BICAS Art

BICAS Spring 2023 Art Mart!

Thanks to all who stopped by the BICAS art mart! Thank you to all the vendors, the staff, everyone who shared the event, Ward 3, and you! The community really showed up! A special thanks to Word of Mouth Print Space for the live screen printing, Outspoken Bookish for teaching people how to make zines and Tucson chill ride for stopping by! It was an exciting event, and we can’t wait until next time! For more info click here

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Thank you so much Tucson! We appreciate your support of the 25th BICAS Art auction! BICAS hasn’t had one of these events in 2 years due to the pandemic. While most of the staff was new, we managed to pull it off with 500 people coming to the 2 night event and over 100 unique pieces for auction sold in a single night!

Our art auction featured a huge variety of practical and fanciful handmade bicycle-themed art, most of which was created using upcycled bicycle parts. All the art was donated by some of Tucson’s best artists who support the mission of promoting education, art, a healthy environment & making transportation more accessible to our community. We also had live music by Son Jarocho Collective in Arizona and the Hatpin Duo.

This was our biggest fundraising event of the year with all proceeds going toward our various community programs that help people learn how to fix a bicycle, earn a bicycle, create unique art from recycled materials, and provide programs for youth.

To see photo’s of the event on Facebook click here

More info: https://bicas.org/art/auction/

About BICAS Art

An aspect that makes BICAS more than just a bike shop is our Art program. We try to keep as much as possible out of the waste stream by re-imagining old broken bike bits into all kinds of functional and whimsical art, including innertube wallets, bike part wind chimes, bottle cap magnets, metal art sculptures, bike racks, wall hooks, and more. This culminates each December at our annual Art Auction, which is a showcase of hundreds of bicycle-themed artworks made by the BICAS staff, board and Tucson community.

For metalworks commissions, information on our Annual Art Auction, workshop information, or parts requests, contact the BICAS Art Coordinator at art@bicas.org or 520.628.7950, or stop by the shop at 2001 N. 7th Ave during our open hours.

Middle school students from Khalsa Montessori School at a BICAS Art workshop in 2017

2022 will mark the 25th Annual BICAS Art Auction following postponements due to COVID-19 in 2020

Mission

BICAS Art merges bike-themed arts, do-it-yourself ethics, and ecological consciousness by providing education, inspiration, salvaged materials, and a socially diverse and inclusive artistic venue. Our program culminates each December at our annual Art Auction, which is a showcase of hundreds of bicycle-themed artworks made by BICAS staff and the community.

Vision

Social and environmental reimagining through the creation of upcycled bicycle art.

History

BICAS started in 1989 from a group of like-minded individuals seeking to empower the houseless population to attain work, shelter, food, and transportation. The organization began using the name BICAS as both a ‘Spanglish’ slang term for bicycle and as an acronym for Bicycle Inter-Community Action & Salvage in 1996. Founders like Kathe Padeilla, Kim Young, and Allen Reilley led to increased public participation (particularly youth participation) and thus visibility for BICAS. The original entrance to the BICAS basement shop was through a side window. BICAS was truly “underground”, both figuratively and literally, and its initial art programs were known as “Underground Art”.

One of BICAS’ founders, Kim Young, by the BICAS Underground location in the 1990s

Many of the original founders and mechanics of BICAS were working artists who made the best creative use of broken bike parts by turning Schwinn lemon peelers into lemonade. BICAS founder and artist Kim Young felt that public art is a great way to revitalize communities and give them an added sense of identity and well-being, a sentiment that still resonates with the collective today. BICAS collective members and art coordinators taught art workshops to the public, organized art auction fundraisers, and worked within the community to make recycled public art installations including youth-built bike racks and sculptures. Today, BICAS diverts 100,000 lbs of material from the waste stream each year due to the hard work of its art and shop programs.

BICAS organized the First Annual Art Auction in 1995 as a way to support BICAS programs as well as provide exposure to local artists. Every December, the BICAS Annual Art Auction brings the Tucson community together for a silent auction of bicycle-themed artwork donated by hundreds of local mixed-media artists. 2021 will mark the 25th annual art auction following a miniature staff auction due to COVID-19 in 2020.

A Tucson Eagle Scout group installs BICAS bike racks outside Empire High School

“Many of my students say our workshop at BICAS is the highlight of their year because they discover a community space that is quirky, inclusive and really fun. BICAS provides an unforgettable opportunity for students to make vibrant and offbeat art from reused materials. They leave the workshop with a new enthusiasm for bikes and nontraditional art. Since starting the workshops years ago, the number of students who bike commute at school has increased and the general vibe around our middle school is that bikes are something to love.” –Khalsa Montessori School Assistant Director, 2019

Welded commission at Tucson’s Los Reales Landfill by BICAS Staff Troy Neiman in 2018

“Three years ago a third component of the non-profit, BICAS Metalworks, started to create unique pieces for the Annual BICAS Art Auction… The group makes functional art out of bicycle parts, strictly on commission.” –Tucson Weekly

Friends of BICAS make a poster for the ‘Why I Come to BICAS’ campaign in 2018

“All the world’s old bikes are being…snatched from the gnarly old arms of neglect and placed in the loving hands of Bicycle Inter-Community Action and Salvage, a non-profit bicycle cooperative which uses the bicycle as a basis for creating art, promoting community outreach and advocating urban change.” –Catalyst Arts Magazine of the University of Arizona

A workshop participant at the 2019 Tucson Festival of Books holds up their one-of-a-kind aluminum bicycle part windchime

“It’s about seeing the beauty in every thing, no matter what its perceived value. It’s about how a piece of metal can become a piece of art. It’s how a thing can become more than what it’s made of. It’s the story of BICAS.” –Catalyst Arts Magazine of the University of Arizona

Contact

For questions, media, mural requests, metalworks commissions, information on our Annual Art Auction, workshop information, or parts requests, contact the BICAS Art Coordinator at art@bicas.org or 520.628.7950, or stop by the shop at 2001 N. 7th Ave during our open hours.

Find out more by following BICAS Art on Facebook, Instagram and on our Etsy shop!