Projects: Art Rack Media

Bicycles + Art = Delight. Diane created Art Rack Media, a marketing initiative developed for the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, to promote artistic bicycle racks (art racks) in Portland and celebrate the city's cycling culture. Art racks integrate the joy of cycling into the city's built environment, and help participating businesses enhance their streetfront image while providing a welcome customer service.

Art Rack Media built partnerships with the Portland Development Commission, Portland Parks and Recreation, the city's transportation bureau and a variety of businesses, including Fred Meyer and Powell's City of Books, to purchase and place the racks. Today, Portland's art racks can be found throughout the city - in Portland parks, along the Portland Streetcar, in front of retail businesses and at the Classical Chinese Garden. Now other cities are catching on to the concept, as USA Today reports, including New York with the 2008 installation of artistic racks by David Byrne , almost ten years after art racks began proliferating in Portland.

In 2009, Diane was contacted by the Metro Nashville (TN) Arts Commission, which is embarking on its own art rack program, a further example of how cities are valuing the contribution of cycling to transportation, culture and economic vitality.

For her work creating Art Rack Media, Diane was honored by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance with its annual Alice B. Toeclips Award. Art racks have been named to Willamette Week's Best of Portland selection, called "a formidable combination of form, function and flair" by Oregon Business Magazine and hailed by then-Mayor Vera Katz as "a symbol of Portland's innovative spirit."

Art rack sponsored by Fred Meyer on display before installation at Pier Park. (The lotus art rack above is located in front of the Classical Chinese Garden.)

News conference announcing Sunnyside Park installation

...and their use as parking and art