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BICYCLE INTER-COMMUNITY ART & SALVAGE by Kylie Walzak
BICAS Collective Member
B
ICAS is Tucson’s only community bicycle education and recycling center. It is a space where people from all walks of life can come to learn about the bicycle, acquire one for personal transportation, ensure sustainability by learning the art of bike
repair, experience a sense of community and at the same time work to protect the environment by repurposing decommissioned bike parts into creative and functional art. Over the past twenty years several talented metal artists have made their way to BICAS and found a supportive environment to grow and expand their craft, pushing the limits of what, how much, and how big. One example: a giant, ten-foot tall saguaro cactus made entirely from flattened, straightened bicycle rims stands in the Citizens Warehouse courtyard outside the metal shop where smaller pieces, like a tiny, toy Chihuahua are also created. Each year BICAS hosts an art auction and community celebration requesting donations of art in any medium depicting the bicycle or bike culture. Hundreds of pieces are donated each year from friends and supporters and the event is the organization’s largest fund raiser. BICAS also hosts free, weekly community art workshops which introduces people to working with bicycle parts as both craft and as a medium for broader self expression. Since its founding in 1989, BICAS has saved thousands of pounds of metal from the landfill and has inspired the community by establishing public bicycle art pieces in and around downtown Tucson.
BICAS, 2011 Tucson Montage, 24”x18”, hand screened limited edition print by Cast Iron Design