ArtCycle Milwaukee
Mentor 1
Michael Bernard
Location
Fireside Lounge
Start Date
24-4-2015 1:00 PM
Description
Our current research delves into discovering the most efficient and accessible way to expose the community to the art making process. Metalworking is commonly done inside a studio. We have specialized equipment that does not do well with traveling, such as torches, anvils, and many other less publically recognizable tools. The processes with which we work are unknown to the community at large. This amount of studio exclusivity is the same for many of the art media. As artists who recognize the importance of community involvement in our ability to achieve success, we decided to get the art making process out of the studio and give fellow artists and non-artist alike a glimpse of what it is that we do. In order to achieve this goal, we had to analyze Milwaukee, considering all aspects of the city and the way people congregate and communicate. Our city has dozens of summer events, festivals, and block parties. People arrive at these events in cars, by walking, and by bicycle. These outdoor, casual, fun events are havens for artists, who are able to display and sell their wares. Booths are paid for, set up, and taken down at the end of the day, being loaded into cars and trucks, hauled back into storage until the next event. While being able to demonstrate at a booth would achieve the community education we seek, it would not give us the most efficient way to reach the public. Having a mobile booth is of the utmost importance to our mission. Bicycles do not require fuel, are easily maneuverable, and have more access to hidden gems across the city than cars and other motorized vehicles. We designed the ArtCycle to serve as this mobile educational art tool. ArtCycle infuses the spirit of art and the way it can activate people in a community with the already strong Milwaukee bicycle culture. We are exposing and educating the Milwaukee community to creating goods by hand while drawing attention to the heightened mobility experienced while on a bicycle. By putting a creative workspace onto a bicycle, we seek to engage the public and get art making out of the exclusivity of the studio and back into people’s daily lives where it belongs.
ArtCycle Milwaukee
Fireside Lounge
Our current research delves into discovering the most efficient and accessible way to expose the community to the art making process. Metalworking is commonly done inside a studio. We have specialized equipment that does not do well with traveling, such as torches, anvils, and many other less publically recognizable tools. The processes with which we work are unknown to the community at large. This amount of studio exclusivity is the same for many of the art media. As artists who recognize the importance of community involvement in our ability to achieve success, we decided to get the art making process out of the studio and give fellow artists and non-artist alike a glimpse of what it is that we do. In order to achieve this goal, we had to analyze Milwaukee, considering all aspects of the city and the way people congregate and communicate. Our city has dozens of summer events, festivals, and block parties. People arrive at these events in cars, by walking, and by bicycle. These outdoor, casual, fun events are havens for artists, who are able to display and sell their wares. Booths are paid for, set up, and taken down at the end of the day, being loaded into cars and trucks, hauled back into storage until the next event. While being able to demonstrate at a booth would achieve the community education we seek, it would not give us the most efficient way to reach the public. Having a mobile booth is of the utmost importance to our mission. Bicycles do not require fuel, are easily maneuverable, and have more access to hidden gems across the city than cars and other motorized vehicles. We designed the ArtCycle to serve as this mobile educational art tool. ArtCycle infuses the spirit of art and the way it can activate people in a community with the already strong Milwaukee bicycle culture. We are exposing and educating the Milwaukee community to creating goods by hand while drawing attention to the heightened mobility experienced while on a bicycle. By putting a creative workspace onto a bicycle, we seek to engage the public and get art making out of the exclusivity of the studio and back into people’s daily lives where it belongs.
