Everybody on the bus!

The Topsy-Turvy School Bus, lovingly known as Topsy, spent the summer of 2007 in New Hampshire and is now touring Iowa to promote sensible budget priorities in advance of that state's Presidential Caucus.

Topsy is a brainchild of Priorities president (and Ben & Jerry's co-founder) Ben Cohen and award-winning graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister, and was constructed by artist-mechanic Tom Kennedy.

“Our nation’s spending priorities allow crumbling schools, millions of children with no health coverage, dependence on Middle East oil and deficits as far as you can see,” said Cohen.

The Topsy-Turvy School Bus was born a short yellow school bus, but its twin was welded upside down to its roof by Kennedy and a crew of 10 artists who are no strangers to art-cars.

“I’m a guy who’s been looking to use art cars for social change, and Kennedy is a guy who wants to make art cars for a living with some social purpose,” Cohen said. “Clearly, we were searching for each other.”

Topsy is a whimsical creature. It sports our budget pie on its flip-out stop signs, a military spending bar chart on the ceiling, and a 10-minute video presentation about the Priorities campaign. It runs on diesel or biodiesel and will be stocked with Priorities pins, pens and paraphernalia for the friends it attracts around New Hampshire this summer.

(Thanks to our pal Russell Howze for the photos.)

PrioritiesNH, 194 North Main St., Suite 3, Concord, NH 03301
(603) 224-3800 -- fax (603) 224-3818

Topsy-Turvy press

The Topsy-Turvy School Bus has been a media darling since it first rolled out of Tom Kennedy's garage:

"Mobile politics: It's all art," San Francisco Chronicle, April 11, 2007

"Ben Cohen Launches Topsy-Turvy Bus to Protest Tax Priorities," Berkeley Daily Planet, April 13, 2007

"Burning Man bus rolls through Reno," RGJ.com, May 2, 2007

Upside-down bus bears budget message
New Hampshire News Connection, June 6, 2007 (.pdf)

Topsy Turvy
New Hampshire Union Leader, August 11, 2007 (.pdf)

The wheels of the bus go upside down ...
Photo
Concord Monitor, August 16, 2007 (.pdf)

Driving Miss Topsy
The Forum, August 18, 2007

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