A kaleidoscopic museum opening in August promises to let you live out your colorful childhood dreams.
The Color Factory, a pop-up interactive exhibit that recently created the “Manhattan Color Walk” installation on the Upper East Side, plans to debut 16 installations at a space in SoHo, which will have you bouncing from room to room, interacting with balloons, busting moves on a shiny dance floor and snacking on ice cream.
Several rooms will be dedicated to certain colors and offer a very Instagram-worthy experience. In addition to an ombre-balloon-filled room and a luminous dance floor and bar, the Color Factory will have a room completely filled with yellow balls you can “swim” in. Another installation will be revealed to you personally as your “secret color” room.
The ice cream will be provided by My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream at the custom “Mochi Bar.”
After your visit is done, you’ll receive a neighborhood map of downtown Manhattan that will lead you to more than 20 colorful experiences, including a secret balloon cart.
The museum, which has the goal of waking people up to the colors they’re surrounded by in their everyday lives, was created with help from artists like Christine Wong Yap, a Queens resident, Lakwena Maciver, a globally-recognized street artist, among others, according to organizers.
“We are so fortunate to work with such a talented group of artists and designers to bring Color Factory to a creative, diverse and vibrant city like New York,” said Jordan Ferney, the museum’s founder. “We hope the palettes and experiences offered inside . . . will challenge perceptions, awaken senses, invite joy and remind visitors to revel in the colorful moments of everyday life.”
The folks behind the museum recently unveiled the “Manhattan Color Walk” at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, which is a colorful striped walkway that represents an object its staffers found while walking 265 blocks in New York City from West 220th Street down to Battery Park. Colors were sampled from things like the soft lavender from a bodega’s flower selection on West 72nd Street, brick red from a Harlem mural on West 126th Street, sunny yellow from overripe melons on 172nd Street, the electric blue from a wig at a shop on 30th Street and more.
Last year, the Color Factory opened the same museum in San Francisco, which attracted more than 170,000 visitors over the course of nine months — it was originally intended to be a one-month event, according to its announcement.
The New York City Color Factory officially opens on Aug. 20 for a limited run, open Thursdays through Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. at 251 Spring St. Tickets are $38.
