Sparcle Turns Whirlers into Art

By Seth Stattmiller

Recovery Bike Shop (Reco) owners Seth Stattmiller and Elizabeth Richardson ran a Burning Man theme camp for ten years before getting banned in 2019 (but that’s another story). This year, they mustered the motivation to restart their theme camp dreams in Northeast Minneapolis during Art-a-Whirl. Dubbed Sparcle (part spark, part bicycle), the spark quickly caught fire, and they roped in fellow campmates and other artists from the Arts District for months of planning and implementation.

For Seth, the concept was simple: a night ride during Art-a-Whirl. “For a hundred bucks, we could deck out a couple dozen riders with EL wire and some blinky lights.” Even just a handful of lit-up riders parading around the District would be pretty visible. “That sounded like fun.”

But the recruits had ideas of their own. First was the unanimous adoption of the 2026 theme: Disco Cowboy. Deborah Barton and Chad Anderson’s western sets (built for other local Burning Man events) could be the centerpieces. Every meeting after this generated new ideas. And, as artists, exactly zero ideas turned out to be bad, and 100% of the ideas were implemented.

If you happened to find yourself inside the Flux Arts Building during the weekend, you would have had to fight the crowds to access more than a dozen ways to deck yourself out or your bike with free make & take events tailored to the Disco Cowboy theme. You could decorate your bike helmet. You could make a belt buckle. You could make trash-chaps. You could build a flag for your steed. You could write ransom notes. The list was obnoxiously long. Art to Change the World was even offering toy horses for Bedazzling.

Then on Saturday evening, more than 100 make & takers showed up in their Disco Cowboy best for Recovery Bike Shop’s Sparcle night ride. They overcrowded the small parking lot behind the bike shop and spent hours decorating their bikes with Reco’s free lights and items donated from the Flux collection.

Just before sunset, Seth climbed on top of the bike shop’s truck to be heard by the crowd spilling out into the alley. He explained the heartbreak of losing his Burning Man community several years ago and then announced that this night marked a new beginning. And then he introduced them to the Pink Pony, a 1986 bubblegum pink Cannondale SR600. As the sun began to set, Seth and the Pink Pony threaded through the crowd and took the lead. The riders turned on their lights and followed to unknown destinations.

For Seth, that was enough. He’d told the crowd that his perfect Art-a-Whirl was riding around the Arts District with his friends. But there was so much more in store for these Sparclers.

Seth and the Pink Pony headed down the bike path on Lowry. There was no hurry. The ride stretched for blocks, and the last riders had barely left Recovery Bike Shop before the front of the ride reached the JROW Sculpture Park.

Seth and the Pony led the group past the sculptures at Edison High School and the Alpine Fence on 19th. They stopped at the grain silos behind the Casket Building and the Sculpture Factory for a group photo and then drifted down 13th together for the first real surprise of the evening.

On a typical NE residential street, Seth suddenly turned the Pink Pony into a private driveway and disappeared under an arch of lights into the back yard. There was really no way for the hundred-plus riders to follow, and they bunched up on the sidewalk and in the street until Seth reemerged and announced, “Find a place to put your bike and come on back. We’re here!”

Bleeding Hearts Studio, in the garage of a single-family home, has a chain link fence marking the property line. In planning conversations, riders were meant to lock their bikes to this fence, a solution that could have accommodated a couple of dozen bikes. Instead, riders had to form lock-up clumps of bikes with their friends on the boulevard, in the parking lane, and all the way up the driveway. Most left their bike lights on.

The piles of bikes were their own ephemeral sculpture, speaking briefly but powerfully about the changing nature of Art-a-Whirl. Today’s Whirlers are searching for more than an opportunity to view and patronize Northeast’s art scene. The new crowds are looking for experiences. Indeed, Bauhaus, and Earl Giles have been capitalizing on this culture shift for a few years now. But Sparcle gave spectators a way to become participants. All lit up and riding as a mass, the Sparclers created a moving piece of art that flashed and shifted with every pedal stroke.

In Bleeding Hearts’ backyard studio, the group found food, beverages, more lights, and karaoke. Then it was off again into the night. They wound past the California Building and then to Holland Arts East, eventually coming to the Flux Arts Building and Deborah and Chad’s western sets.

At the Flux, Sparclers were greeted by a neon Vegas Vic. Live music by Soul Trouvère

had already begun. Within minutes, flapjacks were poured onto a griddle. Some of the make & take stations were still going. 100+ Disco Cowboys again locked up their bikes and filled out another party. Lastly, Larry Gaga took the stage and had the group cheering.

130 people showed up for the first annual Sparcle night ride. More than a thousand were drawn to events at the Flux. And thousands more are kicking themselves today for missing Sparcle this year. They will have to wait for Art-a-Whirl 2027.

But if you’d like to host a destination for hundreds of Sparclers next year, Recovery Bike Shop is taking Sparcle applications now. Reach out!

We are the spark!