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Painting a new picture of healthy living, 20 students from Laura W. Waring Elementary Schools reflected on designs for murals that would be captured on bikes displayed across the Philadelphia city.
Obesity was reported to have a disproportionally affect on Latinos in Philly as a recent article, showed that 50.1% of Latino children ages 6-17 were overweight or obese in 2011, compared to 30.7% non-Hispanic whites. However, also mentioned was that Latinos in Philly are very involved in the music and art scenes. Bike share is something new in the city and the riding mural initiative is one way the city is trying to get people more excited about biking.
Encouraging students to think about a healthier active lifestyle, teacher Sarah Folger and lead artist Candy Coated asked students to make murals designed with the idea of “sharing bikes” and “riding” in mind. Student’s worked on designs for the bikes murals’ for 6 weeks in an after school art class. The designs were then made into a graphics wrap and transferred onto the bikes by Mural Arts educator Zeke Zenei. Kids learned art skills like color mixing, sticker and stencil making and layering techniques. Students also displayed their art by placing their own uniquely designed stickers on Indego’s helmets.
One student mentioned in a recent article, “It feels amazing-I know I created it and everybody’s going to be riding it!” said Iajae Taylor, one of the kid designers of the murals.
A partnership between the JPB Foundation, the Mural Arts Program, the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities, the Better Bike Share Partnership, and Indego made funds possible for the initiative.
Prizes like free Indego trips, and hotel deals can be won by entering a twitter photo contest. How do you participate? Snap a photo of one of the decorated bikes and share it on twitter with the hashtag #ridingmurals.
To see more bike murals search #ridingmurals on Twitter.
By The Numbers
33
percent
of Latinos live within walking distance (<1 mile) of a park
