pARTy LAB on Friday, December 30th

We had so much fun the day after Thanksgiving for our annual 2011 Family Day we’ve decided to do it again! Join us for pARTy LAB on Friday, December 30th from 11am-4pm for art activities in the museum’s lobby.

Here are photos from our Family Day last month... we loved it so much we're doing again!

Make a DIY Roadkill (inspired by Nika Kupyrova’s installation on our 3rd floor). Using fabric and clothing remnants, visitors can design their own stuffed creations. Museum educators will be on hand to sew and stick the freshly stuffed works of art together securely.

With New Year’s celebrations imminent, family-day participants can stop by our HAT-LAB to create one of a kind head-wear suitable for the most spectacular parties. Ring in the New Year in style—even your most fashion-forward friends will be envious.

Girls and Boys of all ages are invited to get down at our New Year’s pre-party at the MF.

pARTy LAB 
Art activities for all ages
Friday, December 30th 
11am-4pm
Free with museum admission


POSTED BY LIZ
 Read All Posts by Liz

Good Gravy, It's Family Day!

As usual the Mattress Factory will be hosting its yearly Black Friday Family Day on November 25th from 11am-4pm (the day after Thanksgiving)! Avoid the shopping crowds and enjoy not one, but TWO fantastic exhibitions in our galleries and hands-on art activities for the whole family in our lobby. 

We are especially excited this year that visitors can experience artists’ work from (literally) all over the world. Sites of Passage, an exhibit on contemporary Egyptian life and art—from the perspectives of American and Egyptian artists—can be found in our annex building.  Special guest, Sites of Passage Curator, Tavia La Follette will give a guided tour of the exhibit at 1pm (first come, first serve—space is limited).  At 2pm, Gary Huck—Firefly Tunnel participant and political cartoonist—will host a drop-in collage-cartooning workshop until 4pm in the museum’s lobby. All ages and types are welcome! 

 Join Gary Huck for his drop-in
collage-cartooning workshop on 11/25/11!

Visitors can also take in the museum’s newest exhibition, Factory Installed--brand new site-specific installations by 5 artists (from 5 different countries) in our galleries at 500 Sampsonia Way. Join us all day for a lobby activity based on Pablo Valbuena’s mind-bending installation, Para-Site [mattress factory].

Pablo Valbuena standing in front of his installation, Para-Site [mattress factory]

Also in our lobby will be our newest education project, Tamatebako. Created by Japanese artist Yumi Kori, Tamatebako is a portable, fabric room for experiencing space. See it at the MF before it is lent to the Children’s Museum for the entire month of December.

 MF Shannon (right) and I (left) try out Tamatebako

Of course as always, discover (or perhaps revisit) our noteworthy permanent collection works in both buildings, grab a bite to eat in our café, and indulge in a bit of holiday shopping in our unique museum store.

Hope to see you all there!

PS: I heard a rumor that there MAY be a complimentary hot chocolate bar and stamp-your-own holiday wrap station as well…. Just sayin'!

Mattress Factory Education and Outreach programs are supported by the Allegheny Regional Assets District, Milton and Sally Avery Art Foundation, Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, The Jack Buncher Foundation, the Grable Foundation, Institute for Museum and Library Services, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, PNC Charitable Trusts, and the Surdna Foundation.

POSTED BY LIZ Read All Posts by Liz

Hangin' out at Lake Liz for Art Outdoors

Thursday, September 1st, is the final day of Art Outdoors for 2011.

Every Thursday during the summer, the MF Education Department has set up shop in West Park near Lake Elizabeth on the Northside. We've offered a range of different hands-on activities related to the outdoors and art each week. We partnered with Venture Outdoors and Kayak Pittsburgh for this unique program – thanks to them and for everyone involved* in helping provide free weekly programs for all ages. You'll find us under the blue tent next to Kayak Pittsburgh's unmistakable yellow kayaks (and, yes, you can try your hand at paddling on the little lake for free).

The summer has flown by, so if you haven't had a chance to stop by yet, we hope to see you tomorrow (Lake Liz, 4-6pm, free). For encouragement, we leave you with a few photos from this summer's activities, including a photo of our lovely Director of Education, Liz Keller, and Museum Educator, Gian Carlos, making their way to the Lake via the Mattress Factory staff's favorite form of transportation: bicycling!

Liz and Gian in the MF parking lot heading out to Art Outdoors last Thursday

The Aviary makes magic happen for our 2nd annual Art Outdoors dove release

Kayak Pittsburgh is on hand to teach you how to paddle

Don't want to get wet? Head over to the MF art tent and get creative

Nothing like chillin' in a boat in an urban setting

*Mattress Factory Education and Outreach programs are supported by the Allegheny Regional Assets District, the Grable Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Dove Release: Liz's favorite day of the year

Tomorrow is Liz's favorite day of the year. Head over to Lake Elizabeth in West Park at 4pm tomorrow (Thursday, July 7, 2011) and see why:

Dove release thanks to our friends – both bird and human – from the Aviary

Education Coordinator Shannon shared this morning, "Last year during the dove release, Liz was like an innocent child experiencing her very first Christmas morning." Here is photographic proof.

Let's just zoom in on this face of pure joy.

