Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Urban Arts meets Full Cycle!




What an amazing couple of days! Yesterday, Full Cycle bike shop brought over all sorts of bikes for the Kid Power kids to try out.







Most of the kids were old pros at riding bikes, but for a couple, learning to ride was something new and challenging. But everyone was enthusiastic and encouraging, so the kids just learning to ride made a TON of progress!







But the best part: when the kids found a bike that fit their size and color choice, they got to KEEP IT! Well, almost. First, we got to use them for some fantastic art making. We biked back to Full Cycle today, and everything was set up and ready for us. We taped sheets of paper inside special metal frames that we set on the floor.




We used a flour sifter to sprinkle the entire paper with colored chalk - we had red, blue, blaze orange and purple! Then we were ready to make some art.













We mounted our bikes and rode across the chalk, leaving a very interesting and specific type of track... an artistic track, you could say. So artistic, in fact, we could even call it: TREAD ART! Art made from the treads of bike tires.



Both the Kid Power kids and the Full Cycle staff seemed to have a terrific time, and everyone was happy to be making art and riding bikes.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Borders fundraiser voucher

Here it is, the Borders fundraiser voucher! Print it off and bring it into the Borders bookstores in Richfield and Roseville anytime between Saturday, August 15, and Wednesday, August 19 to have 15% of your purchase go towards Urban Arts! Print off several and give them to your friends!


Kid Power Part 2 - Week 1

Urban Arts summer camps have come to a close, which means it's time for the second part of Kid Power to begin! Kid Power participants must be invited into the program to ensure there are are enough mentors for the students - about 2 or 3 kids per mentor is what we strive for. For the next two weeks, we will be taking field trips, going swimming, cooking in the kitchen, and of course, working on our FullCycle bike projects!

Today we will be bussing over to MCTC to participate in the SPEAK Project. The SPEAK Project was developed by the Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center to help urban youth support their own neighborhoods through the creation of public metal art pieces. MCTC will be giving our KidPower kids instruction on basic metal fabrication techniques so they can create their own piece of metal art.

http://foundation.minneapolis.edu/newsandevents