Bicycle Month & the art of Human powered locomotion

From the DID YA KNOW FILES?  That May is Bicycle month!

Well it is, Think about the bike events that have already happened
We've got the Maine Bike Trek
The USM Bike Swap/Sale
And on going we have the current interactive Gallery exhibit that exalts the presence and the joy of human powered locomotion on the bicycle.

The Exhibit titled : 
 Seek Alt. Routes: Recording Bicycle-Powered Experiences!,
    Leave it to the folks at Space Gallery to ask you the peoples of the greater Portcity community, to get excited and get on your bike!  As a community-driven experiment in field recording, throughout the month of May the main gallery will be used as a headquarters for abstract mapping of bicycle-powered experiences. Bike enthusiasts and folks like you and me are invited to come map your routes (with push pins & string) , record your thoughts(hand write them on wall of fame or in bike journals) , pin found specimens to the wall and share with us the joy and essence of riding the world’s best transportation device.

    
Here is how you can contribute:

1. Go for a ride and come back with “artifacts” or road kill, objects that you find while riding. Pin them to our “Ride Artifact” wall and record the time and date you found the object.
2. Go for a ride and take a photo of where you are or of your bike. E-mail (jenny@space538.org) and we will print it out in black and white and pin it to our photo bulletin board.
3. Go for a ride and stop by SPACE to map your route using either our map of downtown Portland, or our map of greater Portland. We will provide push-pins and string for you to use to show us where you rode.
4. Place a Location sticker on the huge wall map of  Fame , I mean Maine , to tell other bike lovers about specific locations you can access on your bike. Is there a great place to watch the sunset or a perfect location to pick dandelions? Take a sticker and place it on the location. Use the bike journal to number the sticker and tell us about the location.
5. Go for a ride and take some video. Send space your video files (mp4 preferred) and we will project them on the walls of the gallery.
6. Stop into space to see the bulletin board for other prompts and ideas.

  WHY Go participate in the interactive exhibit 

SEEK ALTERNATIVE ROUTES? 

Bike riding is a healthy form of exercise 
and an Earth friendly form of transportation,  
 but participate because your good mind needs good art! 

The Space Gallery at the heart of the Portland Arts district  538 Congress! 

This interactive show runs through June 1st

Wait there's more  also happening at SPACE GALLERY THIS MONTH! :

BIKEBAG WORKSHOP:
May 12th from 11AM-2PM we host Betsy Sheintaub of Bobbin Studio and Bobolink, who will teach a bike tool bag workshop. We will provide all the tools you need to design, cut, stitch and take away a custom bag that can hang on your bike and use for whatever you like. Spots for this workshop are limited so reserve your ticket early here!

MAINE BIKE HISTORY TALK
 12th, from 3:00-5:00PM we are excited to hear Sam Shupe, a Ph.D. student in the American Studies program at Boston University, talk about Maine’s bicycle history. Sam is a Portland native and daily cyclist who, for his undergraduate thesis at USM, studied turn of the century architect John Calvin Stevens and his love of bicycles. He will present visual ephemera, talk about bicycle club history and give other insights into cycling’s origins in Maine.

MOBILE BIKE PRINTING PRESS
Pilar Nadal, an M.F.A. candidate at Maine College of Art, is working on a project called The Tired Press, which will debut in early May. The Tired Press is a bicycle that is outfitted with a small relief press, pannier cabinets for supplies, a gallery for exhibition of prints made on the press, as well as a volunteer post office service. This mobile printmaking studio, along with Pilar, will be situated at the Deering Oaks Farmer’s Market on Saturday, May 19th from 9AM-12PM and will be open for visitors to come and make a postcard for free! We hope you will visit Pilar, make some postcards and bring one back to SPACE to add to our exhibition.

CRAZY ASS INNER P-CITY BIKE RACE
Keep your eyes peeled for the Alley Cat Race on May 26th from 2:00-4:00PM, which invites *skilled* riders to race through the streets in a messy, fast paced scavenger hunt across town. Complete with check points, prizes and probably some whipped cream, this race is not for the faint of heart, but will provide a welcome sight for sore eyes. If you’re not up for the race, but still want to get in on the action, come to the after party at 8:00PM, where we will be giving out awards, dancing and debuting a bike themed beer from the newest local brewery, Bunker Brewing Co.

                        

 The Gallery Talk is made possible by the generosity of the 
WMPG Radio listening community.  This blog is the text version of the 
art rant heard every Thursday at 7am, 5 & 9:30pm on
WMPG college and community radio broadcasting
   from the University of Southern Maine

90.9 , 104.1 and streaming on the web at http://www.wmpg.org/  

Note: WMPG 90.9 fm has increased it's FM signal strength from 1100 kilowatts to  4500 watts! Thank you for making that possible. This means that you are now able to hear MPG on your car radio from Brunswick Maine to Dover, New Hampshire.  The station management, the University of Southern Maine & DJ's are totally pumped and excited about the ability to bring you fresh diverse live radio with a clean crisp sound!