Where: Lake Liz in West Park, Northside, Pittsburgh, PA

When: Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 4pm sharp

Cost: FREE

Who: Everyone is welcome

Thanks: A special thanks to our friends at the National Aviary

Why?: This is just one activity as part of our summer-long Art Outdoors each and every Thursday

POSTED BY LINDSAY Read All Posts by Lindsay

ART OUTDOORS NOW THROUGH 9/1/11

Every Thursday from now until Labor day the MF education department will set up shop in West Park near Lake Elizabeth (we like to call her Lake Liz) on the Northside. We’ll offer a different hands-on activity related to the outdoors and art each week! We’re excited to partner with Venture Outdoors and Kayak Pittsburgh for this, our 2nd year – providing free weekly programs for all ages!

MFers hanging out making art at Lake Liz

Located in the city’s oldest park, Allegheny Commons/West Park, Lake Elizabeth is perfect for families, beginning kayakers, or anyone nervous about getting out on the river. Just 3 feet deep, this shallow lake offers great views of the downtown skyline in a controlled environment. Allegheny Commons is located on Pittsburgh’s North Side near the National Aviary and only a few blocks from the Mattress Factory.

Kayak Pittsburgh lets you poke around the lake

When: Every Thursday (June 2 - September 1, 2011), 4-6pm
Where: At Lake Elizabeth
Who: You, Mattress Factory, and Kayak Pittsburgh
Cost: FREE ($5 per kayak on weekends)

POSTED BY LIZ Read All Posts by Liz

FAMILY DAY IS NOVEMBER 26, 2010

Every year the Mattress Factory hosts a Family Day the Friday after Thanksgiving. It gives people the option of avoiding the malls and finding something fun to do with out-of-town visitors that doesn’t involve making a mess of your home. It is much nicer here than at a crowded mall, I swear. We have a delicious café, beautiful museum shop (you can STILL GO SHOPPING), a wonderful exhibition, and, of course our – never disappointing – permanent collection.

Viewing Guardarraya by María Magdalena Campos-Pons, October 2010

This year we’ll be offering hands-on activities in our lobby from 11am-4pm for the entire family. PLUS, we’ll have special guests from Hear Me—an initiative of the CREATE Lab at Carnegie Mellon University that engages children in creative conversations about their lives and uses technology and media to broadcast their stories throughout our region. They’ll be collecting stories in honor of the National Day of Listening. We’re especially excited that they’re coming because Family Day will kick off what we hope to be a sustained collaboration with the folks at Hear Me.

Mother and son listening to a Hear Me project

Contact the MF’s Education Department for more information: education [at] mattress [dot] org

Internships at the MF

Part of my role as Director of Education here at the Mattress Factory involves coordinating internships. This is great because I have the unique opportunity to meet and get to know many young students as they assemble a professional pathway or imagine their post-graduation role within the world. For some, an internship can give insight into what it is they are passionate about and how to translate what they love into what they do. For others, an internship can be a stepping-stone or a bullet point on their resume. An internship can show an individual as much about what it is they do NOT want to do, as it can about what they do want to do. No matter the outcome, an internship can be a life-altering experience that forces a change of major, change of perception, or perhaps just a change of scenery.

Anymore, I find that college students want bigger, longer, and more intensive internships—they want to stay for two (or three) semesters instead of one, want to spend 20 (or 40) hours at the MF, instead of 12. This new trend is so mutually beneficial. The individual gets the inside scoop and is folded into the full-time staff as an integral member. The organization gets a whole lot more work done!

Ok, it’s more than that: student interns come loaded with freshly honed, cutting edge skills. For those of us who have been sitting behind desks for a few years, it’s an opportunity to learn from the student and see contemporary points of view. We can ask questions like, “How would you organize this information?” “What tools would you use to convey this message?” “How would you prioritize this to-do list?” “Can you help me decide if we’ve been successful?”

At the Mattress Factory, we are lucky to have interns from all over the world -- from local universities, and from universities far and wide. We have enjoyed working with interns with a range of ages and interests. Some have master’s degrees, some don’t yet have high school diplomas. An individual’s unique perspective and experiences are what draws us to them (and probably vice versa).

Having an intern means developing projects, asking and answering a million questions, giving advice, and in the end it means saying goodbye to somebody who you probably grew to depend on. In many cases, it can even mean saying goodbye to a friend. But, in the BEST cases, it means watching somebody take off into a wild world of choices and opportunities, hopefully made a little easier by having had a fruitful experience working at the Mattress Factory.

POSTED BY LIZ Read All Posts by Liz

Elizabeth Keller, Director of Education

Elizabeth Keller, Director of Education Extra-Curricular Interests getting outside, sewing stuff, rearranging my house, watching my daughter figure stuff out... What artists are currently in heavy rotation on your iPod? no thanks... 94.5--all oldies all the time is where I'm at. [and Horse or Cycle] If you could bring two things with you to a deserted island, what would they be? my family (counts as one thing) and a piano or other musical instrument. If you could have dinner with one person from history, who would it be and why? Lewis and Clark-their journey started in.... PITTSBURGH. One more thing we should know about you: I'm a mad list-maker, love kerchiefs around my neck + wind in my hair, and never stop at just one of anything... READ ALL POSTS BY LIZ