2012 Urban Garden Party: Alice at the Factory countdown!

Hard to believe, but our annual fundraiser, the Urban Garden Party, is just six weeks away! Things are really heating up for another fabulous event full of great food & drink, fresh sounds from multiple music performers from near (Pittsburgh) and far (NYC and Oregon), and a few fantastic curiosities. Follow this image during the next few weeks for a little surprise – we'll reveal a piece of the puzzle every other day.

UPDATE 5/18/12: The Queen of Hearts is none other than our fearless leader, founder and Co-Director Barbara Luderowski!

Tickets have sold out the last two years and we're on pace to sell out even sooner, so purchase your tickets today and enjoy a great party while supporting a great museum.

Paul Nosa: Sewing People's Imagination

A few days ago we received a request from Paul Nosa to hang out here at the museum and "sew people's imagination." We said yes.


Watch this video for some AMAZING backwards writing with thread.

Paul Nosa: sewing people's imagination. "Unexpected visitor at the tea party in the sky."
 
Paul is a sewing artist from Tucson, Arizona. He draws people's imagination with a sewing machine powered by a solar panel and a bicycle electric generator. He's currently on a sewing tour across America facilitating people's creativity and showing them how to make their own alternative energy sources.

Paul Nosa: sewing your dreams five words [or less] at a time. "Swimming through the day."
 
If you can think of a scenario in five words or less, he will sew it on the spot using a bicycle-powered sewing machine. When he isn't using his bicycle, he has some photovoltaic panels to juice up a battery which he can connect to his sewing machine on his distinctively outer space looking "Solar Sewing Rover." You can purchase your custom patch from him and walk away with a one-of-a-kind piece of art and feel great knowing you're supporting this talented artist's trek across the continent. We also have a few cool limited edition Paul Nosa MF totes available in the MF Shop.


Who: Paul Nosa
What: Sewing Artist from Tuscon is stopping by the Mattress Factory during his U.S. tour on his way from New York City to Los Angeles. 
This event is sponsored by the MF Shop.
When: Saturday, May 5, 2012, 11am-4pm
Where: In the Mattress Factory's "Garden" (or in the lobby if rain)

ArtLab: Projection Perception

This Saturday’s ArtLab will showcase Factory Installed artist Pablo Valbuena's video projection, Para-Site [mattress factory]. Pablo uses light and projection on a static wall to emphasize the preexisting architecture in the Museum. In doing so, he lays out the blueprint for an animated virtual space. At different times throughout his installation, it appears as if windows are folding and the space reflected by mirrors. None of these things physical happen; they’re all amazing optical illusions. Pablo explains his work as the "dissolution of the limit between real and perceived."

Pablo Valbuena's mind-bending installation, Para-Site [mattress factory]

This week’s featured ArtLab workshop leader is local installation artist and Mattress Factory Educator, Esti Piels. Esti will provide a video that the museum visitor will collaboratively create the context by drafting or illustrating a physical setting for the projection. Each visitor will be asked to view the video first and then create a composition or scene for the narrative to occur. This temporary "scenario" will be living for the duration of the brief projection while being video documented by Esti. She will then piece together each documented scene to create a feature length video collaboration. The finished product will be available on this blog in the near future.

 Pablo Valbuena's installation being enjoyed by Museum visitors.

Join Esti this Saturday and add your creative piece to this video collaboration!

What: ArtLab: Projection Perception
When: Saturday, May 5, 2012, 1-4pm
Where: In the Museum's lobby
Cost: Free w/ paid Museum admission


Left: Esti thinking hard about how to make 
Saturday's ArtLab fantastic

ArtLab: Come and FIND where you FIT IN!

Hi, Shannon the Education Programs Coordinator here. I’ve often proudly described the Mattress Factory as the “Island of Misfit Toys.” We love the diversity within our community of dedicated art-lovers and enthusiasts who frequent the Museum. This weekend we would like you to have a chance to contribute a piece of yourself to one of our ArtLab installations. Tomorrow we will be hosting a non-traditional, nonsectarian holiday ovule hunt (okay, okay, you can call it an art Easter egg hunt if you must).

Tomorrow from 1:00-4:00pm, visitors will be invited to search the galleries for items to be added to a collective installation. You may be surprised by what you find! We want the finished result to tell an interesting Mattress Factory tale of who we all are together.

These will be hidden throughout the Museum tomorrow – find one and bring it back to the lobby to help us complete the puzzle!

This project is a nod to Ling He's installation Wish exchange dandelion in our new exhibition "Gestures: Intimate Friction" over at our 1414 Monterey galleries. Ling says, "My wish to explore generosity is dispersed through 99 puzzle pieces traveling in balloon style that would spirit innocent spotters to return them, with drawings on their backs, to the gallery. Neither the puzzle, nor the room, has a right answer – it is defined with how much each participant would like to give."

 These are the puzzle pieces to Ling's installation Wish exchange dandelion which are somewhere out there in the North Side (if you find one, bring it back to the MF for free admission!)

At the bottom of each of these balloons is one of those clear puzzle pieces from Ling's Wish exchange dandelion. Museum visitors released these puzzle pieces and balloons during the exhibition opening on Friday, March 30th

In the spirit of Ling's community-building installation with all of those lovely red balloons, we'd love to see you tomorrow to locate and take these little pink coin machine capsules scattered around the galleries and help complete the installation!

ArtLab
Saturday, April 7, 2012
1-4pm
All ages
FREE w/paid Museum admission

A blast through the past 15 Gestures exhibitions

As our artists are feverishly working away down at 1414 Monterey, we hope you are all getting excited for the opening celebration of our sixteenth Gestures exhibition on March 30th, 2012! Join us on Friday, March 30th, from 6-8pm to check out Gestures: Intimate Friction.

