Family Activity Guide

School's out, but the learning doesn't have to stop!

We welcome families with children of all ages to explore and enjoy our room-sized installations. It is our goal for your family to have a fun experience with art! To supplement these visits, we also deliver outside opportunities for kids and students to keep on creating!

Mini-Factory is a series for little ones ages 3 to 5 with big ideas. These workshops combine children's story and play time, and each week is centered on multi-sensory themes from the everyday to learn about and explore! Mini-Factory takes places every other Saturday (the second and fourth of the month) from 10-11 am.

Upcoming Mini-Factorys
August 13: MOVEMENT
August 27: LOOK

Looking for an activity for the whole family? Delve into the galleries on a Saturday afternoon and finish off with an interactive ARTLab workshop from 1-4 pm. ARTLab is designed for visitors of all ages to play with project design and installations inspired by our exhibitions and artists. Expect to get your hands dirty and be ready for some fun collaboration! The program is FREE with admission.

Upcoming ARTLabs
August 6: Share An Imaginary Space (Factory Installed — Wendy Judge)
August 20: Light Lab (Factory Installed — Kevin Clancy)

Learn, explore and create this summer at the Mattress Factory!

RECAP // ARTLab: Weave a Memory

Everyone had so much fun creating our collaborative installation in the Lobby last Saturday for ARTlab. Visitors of all ages worked together to assemble a massive yarn web inspired by Chiharu Shiota's piece Trace of Memory. Instead of trapping memories, it felt like we were encapsulating giggles in our web box!

ARTLab February 20th 'Still life, a performance by Adam Milner' 

Our next ARTlab, 'Still life, a Performance by Adam Milner,' is on is on Saturday February 20th and will take place in the Mattress Factory Lobby. The Pittsburgh-based artist will be recruiting help from visitors to bring his piece together during ARTlab from 1 - 4. Stop by to help him out, or just to see what he is up to! This event is FREE with museum admission.

  

RECAP // ARTLab with Julie Schenkelberg

Last week we had a blast breaking plates and saucers at ARTLab! We were inspired by Julie Schenkelberg's piece on view at our gallery at 1414 Monterey Street, The Color of Temperance, Embodied Energy. Just as the artist did, visitors took a turn at breaking plates and then everyone helped to rearrange the broken pieces of the plates to give them new life in a collaborative installation.

The next ARTLab program is one for the holidays! On December 19, we will be creating scribble-machine wrapping paper for holiday present! The Mattress Factory Winter Art Market will also be in full swing, so you can wrap up your hand-made purchases with one-of-a-kind wrapping paper too.

ARTLab is a drop-in, hands-on interactive program for all ages.

PREVIEW // ARTLAB: Summer in the Mattress Factory Gardens!

Recently in the garden: magic tricks during the Community Garden Party.

Winifred Lutz designed and built the garden installation from the rubble of the old paper factory, native plants, and boulders from the area, linking past and present, urban and natural landscapes. For our next ARTLab on Saturday July 18, we'll be enjoying our time in the garden and tapping into some summertime nostalgia with the following activities:

Make your own MAGIC POTION mixture with water, herbs, and special magic garden items!

MUD PIES! Make yourself or a friend a lovely muddy confection and decorate it with whatever you can find in the garden.

Make a newspaper sit-upon so you can sit wherever you'd like in the garden. At 3pm, we'll have an imaginary TEA PARTY and play some improvised tea party games.

It's summer, let's have some fun! And in the meantime you might uncover some fun hidden secrets that Winifred Lutz left in the garden. 

As always, ARTLab is FREE with museum admission and is fun for all ages!

PREVIEW // ARTLab: Feel the Music!

Ever wonder why music makes you feel the way you do? The secret's in the low frequency sound. For this upcoming ARTLab program, you'll have the opportunity to make your own low-frequency music and sounds that you can hear and feel for yourself!

By experimenting with speaker settings and levels, you can see how music affects anything from a person's mood to a whole room's atmosphere. Inspired by Danny Bracken's 2014 piece, What Does It Mean?, explore sound and its effects on the subconscious by creating it yourself. From toddlers to adults, the Mattress Factory invites all to participate in "Feel the Music!" on Saturday, June 6 at 1pm. Be sure to come early to enjoy a guided tour of the museum - both are complementary with museum admission.

PREVIEW // ARTLab: Penny Arcade in the Galleries!

This Saturday, Penny Arcade is joining us again at the Mattress Factory for some afternoon fun! Using inspiration from the artwork and input from visitors, the Penny Players will create spontaneous theater right in the galleries.

Penny Arcade's Penny Players at their Winter Cheer show!

Penny Arcade is an improv comedy group specializing in family shows at Arcade Comedy Theater every second Saturday at 1pm. The show is a fun and creative learning opportunity for children to see how their contributions can change a story into something zany and unique.

Improvised comedy is a type of theater that is made up in the moment. None of the content of an improvised show is ever rehearsed beforehand. There are no scripts or lines to memorize - it’s all created by the performers using suggestions from the audience. It is an agreement between the performers to play together and to accept and build upon the ideas each performer brings to the stage. Just as our Mattress Factory artists-in-residence are inspired and influenced by the gallery space, an improviser also takes inspiration from their fellow performers, the theater space, and the audience who comes to watch. We’re really excited to have installation art and improv in the same place this weekend.

