The RIDER Project is a mobile art gallery located in the back of a Ryder truck, presenting multi-week, multi-venue public art shows.    The RIDER Project promotes mobile, public art and [positive] social change by bringing contemporary art into disenfranchised neighborhoods, local communities and cultural hubs throughout New York City.

The RIDER Project is a do-it-yourself art gallery created by contemporary artists.   The gallery is created when a Ryder Company truck is rented, retrofitted with track-lighting and a generator, installed with contemporary art and staffed by artists.   The truck runs on bio-diesel fuel.

Passersby are invited to enter the mobile exhibition space, view the art and talk to participating artists.  Past RIDER exhibitions have sparked open and rewarding discussions with a diverse spectrum of viewers: firefighters, accountants, graffiti artists, squatters, parents, teachers, children and teens.  Alternative to traditional art galleries, RIDER Projects are an accessible, unpretentious introduction to contemporary art for people who might not otherwise visit a gallery or museum. For other people, RIDER Projects are an opportunity to re-imagine contemporary art.

The RIDER Project is a Socratic space for people to begin a dialogue inspired by art.  It is a grassroots, democratic experience that freely offers progressive, contemporary art to everyone.  All viewers are given the opportunity to share their responses and perspectives with exhibiting artists and learn about creative processes.  Children are encouraged to ask questions.  The re-contextualization of art into daily routines brings new perspectives for all participants. 

 
Self-empowerment through creativity, self-awareness and cultural health are underlying themes of RIDER Project exhibitions.  The mobile RIDER gallery has been warmly received by neighborhood residents and art viewers. It continues to be the catalyst for stimulating conversations about art, contemporary life and the possibilities of (positive) social change. 

---- 

Joseph Bueys, the German artist (1921-1986), believed art was a revolutionary force with the power to heal society and create social change.  When art is mobile it brings nourishment to parts of the "social body" that might otherwise be ignored, or in most need of healing.  Mobile, vehicular art brings new and vital energy - 'fresh air' and 'nutrients' - into neighborhoods and to people, that usually do not experience such visual forms of information, communication and stimulation. 
 
This process is inherently nurturing and inclusive, and it supports a unique cultural call-and-response between artists and everyday people in different communities.  
 
The RIDER Project offers the metaphor of mobile art functioning as red blood cells circulating through the social body. The RIDER Project delivers art to New York City neighborhoods through a dynamic akin to blood flowing through an organism. As blood provides oxygen and essential nutrients, so art offers new ideas and experiences, removes old ideas and feelings through catharsis, and revitalizes through inspiration. 

---

Since 2003, residents in Harlem, Bedford Stuyvesant, Chelsea, East Village, Williamsburg, Queens, Bushwick & Elmhurst have seen RIDER Project exhibitions.  The RIDER has exhibited across from the New York Stock Exchange, Ground Zero, Times Square, the Whitney Museum of American Art, MOMA Queens, Triple Candy and the Walt Whitman and Raymond Ingersoll Housing Projects, and participated in the d.u.m.b.o. art under the bridge festival, Glowlab's CONFLUX and Family Day at the Bedford Stuyvesant Community Church.