Imagine going to your local park, hopping on a quadracycle (a 4 wheeled bike), and grabbing a good book off the shelf that you read to yourself while being whisked around the park. Sound like a bizarre dream you had after your last hard ride? Nope, just an innovative idea out of Minneapolis that attempts to bring the beauty of art and books together with the serenity of riding a bike in the outdoors.
Here’s the catch: the Reading Rickshaw is a proposed project on Kickstarter and needs your help.
Read on for the details.
The Reading Rickshaw is the brainchild of Lauren, Joe, and Sarah who are three students and alumni from the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota. The main goal of the project is to increase community awareness of art and books by offering a unique literary experience by way of a 4 wheeled bicycle ride. Mobile artistic immersion isn’t the only point of the Reading Rickshaw though, as books and art will also be available while stationary. Customers can browse the permanent collection or pick a book from a temporary collection curated by artists, enjoy a mobile story hour, listen to artist lectures, among other creative ideas. The base idea is to bring books and art to the areas that it is typically not available, such as parks, lakes, and downtown Minneapolis.
The idea may seem bizarre at first, that is, until you consider the Art Shanty Project entry of both Sarah and Lauren and a few others: the Library Ice Shanty. After placing a collection of books in a shanty in the middle of a frozen lake, creating a mobile library on a quadracycle is the next logical progression, no?
So it’s a cool idea, but how can you help? The Project funding comes by way of the new online philanthropy source KickStarter. The website offers an innovative solution to funding and following creativity by allowing users to post project ideas, which are then offered to potential investors who are able to pledge anything from one dollar to ten thousand. Investors are not entitled to monetary gains, but projects do tend to have rewards for different pledge levels much like a pledge drive. Projects are given deadlines, and funding will only be granted if the goal is reached by the end of the deadline.
How is the Reading Rickshaw doing with pledges? The funding goal of the project is $2000, of which $650 is currently being pledged by 20 backers with 7 days to go. If you are moved by this idea, or simply want to help out other cyclists head on over to KickStarter and spread the love.
Thanks to Lauren for the tip!