Come to the Mattress Factory this Saturday and see some live performances by the Penny Arcade. They need your suggestions to make their show come alive.

As always, ARTLab is FREE with admission and takes place from 1-4pm in the MF Lobby. All ages welcome (even adults).  Don't forget there’s also a FREE drop-in tour that begins at noon - just meet at the Admissions Desk at that time to join in.

Penny Arcade’s next show will be on March 14 at 1pm downtown at Arcade Comedy Theater, just in time to celebrate the St. Patrick's Day parade festivities!

PREVIEW // ARTLab: Feel the Music

  In our last ARTLab we created TAZs (Temporary Autonomous Zones) and people got SUPER SILLY. Check out how much fun people had when they rewrote the rules and had some fun.



If you have ever watched a dramatic movie scene or comedy, you certainly understand the importance of sound and music in art to evoke emotion. The right music can completely affect the way you view almost anything, including visual art, as exhibited by Danny Bracken’s What Does It Mean? When I visited the installation this weekend with sound on my mind, I began thinking about what it would be like without the soundtrack playing in the room. Would I see the piece the same or would my feelings about it completely change? I’m sure I wouldn’t have considered the feeling of false naturalness as greatly if the digital recording wasn’t playing.



Exploration of the idea of feeling and interacting with sound and music is the focus of the next ARTLab this Saturday, February 21, 2015 in the Mattress Factory Lobby. We will be experimenting with low frequency sounds from a variety of sources to investigate the different ways sound and music can be experienced. There will also be a cool gadget that can generate low frequencies and allow you to feel the vibrations in your body, taking the idea to a whole new level! Whether you toot on some jugs or literally feel the music with a signal generator through a big speaker, you’re bound to have a great time playing with and contemplating the sensations of sound.

ARTLab and Drop-in Tours are open to all ages and FREE with museum admission, so come down and explore the world of sound and music with us!

PREVIEW // February 7 ARTLab: Gettin' Silly!

Making spaceships at the last ARTLab was more popular than we expected! We were so impressed by the enthusiasm and the creativity of all our participants. Folks used recycled cardboard boxes and LED lights to make their own spaceships, taking inspiration from Ryder Henry's installation Diaspora.

 

When visiting a museum or gallery, how do you typically act? I would guess you are very courteous and quiet, while trying your hardest to avoid touching things. At the next ARTLab, we will be breaking that habit by bringing Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZs for short) to the Mattress Factory.

What is a TAZ you ask? According to artist in residence Benjamin Sota, they are a “socio-political tactic of creating temporary spaces that elude formal structures of control” and can be very influential in how people think about society. In these spaces, individuals can act in ways they normally wouldn’t dare, free from the constraints of  “normal” societal behavior. Sota creates a TAZ in his exhibition Damn everything but the circus, an installation that invites viewers to forget the rules and play to get a full understanding of the pieces.

 

At the upcoming ARTLab, visitors will be invited to create their own TAZs, each with a different “rule” everyone must follow upon entering - the sillier, the better. Sota makes it clear that TAZs don’t work unless EVERYONE commits, so come out and join us for a fun afternoon of breaking the rules!

ARTLab and Drop-in Tours are open to all ages and free with museum admission. See you there!

PREVIEW // ARTLab: Mask-Making + Performance with Benjamin Sota!

Benjamin Sota, whose work is currently on display at the museum, will be leading a circus and physical theater workshop in his installation Damn everything but the circus from 1-2:30pm on Saturday, January 2. Learn how to use the circus equipment in his installation, some neat physical theater moves, and mask techniques. The workshop is $5 and you can RSVP by emailing education@matress.org.

In addition to the workshop, you can join us in the lobby and make your own mask at an ARTLab program from 1-4pm! We’ll have another performance at 4pm where you can learn and show off some more physical theater moves in your very own mask. Maybe you can try on a mask made by someone else, too!

You may find that you feel more free to do things you would otherwise not do when you have a mask on. Ben’s installation invites you to interact and perform in a space where, in any other normal situation, you’d be "breaking the rules" - to play, make loud noises and touch a piece of art in a museum. He calls the circus a Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ). Creating a TAZ is a socio-political tactic of creating temporary spaces that elude formal structures of control andhave been know to spark change throughout the world.

If you gave yourself permission to put on a fun mask, break some of your own internal rules of behavior, play and perform in a new way for a little while, perhaps you’ll discover something you could try differently in the way you move about the world.

Come play with us! ARTLab is free with your museum admission and is open to all ages.

PREVIEW // ARTLab: Scribble Machine Wrapping Paper for the Winter Art Market!

Enjoy the Winter Art Market and make your own Scribble Machine Wrapping Paper to wrap up those one-of-a-kind gifts! Here are some pictures of Scribble Machines in action from last weekend's Member Appreciation event.

 
Happy Holidays from the Mattress Factory! We hope to see you Saturday!