the decision to put the bear down since she suffered mortal wounds, but officials said if there hadn’t been unsecured trash, the situation could have been avoided.
Anthony Crupi, Southeast regional supervisor for the department’s Division of Wildlife Conservation, said Juneau is important because of its shared habitat with black bears.
“Every day if you look up into these mountains here you can see bears trying to forage on wild foods, and we really put a lot of effort into trying to keep bears and people apart,” he said. “So the more that we can do to keep bears from coming into human attractions, the better.”
Jackson received a $10,000 prize, consisting of a $7,000 cash award and a $3,000 donation to National Alliance on Mental Illness Juneau, the local nonprofit she selected to receive a charitable contribution.
“Mental health is really close to my heart,” Jackson said.
She said she’s worked with NAMI in the past, including as a former board member. Today, she volunteers with the organization’s Juneau Suicide Prevention Coalition.
Aaron Surma, NAMI’s executive director, said donations have solely funded peer-to-peer support groups and local advocacy time since the loss of a state grant this year.
NAMI Juneau’s mission is to “provide education, advocacy, support and public awareness so individuals affected by mental illness can build better lives,” according to its website.
“Art has always been a powerful form of self-expression, connection and healing,” said NAMI Deputy Director Dani Alston. “It has the ability to inspire, foster resilience and support mental wellness. That is why it is especially meaningful that a project designed to beautify our community also helps strengthen mental health support within our community.”
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356. Contact Ellie Ruel at ellie.ruel@juneauindependent.com.
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