ArtBike

ArtBike

WHEN: Ongoing

WHERE: Modern Art and the streets of our fair Lancaster

WHAT: An arty, fun, community-friendly way to get folks to remember how easy it is to bike.

PROCESS: In the spring 2013, we began salvaging old used bikes—gathered from the annuls of Craig’s list, dug up from friends’ basements, and donated from kind neighbors. We assessed each, developed a plan and transformed them from unwanted pieces of metal into a fleet of mobile artwork, each with a with a life and story of its own. Our first fleet included The Lionel Ritchie, Yarn It!, Gold Yeller, The Nugget, Cupcake, The Mischa Barton, Metal Machine, Ghost Bike & The Pretty Lady. During Lancaster’s ArtWalk weekends, we park all of the ArtBikes out in front of Modern Art and invited people to take one for a spin – free of charge. Read more about the origins of the project here.

HOW DID IT GO?: We’ve received an overwhelming amount of enthusiasm from the community about our project. The eye-catching nature of the bikes have lured people into our space and lured them onto one of our bikes for a ride even when they hadn’t biked in years. We’ve had all sorts of participants: biking enthusiasts, new bikers, people who haven’t biked since they were 12, random passerbys and folks who were just excited to be able to borrow something for free. Everybody returns on the bikes happier than when they left.

Special THANKS to…

Invoking the Pause, for funding the project;
Chris, Brad, Tim and Jessica for all the help fixing up the bikes; and
all the wonderful folks who donated their old bikes (with special props to Nicole.)

Here are some of the beloved members of our Artbike fleet:

THE LIONEL