By Zak Stone

For many bike owners, making sure their vehicles' parts are doing what they're supposed to is complex enough a job. But a group of 80 artists was recently assigned a more challenging task: to turn a box full of 100 bike parts into a work of art. On November 29, New Yorkers get the chance to bid on and take home the results, at a charity auction benefitting global development nonprofit World Bicycle Relief.

The event, pART PROJECT NYC, is hosted by bike components company SRAM, who brought the same concept to Chicago last year, raising $96,000 for World Bicycle Relief. This year's incarnation features a variety of conceptual and abstract pieces, like a nest made from bike parts and twigs by artist Eileen Hutton and a gas mask crafted from leather and gears by Alex Bogusky, among 78 others. The exhibition will be juried, with the grand-prize winner getting a free trip for two to Africa to see World Bicycle Relief's development work in person. Then, the works will be sold to the highest bidder in a live-auction format, tonight at the Cedar Lake Theater.

All the funds raised will directly support World Bicycle Relief, which brings bikes to people in developing countries to help them access health care, education, and jobs. Since its founding in 2005, The Chicago-based organization has put more than 100,000 bicycles in the hands of people across Sri Lanka and Southern and Eastern Africa, and has trained 750 mechanics to keep the bikes running smoothly.

Comments