The Houston Parks Board (HPB), the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art (OSCVA), and Houston Independent School District (HISD) have partnered to launch the city’s first Art Bike Festival, which will take place on Saturday, May 21, 2022.
An Art Bike at the Art Car Parade. © Danitza Ladwig.
The Art Bike Festival is an offshoot of the popular Art Car Parade and provides an opportunity for the city to promote Houston’s parks and trails. Originally scheduled for May 2020, the festival has been postponed for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier in 2020, HPB and OSCVA donated over 250 bicycles to HISD students so they could participate in the parade. The event will feature riders from more than 100 HISD campuses, totaling about 3,000 students.
The day-long event will start with a celebration at 9 am in MacGregor Park, near Houston’s South Side neighborhood. The parade will begin at 10 am and will follow a bike route from the park to the OSCVA along Brays Bayou Greenway. After the parade, awards and activities will take place at the OSCVA.
In a press release announcing the event, Kenneth Allen, Director, Houston Parks and Recreation Department, stated, “The Art Bike Festival is the kind of event that makes Houston unique. MacGregor Park is the perfect place to bring together the young and old to create and celebrate rolling pieces of art. Thank you to the Houston Parks Board, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, and HISD for making this family friendly event a reality.”
OSCVA Executive Director Tommy Ralph Pace added, “…the Art Bike Festival furthers OSCVA’s longtime mission of celebrating radical expressions of individualism and the artist in everyone. We are thus thrilled to increase accessibility to the arts across Houston through our collaboration with the Houston Independent School District, City of Houston, and the Houston Parks Board by bringing another city-wide event to life that encourages everyone to exercise their creativity!”
For more information and to register, visit the event website.
