Mattress Factory facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Mattress Factory

The Mattress Factory
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Established	1977
Location	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Visitors	28,000 (2018)
Founder	Barbara Luderowski
Nearest parking	On site, Street

The Mattress Factory is a unique art museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It's known for its special kind of art called installation art. This means artists create art pieces that are designed just for a specific space, like a room or a building.

The museum has amazing permanent art pieces by famous artists like Yayoi Kusama, James Turrell, and Greer Lankton. Even the museum's roof is a cool light art display! It lights up the Northside area of Pittsburgh at night.

The museum started when Barbara Luderowski bought an old mattress warehouse in 1975. She turned it into a place for artists to create and show their work. The Mattress Factory became an official non-profit museum in 1977. Over the years, it has helped make Pittsburgh's art scene more exciting. It also helped bring new life to the neighborhood, along with places like City of Asylum and Randyland.

How the Museum Started

In 1975, artist Barbara Luderowski bought an old building. It used to be a warehouse for Stearns & Foster mattresses. This building was at 500 Sampsonia Way in Pittsburgh's Central Northside.

At first, Barbara used the warehouse as her home and art studio. She wanted to create a place where artists and thinkers could gather. This community grew, and by 1977, the Mattress Factory became a non-profit organization. It had already been hosting art shows and even a small food co-op for two years.

The museum's first big art show opened on May 8, 1982. Since then, the Mattress Factory has become a very important part of Pittsburgh's art world. It's famous for its artist residency program. This program lets artists live and work at the museum. It also has great educational programs and special art shows. In 2008, Michael Olijnyk joined Barbara Luderowski as co-director.

Over the years, the Mattress Factory bought more buildings. These buildings are used for different things:

• 1414 Monterey Street became a new gallery space for art.
• Two buildings on North Taylor Street became homes for visiting artists.
• 505 Jacksonia Street is now a parking lot for museum visitors. The empty lot next to it holds Winifred Lutz's Garden Installation, which was created in 1993.
• 516 Sampsonia Way opened as another gallery space in the fall of 2013.

Long-Term Artworks

As of 2024, the Mattress Factory has 20 art installations that stay there for a long time. Here are some of them:

Gallery

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  Mattress Factory building

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  The Mattress Factory Annex Gallery

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  Garden Installation by Winifred Lutz