Each year, several artists come to our satellite galleries at 1414 Monterey to create site-specific works for our Gestures exhibitions. To help prepare you for the excitement that is about to ensue, we have provided you with a smattering of past Gestures works from throughout the years. Enjoy!

Tom Bedger

Fall, 2001

Gestures 1

Harry Schwalb

Workplace, 2002

Gestures 2

Nathan Nissim

Heliogabalous, 2002

Gestures 3

Robin Stanaway

Collective Corrected Vision, 2003

Gestures 4

Todd Swan

Lamplight, 2003

Gestures 5

Nami Ogawa

, 2005

Gestures 6

Peter Lambert

Sketches in Steel, 2005

Gestures 7

David Sleasman

Hybrids: Pittsburgh: Prairie, 2005

Gestures 8

Jen Lucchino & Freddie Croce

Untitled, 2006

Gestures 9

Jairan Sadeghi

The Current State of Things at Point A, 2008

Gestures 10

Derk Wolmuth

Space Vacuum, 2008

Gestures 11

Amber Coppings

Echoes of Objects, 2009

Gestures 12

Patricia Villalobos Echeverria

Parasite (40°27'25"N 80°00'48"W), 2009

Gestures 13

Ryder Henry

Periphery, 2010

Gestures 14

Jerstin Crosby

On the Inside, 2011

Gestures 15

Gestures 16 "Gestures: Intimate Friction" is guest-curated by Mary-Lou Arscott, of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Architecture. Participants include Nina Marie Barbuto, Dee Briggs, Nick Durrant, Jeremy Ficca, Pablo Garcia, Jenn Gooch, Ling He, Matt Huber, Nick Liadis, Transformazium, Gill Wildman, and Spike Wolff. Again, the opening reception is Friday, March 30, 2012, 6-8pm, and runs through September 16, 2012.

ArtLab: Experimenting with Light

Light makes visible the objects of our world, but rarely do we think of light as an object itself. James Turrell’s artwork invites us to consider light to be more than an illuminator of objects. He invites us to examine light as an art medium- something that can be molded and manipulated. In his installations, Turrell uses his knowledge of psychology and visual phenomena to impact the viewer’s eye, mind, and body.  

Danaë, 1983, one of our three permanent installations by James Turrell

James Turrell’s light installations are ineffective without careful consideration and manipulation of the space that contains the light. This week’s ARTLAb invites you to create your very own light installation in the lobby of the Mattress Factory. By using translucent materials, a projector, and the interior architecture of the Museum you will be challenged to create a unique environment inspired by James Turrell’s work. How can YOU change the look and feeling of a place?     

Catso, Red, 1994, one of our three permanent installations by James Turrell

Join us for this month's ArtLab in the lobby at 500 Sampsonia Way on Saturday, March 17th from 1-4pm and experiment with light! All ages are welcome and it's free with paid museum admission.

An ode to our tireless volunteers

Hi friends! Maria here. I'm a new voice on the MF weblog, but those of you who have been to the museum have probably met me – I staff the admissions desk 5 days a week. In addition to handing out those cool little plastic admissions tags, I'm responsible for other things too. One of them is recruiting, training, and scheduling volunteers to help out at the museum.
  
                 

Erin Phillips keeps a watchful eye over the work of Chris Craychee and Jerstin Crosby at the Gestures 15 opening.

Volunteers, you say? Well, yes! Our staff is full of hardworking people, but we can't do it all. When that happens, we call in some of the most dedicated people in the MF family: our volunteers. Ever visited the MF? Chances are the person who served you your drink at that opening, helped you find your way through James Turrell's light installations on your first visit, or assembled the exhibition guide was a volunteer.

Instructor Teresa Martuccio and volunteer Sherry Johnson from United Cerebral Palsy brighten a Thursday morning.

Volunteers make a huge impact at the museum. To use some concrete figures, last year our volunteers gave us over 1,200 hours of their time over the course of nearly 400 visits. On average about 100 hours are contributed every month, and that doesn't even count special events like Garden Party, which require hundreds of hours by themselves.

Taylor Henzler and Kaitlyn Schwalje have a ball at the 2011 Garden Party!

Concrete numbers, however, will only give you half the story, so please allow me to brag about these fine people and all the ways they help us. Volunteers install artwork for exhibitions, greet and assist visitors in the galleries every weekend, run outreach programs and events with our staff, and provide behind-the-scenes administrative support too. They're the friendly faces and tireless workers whose efforts allow our educational programming to reach its fullest impact through outreach all summer. And allow our Garden Party to become the hottest ticket in town year after year. And allow our unique approach to on-site, immersive art to be shared with the world through fantastic openings and great experiences while visiting the galleries.

Annelise Bergevin and Michelle Liedke add some class to the lobby at the 2011 Garden Party VIP entrance.

In addition to being a hardworking and awesome group of people, our volunteers are pretty diverse, too – they're college students, brand-new alumni looking for new opportunities, parents, people with special needs, and full-time professionals. Their expertise covers everything from English literature to robotics, but they all have a passion for art and the Mattress Factory's mission.

Karen Forney quizzes our visitors on MF trivia in exchange for swag.

To put it simply, these people are an essential, invaluable part of the museum. We simply couldn't do it without them. So, the next time you see a volunteer at the museum, know that what you're enjoying is helped by their efforts. Volunteers, thank you for all of your hard work in 2011. We're looking forward to another great year!

Interested in joining this fabulous crew of dedicated folks? More info can be found here on our website or  by contacting us at volunteer [at] mattress.org.