Pink (courier service)

Pink is a courier service originally conceived by artist Jaclyn Pryor in Austin, Texas. It is a project wherein the public is invited to write messages of affection to friend, lovers, coworkers, and stranger all over the city; Pink bottles the notes and delivers them by bike all over the city in which Pink is currently in residence. Pink began over New Year's 2006-2007 in Austin. During this event, notes of love and affection written by Austinites and distributed across the city on pink paper inserted into small bottles with monogrammed tags via bicycle couriers dressed in pink. [ [http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:467003 The Austin Chronicle: Arts: 'floodlines': Hyde Park again awash in wonders ] ]

Mission

According to artist and founder Jaclyn Pryor, Pink's mission is to engage the local community through a project that ties the creation of art into the modeling and spreading of a positive message of love and hope to the city. As Jaclyn writes, "Pink benefits the city by providing a free service through which community members can express their love and appreciation for one another. It also provides local artists, cyclists, youth, activists, and art enthusiasts the opportunity to volunteer and participate in the creation and implementation of a large-scale, community-based, and interdisciplinary art project, as pink requires the love and sweat and hundreds of volunteers to work and grow." [ [http://www.jaclynpryor.com/pinkontour/backstory.shtml Pink On Tour ] ] Pink's motto is: "pink: we (deliver) love (for) you. (pass it on.)"

Original Conception & Tour Sites

Pink: a (love) courier service was conceived by Pryor in 2005, commissioned by First Night Austin, and underwritten by the Still Water Foundation. The project mobilized over 200 local volunteers, as well as over 2000 Austin residents, and culminated in a Pink Bicycle Parade and New Year's celebration at the factory site. Through projects such as Pink, Pryor uses the cityscape itself as a canvas for art and art as a mechanism to build community.

Pink 2006-2007 in Austin, Texas

Pink began in Austin, Texas, when Jaclyn Pryor, with a team of volunteer artists and cyclists, converted an empty downtown storefront into a small & temporary (love) factory. In the course of two short weeks, 2007 people visited pink, wrote love notes, & watched as pink-clad love couriers delivered them, by bicycle, throughout the city. [http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/seeingthings/entries/2006/12/22/] The storefront was located in Austin's commercial district just west of the downtown and run by a collective of cyclists, visual artists, performing artists, activists, and poets. For the month leading up to New Year's eve 2006-7, the storefront space was converted into a love factory, and people throughout Austin, as well as local passersby, visited pink to write and send pink love notes to friends, lovers, co-workers, and strangers. The love notes were scrolled and bottled, marked with hand-stitched monogrammed tags, and hand-delivered by bicycle courier to the homes and businesses of the recipients. To commemorate the new year, 2007 bottles were sent and received in the month of Secember, and the event culminated in a community parade and bicycle carnival in downtown Austin, as being part of first night Austin 2007.

Pink on Tour: Portland, Oregan

Pink raised money for operation in Portland, Oregon at a fundraiser in Austin on May 29, 2007 and staged the event in Portland from June 8 to June 23, 2007. [http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/mo/entries/misc/] The love courier service formed part of Portland’s Pedalpalooza festival and was located downtown.

Future

As Pink grows, Jaclyn hopes to take it to more cities around the country or even the world. The next tour stop is Chicago, Illinois in July and August 2008.

References

See also

External links

* [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=136349852 Pink's Myspace page]
* [http://www.jaclynpryor.com/pinkontour/home.shtml The homepage of Pink: On Tour]
* [http://austinist.com/2006/12/29/feel_the_love_at_pink.php Interview with artist Jaclyn Pryor published by "The Austinist" magazine]