What will happen to Juneau’s City Hall mural if the city moves out?

Curious Juneau

Gary Waid points to the man depicted on the “Raven discovering mankind in a clamshell” mural at City Hall on Monday, June 11, 2024. The man is modeled off of Waid in the ’80s. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)

https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/CJmuralMP3.mp3

Spanning an outside wall of City Hall in downtown Juneau, there’s a 10-and-a-half by 61-foot mural called “Raven discovering mankind in a clamshell.”

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It shows Raven opening a clam and releasing a man. Around it, there are Alaska Native clan symbols like the bear, the frog, the eagle, the orca and the wolf. A vibrant blue and cloudy sky fills the background.

It’s one of the first things cruise ship passengers see, and KTOO listener Shirley Dean said it’s one of her favorite pieces of art in Juneau.

“It just brings me delight with the colors and the whole image of the beginning. and it just brings me peace and joy,” she said. “Because in the winters, as you know, when it’s really dark, and gray and rainy, those colors just make me happy.”

The “Raven discovering mankind in a clamshell” mural at City Hall on Monday, June 11, 2024. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)

During the local election last fall, Dean wondered what would happen to the mural if voters approved the city’s plan to build a new City Hall. That ballot measure failed, but the city still plans to move its staff to a new location one day.

Dean asked KTOO to find out what would happen to the building and mural if that happened.

“I don’t know how they can do it. But if we can put people on the moon, I think we could preserve an art piece,” she said.

A familiar face

The mural was painted in 1986 by then-local artist Bill. C Ray. He’s the son of former state senator Bill Ray, who died in 2013. Now, nearly four decades later — it’s showing its age. The paint is chipping and colors are fading.

When KTOO reached out to talk to him about the mural, he declined an interview.

Bill C. Ray works on ‘Raven Discovering Mankind in a Clam Shell,’ as seen in the Juneau Empire on Oct. 3, 1986. (Mark Kelley/Alaska State Library Historical Collection)

But, in an old newspaper article, Ray said the mural was inspired by a carving by the late Bill Reid, a renowned Haida artist from British Columbia. It tells the Haida legend of how man came to be.

Bill Reid’s ‘The Raven and the First Men,’1980, at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology. (Bill McLennan/UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver)

Ray is not Alaska Native, but in the article, he explained the legend like this: Raven was flying around and landed on a beach to dine on some shellfish. He had his fill, and was just about to take off when he saw a giant clam under the sand. He dug it out, popped it open and squirming inside … was man.

Gary Waid was the model for the man. He is Lingít and Haida and has lived in Juneau his whole life. He’s 78 now — so he was in his 30s when Ray painted him.

Gary Waid points to the man depicted on the “Raven discovering mankind in a clamshell” mural at City Hall on Monday, June 11, 2024. The man is modeled off of Waid in the ’80s. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)

Standing next to the mural now, Waid looked different — his hair is short and white instead of black and flowing, and he looked like he’d seen some things since popping out of that clamshell.

Waid said if he had known back then how iconic the piece would become in Juneau, he would have made a few requests.

“I should have had residuals in some way or another on this stuff,” he said, laughing.

Though he frequents downtown and drives past City Hall often enough, Waid has an interesting relationship with the mural — he doesn’t like to look at it.

“It’s like being in a movie, or in a play that gets recorded. You don’t really like watching oneself do the thing,” he said.

But, he said the mural serves an important purpose. When he was young, public art depicting Alaska Native culture wasn’t common like it is today. He said he isn’t attached to the mural itself so much as its ability to share his culture through the story it tells.

“We got the story from the elders,” he said. “‘Tell the story to as many people as you can and pass it on.’ Any which way that the story gets passed on, I’m all for it.”

Waid said he doesn’t care so much if the mural is preserved or destroyed — as long as something similar takes its place.

A City Hall without the city?

City Manager Katie Koester said what will happen to City Hall and the mural is still unclear.

“Where we are going to eventually end up moving downtown employees is a question that’s still up in the air,” she said.

Koester said she’s in the middle of negotiating a lease for two floors of the Michael J. Burns Building downtown, which houses the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation.

The Michael J. Burns Building, which houses the Permanent Fund offices on 10th Street, on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2024. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)

The city has been trying to figure out a long-term office plan for staff after Juneau voters rejected two separate bond proposals for a new City Hall.

Fewer than half of city employees now work at City Hall, which has issues like cracking walls, leaking ceilings and asbestos in the carpet. The rest of the employees work in rented office space in other buildings.

If City Hall does get emptied out, the Juneau Assembly will decide what happens to the building.

Koester said the city had a photographer take high-quality photos of the mural in 2011. Potentially, those could help recreate the piece in the future.

“I do think there’s a real desire to preserve that iconic piece of Juneau. In fact, I was walking over here, and people were taking pictures of that mural,” she said. “So it’s really come to represent Juneau and it’s just a beautiful story and a beautiful piece.”

So for now, the mural will continue to greet visitors of Juneau, and Waid will just keep having to drive past his big face downtown.

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