On this bike tour you will have a chance to stretch your legs, move your body, enjoy a fresh breeze and see a bunch of Boston’s neighborhoods, creative art spaces and artists with exciting work.  The terrain we will ride together on this tour is mostly flat with a few gentle hills.  Bikes and helmets are provided in the cost of the tour. 

We will begin with a leisurely ride through the Greenway, crossing over to Fort Point neighborhood.  This district once housed artists in nearly each of its graceful industrial wharf buildings and is now experiencing redevelopment for office uses resulting in a shift in neighborhood dynamics.  We will stop at the Fort Point Arts Community (FPAC) (http://www.fortpointarts.org/cgi-bin/FPAC) store, to hear about buildings that have been developed into permanent artist live/work studios as a remaining haven for artists.  We will also ride by the Artists for Humanity (http://www.afhboston.com/) EpiCenter green building, an artist apprenticeship program for Boston teens, and then continue through the gallery district of the South End, stopping for short gallery hops and a visit with media artist Brian Knep (http://www.blep.com/) at the Bates Art Center (http://www.batesartcenter.com/), part of Artblock (http://www.newatlantic.net/projects/detail/artblock/index.html)--a city-sponsored artist space development featuring work-only studios, live/work space and Mobius (http://www.mobius.org/mobius_home.php), a non-profit performance art collective.  Enjoy the breeze as we pedal on to Dudley Square, where we will stop to rest and hear from a representative of the Roxbury Film Festival (http://www.roxburyfilmfestival.org/new/) Boston’s celebration of films by and about people of color.  Cruising down Malcolm X Boulevard to the Southwest Corridor Park (http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/metroboston/southwestCorr.htm), we will ride one section of this bike path that was at one point destined to be a highway until neighborhood activists successfully campaigned for a 4.7 mile, 52-acre, linear city park stretching from the Back Bay to Forest Hills, which will deliver us to Axiom (http://axiomart.org), a new media gallery located in at the Green Street MBTA station in Jamaica Plain, where the curator Heidi Kayser will show us new work in gallery’s current show.  The ride will end with a straight shot down the Southwest Corridor park bike trail, which will return you to your starting point.

Bikes will be provided by Urban Adventours (http://www.urbanadventours.com/).  A bus will take bike tour participants from the Park Plaza Hotel to Urban Adventours to be given your bikes and helmets.  Please be in the lobby of the Park Plaza before 4PM to leave for the tour.  Urban Adventours is located at103 Atlantic Avenue on Boston’s waterfront.   

Gratuity for Urban Adventours staff is not included in the tour price.  This is a great way to spend your Friday afternoon, get out and see the City of Boston and also get to know other conference attendees and meet exciting local artists.  Join us, it will be a blast!