Downtown Lakeland and Polk Museum of Art partner to bring you

another great Downtown Lakeland tour!

Tour date set for Saturday,  October 30. Meet at the Polk Museum of Art @ 9:30am with your bikes. Firm limit of 20 riders.   Registration required.

“Over the last thirteen years Lakeland has become a city of sculptures,” explains Dan Stetson, Executive Director of the Polk Museum of Art.  Most of the city’s collection came from the Florida Outdoor Sculpture Competition on Lemon Street Promenade.  You’ll also see private pieces – swans and butterflies -  from the Swansation and Kaleidoscope projects sprinkled throughout Lakeland and Downtown.  “The success of the Historic Walking Tours has inspired us to create others,” says Julie Townsend of DLP.  “Pedaling the Arts accomplishes multiple goals. It exposes residents to Downtown and the outdoor art we have, and it also gets folks biking in Downtown.”  Dan Stetson will lead the group beginning and ending at Polk Museum of Art. The tour will last about 2 hours, with a break Downtown for drinks and rest rooms.  All participants need to be on bikes obviously and will be required to follow bike safety rules.  This is just another great reason to come Downtown.  As of press time, only one tour date was set. If this date fills quickly another will be set for sometime in November. Tours will require the purchase of $10 worth of Downtown Dollars per person.  “We want to generate sales in Downtown,”     says Townsend.  The Downtown Dollars can be used for purchases in more than 20 businesses, so after the tour you can grab lunch or shop with your Downtown Dollars. They expire one year from the purchase date.

In addition to the BIKELAKELAND efforts, bike enthusiasts like Mitch Harvey, owner of Mitchell’s Coffee House, wants to work toward getting Lakeland designated as a “Bicycle Friendly Community”.  The city of Lakeland’s Parks & Rec. Department installed “Cindy the Cyclist”, an artsy bike rack, in Munn Park in June.