July

Annual Africville Picnic

Bright, beautiful flags and banners created this past July 2019 with families at the annual Africville Picnic! It’s such an honour to be invited to facilitate an art project at this reunion.

Bright, beautiful flags and banners created this past July 2019 with families at the annual Africville Picnic! It’s such an honour to be invited to facilitate an art project at this reunion.

Getting all set up to explore stamping, folding and dyeing!

Getting all set up to explore stamping, folding and dyeing!

A quick rinse will make the colours pop and the designs will be in full contrast!

A quick rinse will make the colours pop and the designs will be in full contrast!

Once the fabric comes out of the rinse water, it’s ready to dry and be attached by grommet to a bamboo poll!

Once the fabric comes out of the rinse water, it’s ready to dry and be attached by grommet to a bamboo poll!

In full flag-waving celebration!

In full flag-waving celebration!

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Thank you to the community of Africville! Over 100 flags were made and filled the park in just a few hours!

Thank you to the community of Africville! Over 100 flags were made and filled the park in just a few hours!

Isleville Park Community BBQ & Halifax Bikeweek Updates

Pop-up events are a great way for Art Bikers to test ideas and connect with various communities and groups across the Halifax region. This year, we were invited to join the Halifax Cycling Coalition at the Commons for Bike Week Halifax.

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Joined by children and families enjoying a sunny evening at the Oval, we created bike and scooter wheel designs that flashed and swirled as wheels turned. This was a delight for younger children especially!

New signage welcoming folks in multiple languages was a great source of conversation as folks recognized their language or characters from their alphabet!

The North End Community Circle’s Annual Isleville Park BBQ is always a well-attended community event! This year, Art Bikers set up a dynamic and interactive pop-up postcard exchange inspired by an art project called City Mail*.

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With a temporary post office, mailbox, and mail carrier bags, there were jobs for everyone to do!

This is our very first letter carrier about to deliver the first Isleville Postcard! Who's the lucky recipient?! Councillor Lindell Smith!

Writing and mailing postcards within the park, tracking down recipients, gathering and sorting kept everyone very busy and engaged.

We had volunteers from the community delivering silkscreened “Isleville Post” postcards all through the event! Councillor Lindell Smith was among the lucky recipients!

A highlight was sharing postcards with maintenance crew members and firefighters!


An extra special thanks to all of the children, teens, and community leaders who helped animate this project!* Artist Alison Creba and friends are inspiration for Isleville Post. Creba’s Citymail was a project that happened in Halifax and by invitation at festivals and events in Atlantic Canada. Alison Creba was also an Art Biker for three seasons, from 2007 - 2009!

Art Bikers Season 12 Extra Training Highlights!

So as we've highlighted on the blog earlier, the beginning of the Art Bikers season is all about training! Because the Art Bikers program is designed with lots of learning and exploration in mind, a range of workshops and skill shares take place over the first several weeks in support of the facilitation the artists will do in neighbourhoods all around the Halifax area. Here's a window into those first few weeks:


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This year, Art Bikers participated in a Child Development Workshop led by Sheila Davis who works with young children at Bryony House. Sheila helped us understand different stages of child development, and responded to some of our questions about past work with children and families.

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Art Bikers have the opportunity to work with new Canadians and families from a range of places. We encounter many languages in our fieldwork and want to welcome everyone, so we participated in a Non-Verbal Communication Workshop with dancer and actor Liliona Quarmyne. She helped us develop awareness about our body language and gestures. Through role playing and theatre games, we learned so much about ranges of emotions, inclusion, and expression.

Art Bikers work from a community development perspective and an anti-oppression framework.
This season’s Anti-Oppression Training was with Carmella Farahbakhsh from South House.
Art Bikers asked Carmella how to develop and think more about anti-oppressive language and
how to help connect and share the stories of our participants.

Other highlights included joining ISANS for their Building Intercultural Competence Workshop, having
our Basic First Aid Training updated, and a whole host of skill shares that let us share our facilitation
skills; a favourite project, art medium or idea; and a brainstorming session to dream big and imagine
these new skills in our work with communities.

