Anchorage, Alaska is often seen as a vacation destination because of the extensive outdoor activities the city provides. However, Alaska is also home to amazing local restaurants that have strived, such as Bear Tooth and Snow City. Both restaurants believe in supporting local artists, whether it is through film, music, or artwork.

One of West Anchorage High School’s students has been supported first hand by Snow City Cafe. Each month, Snow City chooses a local artist to hang their work around the cafe and try to sell. The month of February was dedicated to Mac Fair’s photography and digital artwork.

Fair, who first got interested in photography about a year ago, was fortunate enough to get his artwork shown at the cafe after asking a coworker about the process. “I put up 22 pieces of art, and have sold around half so far,” Fair said. However, he is not entirely making profit off this process. Fair added that it costs about $60 to print one piece onto either a canvas or a metal slab.

Garrett Bruner, a friend of Fair’s, went to the opening night of the art at the cafe and was very impressed. When asked if Bruner encouraged others to come take a look at Fair’s art, he said, “I actually told my mom to go look at it and she ended up buying a piece.” Bruner added that he thinks “[Fair] will easily sell all the pieces he hung up at Snow City.”

The artists that are chosen to hang up their art at the cafe are able to hang pretty much whatever they’d like, other than a few restrictions. “The art couldn’t have any weapons, blood, or anything graphic,” Fair said. Snow City strives to get local artist’s work shown, so they try not to be too strict or specific with the artwork that is hung up. For example, Fair’s collection is a mix of photography as well as digital art, which gives a variety of different styles of art to the cafe.

Snow City’s manager, Jessie Merriam, is in charge of sorting through submitted artwork, and choosing a new artist to be featured each month. Like Fair said, the cafe is very open to the types of artwork they show, they just have to follow a few rules for things such as framing and size. The cafe values local artists and insists that everyone gets a chance to show their talent. Having a new featured artist each month also brings new customers into the cafe to try the food and view the art.

Fair was very fortunate to get this opportunity to show the art he has been working on for a year. If anyone is interested in submitting artwork, they can [email protected] or go into Snow City for more information on exactly what is allowed and expected.