Nick Blunier stands atop his Community Art Bus in Biddeford, Maine — a former 1981 school bus transformed into a mobile studio designed to bring art directly into the community. Photo by Cy Cyr / BrickTides.com It is an old four-window school bus covered in paint and graffiti, with sea creatures swimming across its exterior, business names worked into the artwork, solar power on top and a rooftop deck. Children have painted it. Adults have painted it. A graffiti artist has pa

Sarah Hoover, program director at Apex Youth Connection in Biddeford, Maine. From the outside, Apex Youth Connection doesn’t try to impress you. The building on Granite Street isn’t pretty. It’s scrappy. It looks like a place built for use, not for show. The kind of place that gets the job done and doesn’t apologize for it. Inside, the order reveals itself. Bikes and bike parts are everywhere, but nothing is careless. Handlebars hang in clean rows. Cranks, chains, gears — al