Photo by Sabrina Romano
Visitors were able to participate in numerous arts and crafts during the Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday celebration Monday, Jan. 19 at Central Northside’s Mattress Factory. The admission for the event was “give what you can.”
[wppa type=”slide” album=”51″][/wppa]
By Sabrina Romano
Copious amounts of craft supplies, a jazzy deejay, and children running around are not the first things that come to mind when you think of a superb art museum. But Central Northside’s Mattress Factory had all of this in its lobby for the annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Jan. 19.
A few hundred adults and children attended the festive celebration and were able to view the galleries for a “give what you can” admission cost, including Mayor Bill Peduto.
“It is a way to truly live Dr. King’s legacy,” Peduto said. “You see children from the Northside and across all the rivers celebrating.”
Peduto said events like this one illustrate exactly what community is.
“(This event) is what community is about. People make community, not bricks,” Peduto said. “This is a world-class institution to make this community better.”
Children had the opportunity to participate in a variety of crafts like decorating a birthday crown, envisioning their own city, and writing their own dream on a magnet.
Education director Felice Cleveland organized the event, and explained her goal for the event was threefold: “to get new people to experience the factory, to have a fun day, and to celebrate Dr. King and his work.”
Cleveland said the event went very well.
“I love having lots of people in the museum,” Cleveland said. “I like offering the ‘give what you can’ (admission).”
For Leigh Culley, a resident of nearby North Hills, and her two young daughters, the birthday celebration was their first time visiting the Mattress Factory.
“(The birthday party) brings people together from all different walks of life to share a common event,” Culley said.
For more information about the museum and its events please visit the official website.
