What Did You Do Last Saturday? -- A Factory 500 Recap

This past Saturday evening, the Mattress Factory’s Factory 500 members toured Millvale and Sharpsburg. These events, specially planned for our Factory 500 and Patron level members, are amazing behind-the-scenes glimpses into the lives of creative thinkers and doers in our Pittsburgh community.

The evening began at St. Nicholas Church in Millvale. The church is home of Maxo Vanka’s famous murals (and the most amazing tour guide, Mary Petrich). After St. Nicholas we headed over to Red Star Ironworks, a blacksmithing studio chock-full of incredible custom fabricated metal designs of all shapes and sizes (including Pete Lambert’s new motorcycles!). Our next stop during our snowy stroll was Mr. Smalls Funhouse. Mr. Smalls is, well, hard to describe. It’s part concert venue, part loft apartments, part recording studio, part skate park and a million things in between. Mike Speranzo, owner of Mr. Smalls, gave us a chance to see where all the rock stars hang out before, during and after the show.



Next stop, Sharpsburg. We were treated to a peek at how Zoe Collins, purveyor of Threadneedle Street boutique, works when she stitches together wonderful clothing like she did for the Mattress Factory's Urban Garden Party fashion show two years ago. Factory 500 members wrapped up the night at James and Wendy Osher’s studio. He showed us lots of beautiful large-scale photography prints like this and this. (Psst! Wendy Osher has a piece you should check out over at the Carnegie Museum’s Heinz Architectural Center.)



I’d like to thank everyone who braved the cold and inclement weather to make it out on Saturday. It was another unforgettable event. The next Factory 500 event in July won’t be as snowy. Pinkie-swear.

If you’re interested in becoming a member at the Factory 500 level (or any level), feel free to contact me via email at lindsay[at]mattress[dot]org or calling the museum at 412.231.3169 (and, yes, we can break down membership dues into monthly payments).

P.S. Check out more photos from the evening over at the Mattress Factory's Factory 500 Flickr page.

POSTED BY LINDSAY Read All Posts by Lindsay