Posted on November 7, 2012

Giant Giraffes & Buffalo Bikes: The 2012 Los Altos Art & Bike Charity Event

In late August, we told you about an awesome event coming up in Los Altos, California and now we are happy to report that the Los Altos Bike & Art Charity event was a wild success, raising over $4,000 with over 350 people in attendance.

The Method Makers & 359 State Street hosted a special Live Art Fundraiser for World Bicycle Relief on September 21. The event also took place during a World Wide Event Park(ing) Day--an annual open-source global event where local citizens & artists collaborated to transform metered parking spaces into a temporary Public Park space.

Read about how The Method Makers & 359 State Street connected with each other & WBR>

In the past, The Method Makers have worked with local non-profit organizations, but the Los Altos event was the first time they’ve worked with a global non-profit. Neal Hilo of The Method Makers explains:

“We were excited to learn that World Bike Relief has been a strong organization sending over 100,000 bicycles to African villages and counting! Most of us curators and artists are happy bicycle riding people. So as we learned more about the impact bicycles make in developing countries, it simply just made sense to partner with WBR and utilize our artist strengths to bring awareness to the cause with the pleasure of enjoying a live art event from local Bay Area artists!”

The event was promoted through a lot of community involvement and creativity. Local businesses helped with printing and posting flyers, artists generated support through reposting event news on their blogs, twitter feeds, or Facebook pages, and volunteers helped with going door-to-door and calling community members with invitations to the event. The Method Makers also made an imaginative short film to generate buzz for the event.

Watch the film>

Once the day kicked off, art browsers, including Director of WBR Development Tom Nguyen, enjoyed a 12-foot, 700 pound steel giraffe sculpture by artist James Stoval as well as his beautiful “Violinist” piece. Attendees participated in a raffle while listening to popular band Secret Sidewalk perform as another talented expression of art.

The Los Altos Art & Bike Charity Event helped to solidify part of The Method Makers’ mission to promote talented artists while also doing good for the global community. The Method Makers are humbled by all the recognition and support they received from all involved. Moving forward, the group plans to continue to work with WBR and other non-profit organizations to help artists while raising awareness for charitable causes.

The Method Makers would like to thank the local Los Altos Community, Local Businesses, Local Artists & Musicians for coming together and supporting our efforts to raise money for our cause. Please help us recognize the following artists & businesses that made this event possible:

Live Artists