The corporate-sponsored pedicabs that whisked hipsters between galleries last week during the Williamsburg Gallery Association’s monthly art tour were a smashing success —Â but the service will be short-lived unless the association can find someone to pay for it.
“It was really stellar,” association Executive Director Mandy Kalajian said of the pedicabs, which were provided by Manhattan Rickshaw Company and paid for by the makers of Pernod, the licorice liqueur. “We got a great response, especially because it was cold and rainy.”
Rickshaw company owner Peter Meitzler, who lives in Williamsburg, said the event was so successful because Pernod stepped up to the plate and paid the drivers in advance — eliminating apprehension from potential customers and confusion from drivers who would have no way of knowing what to charge customers outside their normal haunts in Manhattan neighborhoods like Times Square and Greenwich Village.
Indeed, Kalajian said the association wants to continue the complimentary pedicab service, but still needs to “work out a game plan” for finding a regular sponsor to make it “an ongoing reality.”
“It’s pretty expensive to provide pedicabs for a couple of hours every month, so if we can find a long-term sponsor to make this happen on a regular basis that would obviously be ideal.”
It would be ideal for gallery owners like Marissa Sage, whose Like the Spice Gallery is at 224 Roebling St.
“I think people were really excited about being driven between the galleries,” Sage said. “Especially the ones that are further out like mine, which isn’t in the main cluster of galleries.”
