The museum’s main building is located in an abandoned Stearns and Foster warehouse that was acquired in 1975.
It now houses four floors of gallery space, a museum shop, café and program space.
Before Before
Part of The Mattress Factory Permanent Collection: Repetitive Vision, 1996, by Yayoi Kusama
The Mattress Factory is a museum of contemporary installation art located in Pittsburgh. It presents art that visitors can walk into: room-sized environments created by in-residence artists. Since 1977, the Mattress Factory has sup- ported more than 600 artists through its world-renowned residency program. Each year, artists come to Pittsburgh, live at the museum and create new work. The museum supports them completely while they experiment and explore the creative process. The Mattress Factory has grown
organically within an urban neighbor- hood on Pittsburgh’s historic North Side, acquiring nine non-contributing properties and converting them to gal- leries, artist residences, administrative spaces and education-program spaces. The late-19th-century character of each building is preserved, and the rehabbed spaces provide engaging sites for artist and educational programs, as well as community meetings and events.
66 RETROFIT // March-April 2013
After
In the late 1970s, the museum’s main building included artist studios and a vegetarian co-op kitchen. Now, the museum has a shop and café in the renovated space.
Before After Before
After
Originally built as a neighborhood grocery store with residences on the second and third
floors, this property became a nuisance bar in the 1980s. The museum worked with the community to acquire it in 1986 and converted it into a gallery space and artist apartment.