Art Car Parades are a massive phenomenon in the USA, with over 40 events and Parades taking place annually. There is some debate about what led to the growth of Art Cars, but it could be seen as the result of several influences. Decorated vehicles can be traced back for centuries and probably predates the customised Roman charioteers adorning their charitos with personal objects. Also, in the roaring twenties when people wanted to express their free spirit they often decorated their old cars with bizarre cartoons. Then more recently there have been the hippie themed VW’s of the late 1960s, Janis Joplin’s psychedelic-pained Porsche 356, John Lennon’s paisley Rolls Royce and even Uri Geller’s bent spoon covered ‘peace’ car.

The Art Car community continued to grow, particularly in the 1990s on the spur of books and movies and had a huge underground following with the development of innovative arts displays such as the Burning Man festival. One of the major forces behind this growth was filmmaker Harrod Blank, who made three documentary films on Art Cars, created several Art Cars of his own and founded the U.S’s second largest art car festival in San Francisco Bay. The art car culture was once strongest throughout Texas and the Southeast but now it extends throughout the United States and art car events can be found in many major cities.

The first Art Car Parade took place in Houston on May 14, 1986 had 11 vehicles taking part. In 2006 there were over 260 entries in the parade, with over 200,000 spectactors making the Houston Art Car Parade the largest in the world.

Artistic Styles

Art Cars are mobile expressions of art and their inspiration comes from popular culture or sometimes visonary artists express political ideas or philosophies. Often cars have themes of a dark and gothic nature to science fiction, political or educational ideas to the surreal and can incorporate music or street theatre.

Art car artists are creative and experimental types. Their vehicles range from simply painted, adorned and decorated to complete bodily modification. Often objects are glued to the body of the car, or temporary coverings are added, some cars are predominately painted where the artist uses their car as a canvas, others have a second skin, where objects are laid over or fixed to the body of the car.

Some artists use their car to show off their collections including spoons, teacups, toy cars, kitsch objects, dolls; they are an exhibition on wheels. Others create cars to attract attention or cars that carry a message that might be seen by mass public or the media and would cause a stir. Harrod Blank’s Camera Van for example uses interaction as a basis of the car taking pictures of passers by. Some vehicles are completely reconstructed into sculptural forms with modified bodies or shells and turned into giant hamburgers, sharks or telephones for example.

Bringing the Art Car Parade to the UK

The original concept to bring an Art Car Parade to the UK was conceived by Liz Pugh and John Wassell from Walk the Plank, one of the UK’s leading Arts organisations specialising in outdoor performance. John saw the Parade in 1990 when working in Texas, and Liz saw some of the Art Cars at the Burning Man Festival in Nevada a few years later.

Both Liz and John thought the idea was fantastic and unique and couldn’t understand why no one had brought the idea over to the UK. Many people in the UK have Art Cars of their own, but they are often hidden away in garages and only come out on special occasions. Other artists have often thought about creating their own Art Car, but never had the opportunity therefore the UK’s first Art Car Parade gives people from all over the UK a chance to get creative and turn their vehicle into a mobile work of art.

The vision for the Art Car Parade is that it will become an annual event, the first and biggest being in Manchester but then spreading to other cities across the UK and Europe; building on and creating our own Art Car phenomenon as seen in the U.S.

Art Cars and the Environment

Road transport is one of the biggest sources of pollution in the UK, contributing to poor air quality, climate change, congestion, and noise disturbance. Of the 33 million vehicles on our roads, 27 million are cars*. However the UK’s first Art Car Parade wants to subvert the glorification and dominance of the car in a creative, playful and inventive way, which also encourages people to think about using their cars less, to reduce congestion and pollution. As well as cars we expect the Parade to contain bikes, trikes, rickshaws, mobility scooters, street cleaning machines, wheelchairs and prams. We’re encouraging pedal and wind powered vehicles and solar and electric powered Art Cars.

How to get involved »

*Taken from www.nsca.org.uk – NSCA is the environmental protection charity supporting pollution control.