The Shiny Shop has popped up in Harvard Square’s Smith Campus Center with bedazzling and other cozy crafting events, advertised as using its glittery “disco-inspired community art” to improve the visibility and safety of cyclists and users of micromobility devices. People can drop in Wednesdays and Thursdays until Oct. 15 to create reflective accessories, attend crafting events with artists and talk about navigating streets that weren’t built with bikes, scooters, wheelchairs or pedestrians in mind.
Alexandra Adamo-Cioffredi of Alex Makes Art founded The Shiny Shop after meeting Clara Wainwright, a local artist who wants to improve visibility and safety of cyclists – but also to see everyone sparkle, so the pop-up is useful and fun whether you’re there to be more visible to cars and trucks or to make everyday life more glam. I dropped in and bedazzled up a small compass to be a reflective charm to carry while bicycling, but I was also offered a free reflective armband to help be seen by drivers.
The shop has sessions led by artists that are not always bike-oriented, such as a Functional Fabric Collage with Abigail McMurray session on Thursday. RSVP online, or just drop in.
The Shiny Shop was previously in Allston inside the old Fuel America, run in collaboration with Harvard Urban Planning and Development. “We found a huge community, all looking for the same thing,” Adamo-Cioffredi said, “something casual to do in the middle of their day that pulled them out of their usual space and put them somewhere more relaxed, sitting next to people they wouldn’t otherwise expect to.”
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Outside The Shiny Shop at the Smith Campus Center in Harvard Square. (Photo: Kyle Klein) -
A sign at the Smith Campus Center directs visitors to the pop-up. (Photo: Kyle Klein) -
Some bedazzling options available to visitors. (Photo: Kyle Klein)
This second location isn’t expected to be the last for Alex Makes Art; Adamo-Cioffredi is looking for the next. “It’s exciting to see this grow from tiny pop-ups in people’s backyards to 750 people gathering in public spaces around the holidays. It’s a great example of what a consistent, steady space can look like,” she said. “Between the one-day pop-ups and library visits, I hope we keep finding these pockets of space to build real connections with people across different neighborhoods.”
For people who can’t make it to the The Shiny Shop by Oct. 15, groups such as Cambridge Bike Safety often give away free reflective gear at events such as Family Bike Ride cargo bike test drive events. The next test drive is at 10 a.m. Sunday in the picnic grove of the Cambridge Crossing development in Cambridge’s North Point neighborhood, though it may be pushed to a rain date.
The Shiny Shop, 2 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays and noon to 6 p.m. Thursdays at the Smith Campus Center, 1350 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square, Cambridge
Bike activities calendar
E-Bike Adventure Rides with Casa Bikes (recurring). Every other Thursday and Saturday, bring your own e-bike or borrow one of Casa’s. The next ride is at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Free, but register.
Boston Cafe Bikers. Rain or shine, ride at 11 a.m. Saturday from Union Square, Somerville to the Dudley Cafe, 15 Warren St., Roxbury. Free.
Cargo Bike Test Drive. Family Bike Ride’s recurring crowdsourced event benefits parents looking for information on cargo bikes by connecting them with parent owners that live in their community and inviting test drives of the bikes. At 10 a.m. Sunday in the picnic grove of the Cambridge Crossing development in Cambridge’s North Point neighborhood, though it may be pushed to a rain date.
For more Boston bike events, see bostonbikeevents.net. (No affiliation with The Independent.)
