The Creative Bike Project

The are roughly 20 million bikes in the UK, and yet 58% of London’s children do not have a bike. Contrary to popular belief, it is an extremely exclusive activity. The Creative Bike Project is about connecting young people in London who live in child poverty with a tool for social and creative practice. It engages two elements: physically and socially driven activities, and creative self expression. The Creative Bike Project has been delivered through a series of workshops with the charity Fitzrovia Youth in Action. It explored how the assembly, decoration, and maintenance of bike frames can become a blank canvas for creative self expression. The outcome of these workshops is here on display. The bikes are designed to begin as a blank canvas. A bike can say so much about a child, the colours and the shape for example, but we shouldn’t force people into stereotypes. If a bike tells the story of the user, it should be their own story. It allows users to express themselves through an object that is traditionally associated with childhood. In doing so, this allows them to exhibit who they truly are, not trapped or isolated, but expressing their creative self.