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Owner Kristen Addeo shows craft items for sale at arts and crafts shop The Big Picture in the Riverside section of Greenwich, Conn. Thursday, July 13, 2022. Located at 1162 E. Putnam Ave., this new business allows children to craft and paint their own wood carvings, clothing, jewelry, and more. The shop also sells children’s games and gifts.
Violet McCann makes a DIY necklace at The Big Picture arts and crafts store in the Riverside section of Greenwich, Conn. Thursday, July 13, 2022. Located at 1162 E. Putnam Ave., this new business allows children to create and paint their own wood carvings, clothing, jewelry and more. The shop also sells children’s games and gifts.
Big Picture arts and crafts store opens in the Riverside section of Greenwich, Conn. Thursday, July 13, 2022. Located at 1162 E. Putnam Ave., this new business allows children to create and paint wood carvings, clothing, jewelry and more. The shop also sells children’s games and gifts.
Old Greenwich resident Erin Luke and her son, Aidan Luke, 6, browse the arts and crafts shop The Big Picture in the Riverside section of Greenwich, Conn. Thursday, July 13, 2022. Located at 1162 E. Putnam Ave., the new business allows children to create and paint their own wood carvings, clothing, jewelry, and more. The shop also sells children’s games and gifts.
Owner Kristen Addeo shows craft items for sale at arts and crafts shop The Big Picture in the Riverside section of Greenwich, Conn. Thursday, July 13, 2022. Located at 1162 E. Putnam Ave., this new business allows children to craft and paint their own wood carvings, clothing, jewelry, and more. The shop also sells children’s games and gifts.
Craft items are displayed at The Big Picture arts and crafts shop in the Riverside section of Greenwich, Conn. Thursday, July 13, 2022. Located at 1162 E. Putnam Ave., this new business lets kids create and paint their own wood carvings, clothing, jewelry and more. The shop also sells children’s games and gifts.
Owner Kristen Addeo helps customers at The Big Picture arts and crafts shop in the Riverside section of Greenwich, Conn. Thursday, July 13, 2022. Located at 1162 E. Putnam Ave., this new business allows children to create and paint their own wood carvings, clothing, jewelry and more. The shop also sells children’s games and gifts.
Owner Kristen Addeo shows items for sale at arts and crafts shop The Big Picture in the Riverside section of Greenwich, Conn. Thursday, July 13, 2022. Located at 1162 E. Putnam Ave., this new business allows kids to create and paint having wood carvings, clothing, jewelry and more. The shop also sells children’s games and gifts.
Old Greenwich resident Erin Luke and her son, Aidan Luke, 6, browse the arts and crafts shop The Big Picture in the Riverside section of Greenwich, Conn. Thursday, July 13, 2022. Located at 1162 E. Putnam Ave., the new business allows children to create and paint their own wood carvings, clothing, jewelry, and more. The shop also sells children’s games and gifts.
GREENWICH — A mother of three and former teacher, Kristen Addeo says she has always enjoyed providing arts and crafts to young people.
Her mother operates an arts and crafts shop in her home state of Texas. “I grew up with arts and crafts my whole life,” Addeo says.
So it made sense for him to open The Big Picture on Riverside, a new retail store that in its first week offered art projects, toys and gifts to the younger population in the community.
Addeo says she always has to drive out of town to take her kids to places where they can create their own projects and get art supplies. Greenwich, he argued, could use a new business that catered to the artistic needs of young people, who were out of school during the summer.
“I decided it was something the community needed,” he said.
Addeo left her teaching job at a charter school in New York City six years ago to make time for her own children, and the desire to return to the workforce was another motivator for opening a shop, she said.
“I was like – what next? I was ready to pursue the next part of my life, and I always knew I would progress in this direction,” he recalls.
It didn’t hurt that she lived not far from the new shop, which was in a small commercial center on Post Road on Riverside. The business is a family affair for her son and husband, Dale, who is also very supportive of the concept of opening an art shop.
“I’m artistic and creative, and I love doing this with all the kids I know, the neighborhood kids,” she concluded.
A local mother, Elisabeth Miranowski, said she loved having a place to take her kids for some fun and educational activities in the summer.
“It’s nice to have something nearby,” he says, and doesn’t have to drive to another city for a craft project.
The timing couldn’t be better either, Miranowski notes, with growing interest in do-it-yourself projects.
“These past two years, with COVID, we ordered online. Now, you can come and see it, look at it, compare, be excited that you found it, decide what you want to do,” he said, “It’s very touching.”
