Art Bikers will be at Isleville Park during the #NECC Annual BBQ from 4-6pm Wednesday, June 19th!
Come join us to swap stories and messages!
Celebrating Bike Week with Highly Visible Results!
The Art Bikers are so excited to meet participants for their first pop up event of the year!
Behind the scenes, in the studio…
Ahead of Art Bikers field work with participants, there is an intensive and joyous creation period of research, design, testing, playing, and problem solving in the studio. Considering how to ensure children and adults alike have fun in their artistic creations is really important to Art Bikers. Also, they have to factor in weather — hot sun and blustery wind — that is just as eager to participate in our projects as the folks we encounter in public spaces!
Centred on spontaneous creativity and fun, collaboration and learning, Art Bikers Summer 13 team is eager to bring their passion for art making to public parks and places. This summer, look for the team in Dartmouth North, Africville, Fairview, Clayton Park, The Dartmouth Pizza Oven, Glen Garden, Mulgrave Park and so many other spots! We’ll be posting our schedule as soon as it is finalized.
At the Halifax North Common…
It was a genuine gift to hold space for participants to create original designs in renowned Mi’kmaw artist, filmmaker, musician and social justice advocate Alan Syliboy’s installation called Mi’kmaw Sign Post. This interactive art was created in partnership with The Deanery Project and Halifax Regional Municipality. Find out more about the artist and his participation in Our Common Woods placemaking project here: http://thedeaneryproject.com/our-common-woods/
After riding to the North Common, the Art Bikers set up and got ready to claim some space in the great outdoors! Pinnies could be seen across the park and caught the attention of approximately 70 people who participated in making their very own design! Huge thanks to Halifax Bike Week for their support of this activity! Awarding us a grant for materials for this project meant we were able to create innovative, adjustable pinnies for cyclists of all sizes.
First stop, the outdoor fitting station! Pick your favourite pinnie, try it on, twirl in the sun and cheer!
Designing one of a kind paper stencils and learning about how screen printing works with Art Bikers Salma and Undine.
Frist challenge: how to get an idea onto the page to be translated into bold shapes cut out for the stencil. Art Biker Sorrel is there to support!
Print time! The best part is pulling your first print and seeing the surprise of the big reveal! Adults love it as much as kids! Artist Devon looks on in support, guiding the process.
Veteran Art Biker Eric braces the screen for this eager cat!
It was a busy stretch with participants really getting into their work!
And after all that work, it’s time to try on and celebrate these bold pinnies!
Folks were thrilled with the results and eager for biking safely off to other Halifax Bike Week activities!
Pictured here: some cycling enthusiasts in the latest visibility wear, compliments of the Art Bikers!
Not pictured here: the incredible family of parents and children catching up to — and riding partway like ducklings behind — Art Bikers as they cycled back to the studio! This family was a total highlight, among many, at Art Bikers’ first event of the year! Kind thank you to all the folks who joined us and to the 4Cs Foundation for supporting such an incredible program.
Bike Week: First Event of the Season!
DATE: Saturday, June 8th, 2019
TIME: From 1-4pm
LOCATION: Emera Oval, Halifax North Commons
DETAILS: As part of Bike Week, Art Bikers are hosting our first pop up to promote safety on the road! Young cyclists are encouraged to join us in making bright, colourful safety vests — with unique silkscreened designs — so they can be seen while biking.
This free event is open to all, and we look forward to meeting you to celebrate the beginning of Season 13!
Be safe and seen this summer while you ride!
Add your very own design to your vest! Art Bikers will teach you our favourite paper stencil method for silkscreening a picture onto bright green and orange vests! All supplies are included.
Meet our 2019 Art Bikers: Undine, Eric, Salma, Sorrel and Devon! And celebrate Bike Week!
Highlights of training
This season’s Art Bikers team has been busy in various training sessions that include time to understand the goals of the program; community arts and community building; safety in the studio, while traveling together by bicycle, and while working in the field with participants of all ages; exploring various art mediums; anti-oppression and intercultural competency; and bicycle maintenance — among others. It’s a deep period of learning, reflection and skill building in anticipation of the dynamic season ahead.
The training period — which lasts almost a month — is also a time for the Art Bikers to begin collaborating, understand how best to support one another, get oriented and help support a healthy and vibrant studio ecology, and bring their skills and talents to the team. The Art Bikers develop a Working Together Agreement that creates a framework for strong communication, emotional/physical/spiritual wellbeing, and strategies for thriving in their fieldwork alongside participants.
Here are a few highlights from training, so far, in Season 13.
A moment of radical joy in celebrating the learnings from the anti-oppression workshop by South House facilitator Carmel!
Thank you for following Art Bikers!
Art Bikers is a 4Cs Foundation legacy program. We are excited to begin Season 13, programming all over Halifax Regional Municipality in the summer of 2019!
