Bayani “Bing” Carrillo has volunteered for Juneau arts events for years. He’s the go-to guy for designing inventive sets and solving technological problems.
His first volunteer project was Wearable Arts, the annual fashion show hosted by the Juneau Arts and Humanities Center, years ago. Since then, he’s been recruited to help out practically every arts group in Juneau.
“Other things started to come up, like Perseverance [Theater] stuff, working on sets. So I would go help some of the guys cut lumber, put pieces together,” he said. “And then I started doing other things like for the Folk Festival, helping set up the stage, setting up the mics.”
Carrillo helps hang the lights downtown before Christmas. He sets up the power for vendors at the Maritime Festival. One year, he made a giant sparkly high heel for the GLITZ Drag Show. Between running countless shows and managing other volunteers, Carrillo says the wide range of activities he does is challenging but satisfying.
“It’s fun, but it’s a little bit, you know, what’s the word? You gotta be on your toes,” he said.
One of his most memorable projects is a set he created for the 2020 Wearable Arts event.
The show is about making something out of the things you have, and Carrillo did just that. He made a colorful backdrop of interlocking rings framed by string lights for the runway. And the entire set was made out of construction pipe.
“I have friends that I know that own, you know, construction companies, and I say, ‘Hey, you got any pipe?’ They say, ‘Yeah, we got some pipe, come over and grab it’,” he said. “So…