Local Artist Profile

BYO Bag When Sustainability and the Arts Intersect

The Town of Breckenridge instituted a 10-cent fee for single-use bags in 2013 in an e ort to encourage sustainability. In 2017, the Town put a call out to artists to design the next reusable shopping bag. When Andrew Dengate read about the contest, he knew exactly what the design should be. He gathered his Sharpies, watercolors and colored pencils and poured his passion for the mountains and sustainability into four creative panels.

Dengate’s winning hand-drawn design tells the story of Breckenridge through its seasons, peaks, skiers, bikers, hikers and wildlife. He tells us how the ski resort opened in 1961, how the Breckenridge Open Space Program celebrated 20 years in 2017 and how, in 1950, our booming Colorado home nearly became a ghost town dwindling to just 296 residents.

Dengate, 30, grew up in an artistic household just outside of Detroit. His dad was an oil painter and he remembers having backyard painting sessions with his sister. ough he attended the University of Michigan to study biology, he says there has always been a nagging inner leaning calling him to create. His colorful Breckenridge reusable bag design is the sublime blending of Dengate’s backgrounds, weaving art and biology to celebrate environment.

Following his devotion to rock climbing, Dengate found himself ping-ponging between Boulder and Summit County a er college. He made the leap to full-time mountain living in 2013 and, like many locals, balances a variety of jobs to support a mountain lifestyle.

Producing 50,000 of Dengate’s beautiful bags annually, Breckenridge’s reusable bag program has likely saved millions of single-use plastic and paper bags since its inception. e Town is diligent about providing the reusable bags to lodging and retail partners to ensure residents and visitors are never without. e good news is, visitors are taking these bags home with them—Dengate’s family in Minnesota and Michigan sees his blue, pink, green and purple bag pop up in the Midwest all the time—and Breck’s good example is spreading.

It was a love for our natural resources that “ brought me out here and keeps me here,” Dengate says.

e awareness piece is huge, Dengate says. We’re starting to ask ourselves, “Do I really need a straw? Do I need a co ee sleeve? Can I bring my own bag?”

“ ere are a ton of road blocks to recycling,” he says. “We want it to be super easy. But it’s not. If the bags take one tiny step toward the greater cause, we’re doing something right.”

Buy a bag at the Breckenridge Welcome Center (203 S. Main St.) when you’re in town and more about Breckenridge’s sustainability e orts at sustainablebreck.com/recycling.