We no longer use this site for updates, but please find a link to our new Art Bikers blog here:
http://www.wonderneath.com/art-bikers-blog
We would love to hear your ideas and feedback! To contact us:
Call: 902-454-6860 (studio) or 782-234-5489 (mobile)
Email: artbikers@gmail.com
Mail:
Art Bikers
c/o Wonder'neath Art Society
2891 Isleville Street
Halifax, NS
B3K 3X6
Are you interested in making a donation to support Art Bikers?
Please follow this link:
https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/wonderneath-art-society/
Thank you for your support!
Welcome to the Summer 2019 Art Bikers Blog!
Season 13 Art Bikers!
Art Bikers is a mobile community arts program founded by 4Cs Foundation and run in partnership (since 2017) with Wonder’neath Art Society.
Begun in 2007, Art Bikers has been building community through all ages art programming throughout Halifax Regional Municipality in parks and public green spaces.
Art Bikers’ studio is located at 2891 Isleville Street, in Halifax’s north end.
Contact us:
By phone: 902-454-6860
By mobile: 782-234-5489
By email: artbikers@gmail.com
Follow us on social media
Instagram @artbikers
Facebook facebook.com/artbikers
Twitter @artbikersevents
Art Bikers first visit of 2018 to Ardmore Park!
Saturday, June 30th from 12:00 - 4:00 Art Bikers will visit Ardmore Park to meet local families and begin repairing the Silly Faces fence! We'll bring paint, brushes, and all the materials needed to freshen up the art along the fence that has been made over the last few summers. Meet the full Art Bikers Team, share your art ideas for the park and help make the fence fresh and bright!
Isleville Post!
Preparations are underway for Art Biker's contribution to the North End Community Circle's annual BBQ - a big, all-ages gathering of folks from the north end of Halifax. This year, we are bringing to the Isleville Park a collection of trailers filled with supplies for creating a pop-up post card shop!
Look for the Isleville Post sign, post card writing booth, and letter carriers with their mail satchels throughout Isleville Park in Halifax from 4-6pm on June 20th. The whole event is free, there will hot food on the BBQ, fresh watermelon and lots of community members there to celebrate! Send a friend or neighbour a postcard during the event!
This project is inspired by City Mail, a unique art project by Alison Creba and friends, where letters were shared with recipients throughout Halifax and beyond through DIY delivery systems. Fun fact: Alison Creba was also an Art Biker!
Brainstorming Session at The Green in Fairview!
The Art Bikers will be at The Green - a special gathering space for many children and community folks in Fairview at the end of Randall Ave - on Saturday, June 16th from 11:30-2:30 for this season's very first brainstorming session!
Art Biker Devon is holding up a giant scroll that we will use to keep track of all the great ideas! Write, draw, doodle and share your art ideas with us so we can plan our dates and projects together!
Cyclozoatrope Pop Up on the Halifax Commons!
Cyclozoatrope making in the Halifax Commons (by the Oval) as part of Bike Week! Join Art Bikers and play with colour and animated possibilities on your bike and in the Spiral Garden!
Pop up from 4-7pm, then popcorn and a movie as part of Halifax Bike Week! We would love to see you there!
Sculpture Factory at Switch Dartmouth!
More than 200+ participants were eager to do their shift at Shift Factory – a collaborative station-based sculpture project – alongside the Art Bikers on a windy Sunday in celebration of Switch Dartmouth. Families and children worked at crafting brightly coloured felt balls connected with long tubes throughout the busy afternoon to create an evolving sculpture!
The first task was to collect a lanyard, draw your picture and add your name to an ID tag, and get signed in for a shift. A highlight was a child who rushed up to Art Biker Devon and exclaimed,
“This is my first shift! I’ve never had a job before!”
Next came the task of wet felting in the wind! The process of wet felting is exciting because it involves soaking colourful dyed wool with soapy water, massaging it for about 5 minutes so individual fibres stick together, and then tahhh-dahhhh: a felted ball!
Many children tried wet felting for the very first time!
Next was the rinse bucket and the exciting salad-spinner drying station to remove excess water. A few towels helped dry off the balls before they were delivered to the crew making the growing sculpture out of tubes and felted balls.
Parents and children worked together to make more than 100 balls!
The added challenge of building out in the elements meant that teamwork – and lots of emergency hockey tape – was needed, but over the course of the day the sculpture grew and changed form thanks to many children and families!
Our first event is: Switch Dartmouth!
Switch Dartmouth!
Join Art Bikers for their first outdoor event of the season: Switch Dartmouth!
We are so excited to load up the trailers full of art materials and bike across the bridge to Dartmouth! We have been designing and building for the past day or so and we are ready to invite you to: Switch Factory - a sculpture building assembly line involving tubes, tennis balls, elastics and wool! We are excited to build a wild and weird sculpture with you so please join our absurdist assembly line!
