Installation Art & Playing to Learn

As the Director of Education here at the Mattress Factory, I spend a lot of time thinking about how our programs can engage people of all ages and shape the way they experience art. For those of you who have visited, you know that the space itself serves as an amazing educational laboratory. But we don't just provide opportunities to learn more about our artists and exhibitions. I think the Mattress Factory is an incubator for learning itself.

A recent op-ed in The New York Times called "Playing to Learn" got me thinking about this point. Author Susan Engel (a psychology professor at Williams College) suggests we should seriously consider a complete overhaul to the standard public school curriculum.

She argues that the traditional curriculum is counter-intuitive to the ways in which children actually learn, which is by experience. Instead of cramming facts and figures, Engel believes children should "develop ways of thinking that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on."

Engel doesn't explicitly mention the value of art in her article, but she does talk about how play can satisfy a child's curiosity about things that interest them. I couldn't agree more, and I feel the same way about art. Installation art can help children learn about the world around them. It can also allow them to develop their own ways of thinking about the issues addressed by the art.

The Mattress Factory is like one big experiential learning environment - one that is filled with art and opportunities to stretch one's brain in new and interesting ways. Do you think about the world differently after a trip here? Feel free to let us know by leaving your thoughts in the comments section below.

POSTED BY ANNA Read All Posts by Anna

Weather Closings

Due to inclement weather, and the declaration of an emergency by Allegheny County, the Mattress Factory will be CLOSED on Tuesday, February 9, 2010 and Wednesday, February 10, 2010.

Please check back here or follow our Twitter stream for the latest museum closing news.


Mattress Factory staff dig out after the storm.


The Winifred Lutz Garden under two feet of snow.

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

It's All About YOU! Thanks.

Happy New Year everyone! It looks as though I have the pleasure of posting the first update on the MF blog for 2010. I'll keep it short and sweet, but all of us here at the museum wanted to extend a heartfelt thanks to all the individuals who donated to the 2009 Annual Fund, It's All About YOU, making it our most successful end-of-year campaign to date. Support from our friends and community makes everything we do possible, so we took some time yesterday to create the video below.

POSTED BY LINDSAY Read All Posts by Lindsay

A Note From the Directors to Our Online Community

As 2009 draws to a close, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting the Mattress Factory. Your help during the past year (via Retweets, Facebook posts, attendance at events, or simply kind words) has assisted us greatly in providing residency opportunities for 45 working artists from all over the world. Additionally, your support helped spread the word of four cutting-edge, internationally-recognized exhibitions (1, 2, 3, 4); the permanent reinstallation of Greer Lankton’s It’s all about ME, Not You; well-attended educational lectures, workshops and outreach initiatives; and technological advancements (1, 2) that engage museum visitors in new exciting ways.

2009 also marked the completion of our 4-year parking lot project as well as the procurement of substantial support from The Heinz Endowments in order to considerably reduce our mortgage and stabilize the future of our organization.

Both artistically and programmatically, 2009 was a banner year for the Mattress Factory. And as we shift gears into 2010, we hope to continue with the momentum established by your vital support. A few things to look forward to next year:

• Nothing is Impossible, the first exhibition from our curators-in-residence Mark Garry & Georgina Jackson, opens on March 19th. Artists include Karl Burke, Rhona Byrne, Brian Griffiths, Bea McMahon and Dennis McNulty.

• The 14th installment of the Gestures Exhibition Series curated by Katherine Talcott opens on May 7th.

• Save the date for Summer in the City: The Mattress Factory Urban Garden Party – chaired by Christine Astorino – Friday, June 18th!

• Mark Garry & Georgina Jackson continue with their projects by curating the Mattress Factory’s first-ever music & performance residency. The residency will culminate with a one-time performance in mid-July.

• Queloides/Keloids, a comprehensive survey of race issues in Cuba organized by Alejandro de la Fuente, will be the first exhibition spanning both the main gallery facility at 500 Sampsonia Way and the annex gallery at 1414 Monterey Street. Opening on October 8th.

As you can see, we have a full plate next year and we’re excited to push forward and break new artistic ground in 2010. Continued support from our friends makes it all possible.