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After a Basic Screenprinting Workshop, Art Bikers joined Wonder’neath in their annual tradition of
screenprinting tshirts with grade one students at Saint Joseph’s A. MacKay Elementary School.
We taught students how to make paper stencil designs using geometric shapes to create a unique tshirt.

Former Art Biker Merle Harley, and current staff Eric Diolola, led us in a Community Mapping Workshop
that embraced teachings from both Jumblies Theatre in Toronto and their respective art/music practices.
This allowed us to learn more about each other and explore our vulnerabilities.

Our beginning of season pop-ups included Switch! Dartmouth, Halifax Bike Week, O’Baby at the Khyber
as part of the Obey Convention, and the Annual Isleville BBQ.

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Other highlights included:

  • a program overview by co-founder Terri Whetstone;

  • book binding by Imogene;

  • mindfulness by Devon;

  • sound exploration by Eric;

  • mapping our skills, talents, gifts by Terri;

  • and stop motion animation by Jessica!

Our beginning of season pop-ups included Switch! Dartmouth, Halifax Bike Week, O’Baby at the Khyber
as part of the Obey Convention, and the Annual Isleville BBQ.

We also developed a Working Together Agreement that highlights the emotional, physical, and spiritual
needs of the team. We do this to better understand each other and to anticipate the needs of people we
will encounter throughout our work during the summer.

Now that our season is underway, we will keep you posted about our upcoming locations and projects!

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Schedule for the first weeks of July 2018!

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We are so excited to begin our work outdoors in communities around the Halifax area! Here is our schedule for the first few weeks of July! The remaining July/August dates will be posted once they have been confirmed. Please reach out to us on our blog or social media accounts if you have ideas, comments, or questions and check for any updates if the weather isn't cooperative!

Monday, July 31, 2017 Bayers Westwood August 1st - 4th

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This week Art Bikers are looking forward to returning to the community of Bayers Westwood!

Here is the schedule:

Tuesday, August 1st 12-4pm - On site: brainstorming! coming up with ideas together for an art project!
Wednesday, August 2nd - Prep day for us in the studio.
Thursday, August 3rd 12-4pm - On site: working with you!
Friday, August 4th 12-4pm - On site: working with you and celebrating our time together.

Commons: Pop Up Day!

Art Bikers had a great day at Point Pleasant Park! Thanks to everyone who joined them. Thursday, July 27 from 12-4pm they will be at the Commons in Halifax, near the playground. Join them for giant bubbles and secret messages in bottles, also POTIONS and storytelling!!!

Art Bikers with The Youth Project

Art Bikers will be filling their trailers with colourful supplies for a day with participants of The Youth Project.
Together on Friday, July 21/17 from 12-4, we will be helping create Halifax Pride Parade float art. To see the big reveal, check out the Pride Parade on Saturday, July 22!

Pop Up Day at Ardmore Park

POP UP DAY! Join us Wednesday, July 19 from 12-4pm at Ardmore Park! Awesome wooden shapes and colourful paint will be among the supplies on hand to add to and repair the Silly Faces Fence. All ages, free art making in the community: hooray!

Cranky Theatre Performance at The Green

What a fabulous finale to a week of Cranky Theatre at the Green! Thanks for a great week of artmaking and performance!

July 11-17

Art Biker schedule for the week of July 11-16:

July 11,13-15 at 'the Green' in Fairview, 12-4 pm:

'Cranky" theatre animation with hand drawn and collaged story pictures and musical accompaniment.


July 16, 12-3 pm at the Commons Triangle, west of the Pavillion:

We'll be participating in the Schizophrenia Society of NS's Mindful Art Project's MadHatterTea Party and Mad Pride ... making hats! Come join us!

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Last week at Ardmore Park

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What a fantastic week of costume making and performance at Ardmore Park last week. Fun fur was flying, songs were sung, and there was a lot of personality on display! Thanks everyone!

Africville Reunion

We had such a magical day at the Africville Reunion on Saturday. Painting rocks to be used to mark flower beds in locations of homes from the community. Here are a couple pictures we took but to see more check out Africville Museums photos.

Pride float at the Youth Project

On Friday we went to The Youth Project to help them make their float for the Pride Parade. "Because Youth Matter", we had a great day. Happy Pride!