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Parkway Display to Wrap Up Art on Wheels

Parkway Display to Wrap Up Art on Wheels
October 7, 2003
Story by Tom Buckham
The Buffalo News

Art on Wheels is gassing up for the stretch run. Over the weekend, 40 of the 60 art cars created for the public art project that drew visitors to cultural sites this summer began moving to Bidwell Parkway for a free final showing in the grass median Friday through Oct. 19.

Automobile-themed sculptures made for the program will remain at several sites: Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Delaware Park Rose Garden, the park's Meadow Road entrance and H.H. Richardson Towers.

The intent is to give the public a last look in a central location before the autos and related sculptures are auctioned Oct. 21.

An information booth featuring discounted memorabilia from the project is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily during the Bidwell Parkway "Wheel-O-Rama."

Tickets also are on sale for a raffle during which two cars will be given away.

A two-day family celebration in the parkway Oct. 18-19 will close the project. Visitors can meet artists who created the cars and sculptures, listen to live music capped by a performance by Big Wheelie and the Hubcaps, and let their children take part in interactive games.

Besides giving people another look at the cars, the Bidwell location will show off improvements made to the Olmsted Crescent by the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, said Wendy Attea-Huntington, Art on Wheels project director.

Several cars and sculptures were stationed over the summer in the part of the crescent from Delaware Park to Martin Luther King Jr. Park.

A selection of Art on Wheels cars and sculptures will be offered online beginning Friday. The remaining art will be auctioned Oct. 21 in Rockwell Hall Auditorium at Buffalo State College.

Registration and viewing will begin at 6 p.m. that day, followed by the sale, conducted by Cash Cunningham and celebrity guests, at 7 p.m.

Art on Wheels was organized by Burchfield-Penney and the Materials Reuse Project in partnership with The Buffalo News, and presented by M&T Bank.

Sponsors included Assembly Majority Leader Paul A. Tokasz, D-Cheektowaga; the 21st Century Fund; Wegmans; Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Western New York; Verizon; Phillips Lytle Hitchcock Blaine & Huber; the State Council on the Arts; and the Arts and Business Council.

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