Roaring ’20s take stage at popular Palmer wearable art show

What you need to know:

• The Valley Arts Alliance will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its annual Wearable Art & Runway Fashion Show on Saturday at the Palmer Depot with a “Roaring ’20s” theme, featuring 25 local artists and performances at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
• The show highlights a wide range of creative designs, from recycled and low-cost materials to elaborate, fabric-based creations, modeled by participants of all ages, with no judges or prizes and a focus on collaboration.
• Tickets are $15, with free admission for children 12 and younger at the 3 p.m. show, and proceeds support the alliance’s mission of bringing the community together through the arts rather than serving as a major fundraiser.

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Salvador Dali won’t be in attendance, but the 1920s surrealist would feel right at home inside the Palmer Depot on Saturday when 25 local artists hit the runway wearing art ranging from the strange to the sublime.

The Valley Arts Alliance’s annual Wearable Art & Runway Fashion Show is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year with a “Roaring ’20s” theme that’s sure to have participants putting on the ritz.

“It’s really fun, and every year it’s amazing what people come up with,” said VAA Executive Director Carmen Summerfield.

The art on display will run the gamut from creatively recycled, nontraditional pieces — participants have created entire outfits out of thrift-store ties or paper cups — to highly stylized pieces requiring multiple models and using exotic fabrics and patterns, Summerfield said.

“It doesn’t have to cost very much, but some people have made some really beautiful, elaborate creations that were all sewn with beautiful fabric,” she said. “It’s a wearable art and runway fashion show, so it covers all of that.”

Each artist will take a turn on the runway, with the model (it’s not always the artist) showing off the art alongside a musical selection chosen to match the theme of the piece. Participants include men, women and children, and even teams of family members spanning generations.

“Last year I think the youngest was 4, and the oldest was 84, and everything in between.”

Participants often spend weeks or months crafting their designs, and rehearsals for the event, which transforms the Depot into a New York-style fashion runway, take up most of the day of the show. There are no prizes or judges. Instead, Summerfield said, the event stresses collaboration and cooperation among participants.

“Which makes it really fun because everybody behind the scenes is helping each other come up with the most beautiful creation they can,” she said.

This year’s event will feature performances at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 each, but Summerfield said children 12 and younger get in free to the 3 p.m. show with an adult. The matinee show was created to make sure families with small children are able to attend, she said. 

“We created another show at 3 o’clock to make that special for kids 12 and under to be free so it’s available for everybody,” she said.

Signups to participate as an artist or model have closed, but Summerfield said the VAA would welcome volunteers to help clean up after the evening show.

“Many hands make light work.”

Tickets can be purchased at Fireside Books in Palmer. Summerfield said she’s proud of the show’s longevity and the fact that the group has never raised prices in the two decades the show has entertained Valley audiences. She said volunteers are the reason for the low admission fees.

“We have a group of people that have done it for many years,” she said.

Summerfield said the event sells out every year. It’s a late-winter highlight at a time of year when folks are in need of unique distractions.

“That’s why we do it in February, because December it’s the holidays, in January people are recovering from the holidays, and then February is like not much is going on and it’s still cold and dark outside,” she said.

The show isn’t designed to raise money as much as it is to raise awareness for the arts and bring people together to celebrate the creativity of local artists.

“That’s what Valley Arts Alliance is about — bringing the community together through the arts,” she said.

Other recent art projects the VAA has supported include the Arts, Health and Well-Being Project at Government Peak Recreation Area. The project, which was funded with a grant from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Rasmuson Foundation, brought artists to the GRPA chalet for 28 winter events, including music, visual art and workshops.

To learn more about the VAA or view photos of past Wearable Art shows and designs, visit valleyartsalliance.com.

-- Matt Tunseth is a freelance writer from Southcentral Alaska. Write to him at matthew.tunseth@gmail.com