To motivate people to get out of their cars and to explore the area surrounding the
Central Corridor by bike or on foot, the St. Anthony Park neighborhood in St. Paul is getting nearly a dozen "wayfinding bikes."
As a part of the project, the artfully decorated bikes/public art pieces will be strategically placed here and there, with signage that conveys travel times and distances to certain local destinations, according to council materials.
The
St. Anthony Park Community Council (SAPCC) set the project in motion, which local artist and environmental designer Carrie Christensen took on. Her focus is on sparking “awareness of place and to create more ecologically, socially, and economically functional spaces,” according to council materials.
Irrigate Arts helped make it possible with $1,000 in funding for the collaborative project.
SAPCC, which held a bike painting party in mid-July, is hosting another one today from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Hampden Park.
Amy Sparks, who leads the council, says that besides promoting more physical activity, the place-making project helps to mark the neighborhood’s in-progress
Creative Enterprise Zone. “This also meets some of our goals in terms of increasing foot traffic and bringing vibrancy to the zone,” which is about cultivating creativity in the area, she says.
She's impressed with how Christensen took the concept and made it her own. Each of the bikes, which were donated, is getting a makeover.
One bike looks like it could be from the 1930s or 40s, with fin-like lines that resemble an old Cadillac car, she says.
Bikes will be adorned according to various themes, creating a mermaid, garden, rainbow and yarn bombing, among others.
Also, the bikes will be chained to a signpost, so they’ll be fixed in place. Each of the bikes will be on view through Nov. 1, to avoid snowplows, she says.
Source: Amy Sparks, St. Anthony Park Community Council
Writer: Anna Pratt