New artist-designed bike racks will be unveiled at the Pedal to the Medal: PHX Bike Rack Project and Art Show Saturday, March 17. The event, hosted by Downtown Phoenix Inc. and part of Art Detour 30
, will give the public its first opportunity to see prototypes of the new bike racks designed by Jennyfer Stratman and Allen Wang.
Jennyfer Stratman is a Phoenix native, who has worked with metal sculpting and ceramics. Allen Wang is a graduate student at Arizona State University, currently studying industrial design.
In December, 28 local artists submitted their portfolios to the Pedal to the Metal: PHX Bike Rack Project, an urban arts initiative spearheaded by Downtown Phoenix Inc., Artlink
, the City of Phoenix’s Street Transportation Department and Office of Arts and Culture.
This pilot bike rack program will net 50 new bike racks, which will distributed in downtown Phoenix and throughout the city.
The Mar 17 event will also showcase bike culture-inspired art pieces curated by Megaphone PHX. The art will be on display through the end of March and are available for purchase.
“It’s been pretty exciting. It’s completely unique, in terms of my normal art practice,” said Jennyfer Stratman. “It’s something that obviously has a function as well as being an aesthetic, interesting thing to look at.”
“There’s always a worry that it might not turn out the way you intended it,” said Allan Wang about the designing a bike rack. “I’m pretty confident about it though. I’m excited to get it out there and have people start using it.”
If you go:
Event: Pedal to the Metal: Bike Rack Project and Art Show
When: Saturday, March 17, from 5 to 7 p.m.
Where: Downtown Phoenix Inc., 1 E. Washington St., Ste. 230
Images courtesy of Downtown Phoenix Inc.
I’d love to see more Pedal Assist bikes used in bike sharing systems around the world…. bike shares in some cities are finally getting more advanced with all pedal-assist, or options between types of bikes at different pricing tiers. They’re great because they’re not considered ‘motorized’ since you still have to pedal to activate the power assist… a little like the days when bikes with gears came out – people probably called that cheating too lol…