Art and bikes try to get along
Ever since Italian neo-realist director Vittorio De Sica decided that art could only exist if it made bicycles disappear, bikes and art have had a mutually hostile relationship. The few times they've met since then have been disasters: recall Sears's in-house bicycle brand "Free Spirit" (named, evidently, for the impulse wordy philosopher George Hegel believes art embodies), or Breaking Away, the state of Indiana's greatest "artwork," or the countless pictures of unrideable fixies and project bikes posted by their "curators" on Velospace and Fixed Gear Gallery. These last, of course, have at least the aesthetic virtue of seeming to have been made simply for their own sake, rather than for an end as mundane as getting from place to place comfortably (you should tape your drops!) The hostility of art to bikes and bikes to art is even more puzzling when we consider that both art and bikes aim to enlarge human beings' possibilities, be they spiritual or physical. Someday, we might imagine, art and bikes will be reconciled.
And that someday may be this Saturday, September 26, when 13 galleries around Champaign-Urbana play host to the inaugural Champaign Cycle's Art Gallery Bicycle Tour. Beginning at 10 a.m., cyclists will depart from the Anita Purvis Nature Center in Urbana's Crystal Lake Park to undertake a self-paced and self-directed tour of galleries, local shops, and other art spaces around C-U. Participating spaces include Amara Yoga and Arts, Cinema Gallery, Heartland Gallery, Kalarte Gallery, and Fleurish in Urbana and GlassFX, Springer Cultural Center, Wind Water, & Light, and Beads & Boneyard Pottery in Champaign — and many others. On the tour, cyclists will also be offered discounts at a number of local restaurants like The Great Impasta, Pekara, Esquire, Aroma and more.
Some galleries have special events planned for the tour. Amara's co-owners Kathryn Fitzgerald and Theresa Brandabur have planned a community art project called the Puzzle Painting Project (funded by an Urbana Arts Grant and the Urbana Business Association). In an email interview, Fitzgerald explained that Amara is "hoping some of the bikers will hop off their bikes, look at the art in the gallery, and then come outside and help paint deconstructed and later reconstructed famous paintings." Avid cyclists themselves, Amara's co-owners were eager to participate in the tour: "We believe that both yoga and art are meditative, calming, de-stressing and fun for the body and spirit, just like biking!"
The entry fee for the Art Gallery Bicycle Tour is $10, all of which will be donated to local arts not-for-profit 40 North | 88 West. Registering for the ride will also enter you into a drawing for prizes donated by Champaign Cycle and some of the participating gallery spaces — and you'll receive another entry in the drawing for each gallery you visit. The ultimate prize, of course, might just be your bearing witness to the world-historical reconciliation of art and bikes.
For more information, call 217-352-7600 or check out http://www.40north.org or http://champaigncycle.com
(And if you ride, also be sure to check out my favorite C-U "art" "space": the Colonel Sanders skull & crossbones tag on the railroad bridge over Logan Street, near Illinois Terminal!)
2 comments
Tony C.
Thanks for the informative article. Will have to check out that tag too. Instead of staring at corn and soy on my weekend ride, I’ll get me some culture!
El Jefe
Here’s the <a href=“http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=115241948684508451634.0004741edf4dbfd6d2eb8&ll=40.117695,-88.234591&spn=0.02783,0.052314&z=15”>google map I made </a.>for the ride showing participating restaurants and galleries.
You’ll notice it’s the same map you receive when you register the day of the event, cause I did that too.
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Best Neighborhood Bar (& Grill) : Urbana - My ‘hood- the ‘Boom! http://www.boomerangbarandgrill.com Go on a Wing Wednesday or Fish Friday, or see a band play some night. Local blue-collar Urbana terroir galore. My only beer snobbish gripe is lack of a pale hopped ale, but you…
The one thing that’s bothered me for a while about the Friar is that, for most commonly purchased adult beverages, you can actually walk down the strip mall to Schnucks and get them cheaper. It makes no sense, but there it is. I suspect it’s because Schnucks…
Maybe I complained enough in person. One time I even explained to the (wholly uninterested) clerk how to navigate the Illinois Statutes web page, and Savoy’s Municipal Code database I wouldn’t know because I only go there when I want to pay 30% more for anything, which is never.
@Rob: You seem to have the weirdest experiences. I’m in Friar Tuck every other week (don’t tell my mom that I’m a lush). They never fail to ask for my birth date but never my age, they never card afterwards, and they often allow me to use…
This column affords me a long-awaited opportunity. I’ve wanted to write my own column called Fuck You Friar Tuck Liquors. but I always thought it’d be too pithy. Here, I can say Fuck You Friar Tuck Liquors and not feel bothered to stretch it out to 750…
Ha! Exactly. You, sir, are welcome at the bar in My House.
Why wait ‘til 3 pm?
I’m excited to go tonight- should be very fun!
Next, I want to know about growing up on Ennis Lane. Or the neighboring Surbana Estates. http://pathfindergroupil.com/index.php/surbanaestates
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Snell and the little Hitlers of the neighborhood association need to chill out. Legitimate businesses should have the freedom to exist without having to endure the slings and arrows of ignorant and misguided opposition.
represent, Matt.
Yeah, I’d agree that Transporter Room 3 is the worst house venue I’ve ever seen.
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I think it’s neat that SP has turned rightward, now espousing a Tea Party-style frustration with government regulations & taxes.
This makes me so sad. (Happy to live in Urbana, though!) Crave Truck has been a GREAT addition to the food choices in C-U, and it’d be a travesty to chase them away. This town should be supporting small businesses. I’m glad to hear that they’ll still…
*slow. clap.* Still offering no threat of intelligence…. I know I said I thought you should just write this whole column yourself next year, Isaac, but now that you’ve gone and taken a “part deux” run at it, I’d like to modify my request: Best Music 2013,…
Actually, it’s kind of nice, the quiet. John Heoffleur’s engaging commentary/dialogue is sorely missed, however. In lieu of someone intelligent saying something, I’ve compiled a list of Honourable Mentions: BEST ROCK BAND: Take Care ::these gentlemen have four completely different sets at their disposal right now (which…
What? Echo! (Echo!) Where’s the dischord and dissent?
This weekend will mark the first appearance of Kayla Brown’s Fire Doll Candle booth at the Market. Check it: http://www.facebook.com/firedollcandles
And without bloodshed. Sounds like the Savoy trustees aren’t as narrow-minded as some of their whiny pants constituents. Do you think quack Snell is already planning an asinine counterattack or is he still laying low after those “threats” against his person?
hey, if hair ain’t gon’ be over your head, my jokes may as well be.
Okay, almost 24 hours later and I finally got Issac’s Summer joke. I’m an idiot.
Excellent. I am glad sometimes American dreams are encouraged, rather than stifled.
Swap the dog for a fire pit and it sounds like you’re writing about my back yard. Very nice.
funny, as your summer begins, another Summer ends.
@Dan - Wow. Unfortunately, I have to refrain from further comment due to a previous employment relationship. But with that brief context you might be able to imagine possible comments or responses I could have.
Oh, by the way, the “Champaign County YMCA” no longer exists. The official name is now the “Stephens Family YMCA” (the website has not been updated, but check out the latest program guide). And no, it’s not just the name of the building. It’s the name of the organization.
Very inspired Photochops as well….
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@Jason: You’re right about that. I get groceries at Schnucks (they carry what I buy, which I can’t say of any other single grocery store in town), and if they have a beer I’m in the market for it’s usually a quarter or two cheaper per 6-…