During the holiday season, Porter Square Books, Cambridge, Mass., is hosting a pop-up shop in a vacant storefront in its shopping center. The shop features board games, card games and puzzles for adults, as well as work by local artists. It will be open until December 24 and is being staffed by store booksellers "who also happen to love games, as well as a few outside experts we've brought in to help," Porter Square said.
Cambridge Wicked Local described the pop-up this way: "Despite the open ceilings and gray concrete floors, the shop is colorful and bright, lined with art on one side and game shelves on the other."
Marketing director Josh Cook told Wicked Local that the owners asked the bookstore if it wanted to use the space during the holiday season. "We said 'yes' first, and then tried to figure out what would be the best use of that space."
Co-owner David Sandberg said: "We like games and puzzles, but we don't have much space for them in the regular bookstore, so we thought it would be good to use this space."
"That selection reflects as much thought as we put into selecting books for the store," Cook added. "It is a curated selection. We put some thought and care into making sure it was the most fun, the best quality, and the most interesting games."
Through the store's partnership with the Cambridge Arts Council, four or five artists are "in the shop each day selling prints, photographs, and other crafts. Artists rotate each week, so the shop is constantly changing," Wicked Local wrote. Sandberg said that the local artists make the space more exciting and attractive.