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!