Please consider extending your support by making a contribution to the 2009 Annual Fund. Thank you.

Happy New Year to you and yours,

Barbara Luderowski President & Co-Director	Michael Olijnyk   Co-Director

POSTED BY BARBARA Read All Posts by Barbara

Catch You on the Flip-Side.

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

You're In The Jungle, Baby.

As 2009 comes to a close, many arts organizations take this time to reflect on the projects and programs of the past year as well as visualize organizational goals for the coming year. We here at the MF are no different, but I'd like to take this time to touch on a key performance and motivation metric pertaining to my department, which is loosely defined as Development, but more affectionately referred to simply as The 3rd Floor.

The 3rd Floor houses the Membership, Development, Grant Writing, Marketing, Public Relations, New Media and Graphic Design departments. Sounds huge, but it's essentially just me, Lindsay, Shannon, Emily, Claudia and our wonderfully overworked/underpaid interns. As you can imagine, there is an amazing amount of work to be done by all of us and therefore time management, the ability to multi-task and an überly fast-paced work environment are key to pushing projects out the door. Enter one of the greatest rock bands of all time, Guns 'N Roses (pictured to the right).

In 2009, The 3rd Floor played Appetite for Destruction by Guns 'N Roses in its entirety every Friday at 4:00 PM. You're probably asking yourself how this relates to producing world-class contemporary art, but bear with me for a moment, there are several reasons for our weekly ritual. First and foremost, the motivational nature of the songs on this particular record are extremely conducive to work output. The pace is perfect; the highs & lows and peaks & valleys are perfectly in their right places. It's also almost exactly 1 hour long and like an olympic long distance runner it consistently brought us rocking into 5:00 PM, a reliable and energetic close to each week in 2009. Some of our best ideas and execution came between the opening guitar lick of Welcome to the Jungle and the final breakdown in Rocket Queen.

So, having said all of this, we all feel we're due for a change in 2010. This is where you can help us. Much like we did with choosing the name for the MF softball team last Spring, we're going to leave it up to our blog readers, MF Twitter Posse and MF Facebook Mob to crowdsource our 2010 "Friday at 4:00 PM" listening ritual.

Here's the deal. Through this Friday, we'll take any and all album suggestions in the comments below, or via Twitter & Facebook. The 3rd Floor will then meet to select a cross-section of 5 potential albums, which we'll post here on the MF Blog next week as a reader poll. The album with the most votes by 12/31/2009 will be the winner and the person who submitted the winning record will receive their choice of three awesome MF prizes.

So have fun suggesting albums and be creative with your recommendations. We're looking forward to hearing your submissions.

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

MF + Whirl Magazine = Awesome!

As many of you know, the Mattress Factory is currently in the midst of our 2009 Annual Fund Campaign, "It's All About YOU!" End of year contributions from supporters like you have a direct impact on museum operations. These donations help us sprint through the finish line of this year, while simultaneously helping us focus on achieving the artistic and educational goals we've set for ourselves for next year. And for those of you curious about next year, we've got some great things on tap including the first exhibition from our curators-in-residence Mark Garry & Georgina Jackson, the 14th installment of the Gestures Exhibition Series, our first ever music residency, the 2010 Urban Garden Party, and the large-scale exhibition Queloides/Keloids, which takes a poignant look at the topic of race in Cuba.

So, today only, we're very excited to partner with our friends at Whirl Magazine on a special deal for online contributors to the "It's All About YOU" campaign.

Anyone who donates $25 to the campaign today (12/14/2009) will receive two complimentary passes to the Mattress Factory and a 1-year subscription to Whirl (a $50 value!).

The only catch is that you have to donate through the secret URL over on http://www.whirlmagazine.com/donate-local-charity.

So, if you'd like to help us continue to produce cutting-edge exhibitions and provide meaningful educational opportunities while getting a little something for yourself in return, follow these three easy steps:

1) Head over to http://www.whirlmagazine.com/donate-local-charity
2) Scroll down to the 12/14/2009 listing for the Mattress Factory
3) Follow the "CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO THE MATTRESS FACTORY" link.

BIG thanks to our friends over at Whirl, and also to you for your continued support.

POSTED BY LINDSAY Read All Posts by Lindsay