Demopolis Times Staff Report

YORK-The Art Studios of the new York arts district in downtown York, Alabama, invite everyone to visit them Saturday morning, June 4th.

The Cotton Patch Studio, Six Impossible Things, and the Bel Canto Studio will all be open at 10 a.m. Visitors are encouraged to check out Charlie’s silver jewelry, Mary Jane’s basketry, the music coming from John’s studio and the fused glass jewelry, mosaics and stained glass at Linda’s.

Across the railroad tracks on Avenue A the Opera House will display the latest exhibit in the Altman/Riddick Museum. YORK ART HERE, a project led by artists Shana Berger and Nathan Purath. The project features the artwork of 5th and 6th graders from Kinterbish School, Sumter Academy and York West End. Not all of the work is in the gallery – three billboards around York also are part of this exhibit.

The Bicycle Shed will also be open from 9 a.m. until noon. The Bicycle Shed is a rehabilitation and upgrade project completed on a failing, city-owned structure in York. The structure’s main purpose is to house the utility NOW! public works vehicles that were created by the municipal workshop in 2003. This project involves a number of low-impact design features and also was a catalyst for the creation of a community bicycle-recycling program and student workshop. Community volunteers Jessie Cunningham and Ervin Sturdivant, Jr. run the bicycle-recycling workshop.

The youth bicycle workshops are held the first Saturday of each month and are free to children 17 and under. The Bicycle Shed features an interesting water system, which works through rainwater harvesting and all used water is pumped outside the building to surrounding plant beds. A hand washing station is located at the back of the building. The structure is equipped with a functional TV/Radio antenna and a solar panel mounted to the antenna base supplies the energy for the buildings water pumps. The water pumps are portable, and can be used with one of the utility NOW! vehicles that has been equipped for the watering of area plants and trees.

As a new feature, Allen Peterson, an artist from Birmingham, completed a residency at the municipal WORKSHOP during March 2005. Peterson worked on site at Cherokee Park, repairing and cleaning a section of the park that in the past had been the York public swimming pool. Allen created two new works for the site: a “diving board” bench, located on the edge of the large pool, and a hive-like iron tile piece sited inside of the former kiddy pool.

Everyone is invited to wander around York and see some of our other resident Artists installations:

the benches of David Wyrick located at York City Hall and York West End, the “In Flight” exhibit out at Mallard Field and the Streetscape Sidewalk Mosaics located next to York Presbyterian Church and York City Hall.