Some of Yellowknife’s dumpsters just got a glow up thanks to a project between Det’on Cho Kavanaugh and five local artists.
Ivania Carbello-Hinchey, the marketing and communications manager for Det’on Cho Group of Companies, said Avery Parle, Det’on Cho Kavanaugh’s general manager, first presented the idea for a beautification project after seeing other painted waste bins in Yellowknife.
“There’s one [bin] in Old Town that I always see when I drive by, and I’m like, ‘This is amazing.” The idea is to have more of that,” Carbello-Hinchey said.
Carbello-Hinchey said Parle approached Yellowknife artist Robyn Scott, who then reached out to James Wedzin, Nancy Vail, Alice Winkler and Hana Steinwand to get involved.
Each artist was given a bin, creative freedom and an opportunity to finish their paintings live at the 2026 Old Town Ramble and Ride Festival.
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Carbello-Hinchey said Det’on Cho Kavanaugh was excited for the opportunity to support local artists and promote their work, while also participating in the festival.
Scott said the project was a way to showcase local culture, land and artists, while adding life and vibrancy to the community.
“I like the idea of adding beauty to overlooked spaces — alleyways, dumpsters, the sides of walls that are neglected,” she said.
Scott painted a bull caribou resting among fireweed on her dumpster, while Vail’s painting depicts an owl sitting on a fence post surrounded by snow with a fox peeking through the fence.
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“I’d actually done a similar painting once before on a much smaller canvas, and it just had the owl and the fence post,” Vail said. “Then there’s all this room on this mural, so I thought, ‘OK, it needs something,’ and the fox just seemed to fit well. It’s very northern.”
Vail said she would like to see more decorative garbage bins around Yellowknife as a reminder that anything can be beautified.
Scott said “art makes community” and described Det’on Cho Kavanaugh as a community-minded company that continues to contribute to Yellowknife through beautification projects like this one. She added that said the artists received fair compensation for their work.
“I think that’s a very Yellowknife thing, you just make beautiful things,” Carbello-Hinchey said.
She said businesses interested in displaying one of the painted dumpsters outside their establishment can email Det’on Cho Kavanaugh.