This is the 5th year for Switch Dartmouth and Art Bikers are 1 of 100 booths to visit, so it will be a fantastic day!
Time: Noon to 4pm
Date: Sunday, June 3rd
Location: On Portland Street, on the block between King and Wentworth
Look for our Help Wanted signs and Art Bikers t-shirts!
Free Time and You!
On June 1st, Art Bikers connected with adults and seniors through an opportunity with The Community Health Team (CHT). CHT focuses on the promotion of health and wellness and help individuals and families to build knowledge, confidence, and skills to make healthy lifestyle choices. This session called “Free Time and You: Try Something New” was designed to introduce community members to Wonder’neath as a resource for art making explorations and social interaction. Art Bikers designed and led a session exploring basic book binding and string art design, which also was the focus of our weekend Open Studio drop-in program.
Training also included learning about non-verbal communication from Liliona Quarmyne, a dancer, performer, and Youth Programs Facilitator at YWCA. Liliona led us through theatre games and facilitated discussions about body language, masked emotions, and how we communicate with one another. Here’s a photo of our most experienced Art Biker, Eric, warming up over the campfire after a skit!
Additionally, Art Bikers have been busy finalizing their set up out in the field. Look for these designs and be sure to come and say hi!
More Highlights of 2018 Training!
Cylinder Forest!
Cylinder Forest was a pop up event for babies, toddlers and families at the Khyber Centre of the Arts as part of the experimental music and art festival Obey Convention.
Wonder’neath was invited to participate in a fun annual event called O’Baby and Art Bikers coordinators Melissa and Heather responded with an idea called Cylinder Forest: a play space using only tubes and cylinders. Together with the Art Bikers, they spent time transforming the Khyber space on Barrington Street for more than 80 participants of all ages. There were whisper tubes, test tube babies about to hatch, shadow puppets and even some cylinder creatures that loved adventure but were very shy. The cylinder creatures needed a friend to help them discover the play spaces of Cylinder Forest!
Did you know that as part of their training Art Bikers learn about child development and what to anticipate when working with children of different ages? After spending several hours with young children and their families in the Cylinder Forest, Art Bikers made a list of questions and observations to discuss during the workshop!
Schedule to mid-July 2017
The season is getting started. Here is some information with more details to follow:
June 29: Hope Blooms Garden Opening! 4-6pm
July 4 - 8: Ardmore ParkJuly 11 - 15: "The Green" off Randall Crt in Fairview
Looking forward to reconnecting with everyone. Come join us and get creative!
Art Bikers June 2017
We are excited to introduce the Art Bikers for 2017. Two familiar faces, Merle Harley and Eric Diolola on either end. In the middle, we welcome Devon Pennick-Reilly and Jessica MacDonald. This is a great team who are very enthusiastic and excited to be making art with you this summer.
For much of June the team is in training, sharing information about the community and community arts, and improving our skills while continuing our learning in arts-based community development, anti-oppression, working with children and community to refine our program for you.
Merle, Devon, Jessica and Eric
In the studio at Wonder'neath Art Society- our home for the summer!
The Art Bikers participated in SWITCH Dartmouth last weekend. (Photos to come.) and this Saturday will be on the Halifax Commons from 5:30 - 7:30 providing some creative fun before the movie starts as part of Bike Week 2017. (More information on that here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1267001686745904/?acontext=%7B%22ref%22%3A%2222%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22null%22%7D&pnref=story )
Then on June 21st, we will be at the annual North End BBQ at Isleville Park - always one of our favourite events. Hope to see you there!
Keep visiting our blog or our Facebook page to stayed up to date on our upcoming schedule and to stay in touch. See you soon!
Art Bikers are awesome and so are YOU!
Musical Fence at Isleville Park
Please join the Art Bikers for a noisey afternoon rebuilding the musical fence at Isleville Park, this Saturday from 12-4pm!
If you have any components/items that would an interesting addition to this interactive sound space, they sure would be welcome! See you then!
International Yarn Bombing Day
Happy International Yarn Bombing Day!
The Art Bikers once again ventured out into our community to add some Yarn Art to unexpected places! This year we created 3 big installations along the bike connector path on Windsor Street near Quinpool Road. We loved that people stopped to talk, or looked around and smiled as they passed through the space. We hope you enjoy discovering this space!
100 in 1 day
100 in 1 Day was a success! Our first project of the year, we built a mini community gallery in front of our Clifton street studio. The sun was shining and we met many interesting people from the community. Great start, thank you for being so welcoming and supportive.
Art Bikers are back for the summer!!!
We are back and getting out into the community, we are looking forward to seeing all you old friends and to make some new ones too. We will be posting some updates soon about our plans for the summer but we would also love to hear from you and your community about any dreams you have that could involve the Art Bikers. See you soon.