The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh recently finished an extensive renovation of its first floor. Updates include a multimedia event space, contemporary lounge area and a significantly increased retail space for The Warhol Store. The museum also added new windows, which bathe the updated area in natural light, new audio-visual equipment, an iPad bar, and a live EarthCam feed from Warhol’s gravesite. A floor to ceiling enlargement of William John Kennedy’s Homage to Warhol’s Marilyn (1964) courtesy of KIWI Arts Group, a Miami-based art publishing house, adorns the space.
The Warhol Museum’s Director, Eric Shiner, said, “We have always wanted to make The Warhol more welcoming for our visitors and community members. Through the generous support of several local foundations we have finally been able to rethink the museum’s first floor as a social hub in line with Andy Warhol’s famous Silver Factory. The Factory was a space where high and low, rich and poor, black and white, gay and straight came together as one. The Factory epitomized free thought and engaged discourse throughout the 1960s. We hope to replicate this model, welcoming all to come in, sit down, and share ideas without having to pay museum admission.”
The Eden Hall Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, The Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and anonymous donors funded the renovation, which was designed by Pittsburgh-based Desmone & Associates Architects.
