The Silver Factory: Andy Warhol for Kids
8 December 2007 – 13 April 2008, GoMA

Admission free

As part of the ‘Andy Warhol’ exhibition, the Children’s Art Centre spaces have been transformed into the Silver Factory especially for kids — like Andy’s famous art studio known as the Factory! ‘The Silver Factory: Andy Warhol for Kids includes some of Warhol’s art works that will particularly appeal to children. These include a large-scale installation of Warhol’s Silver Clouds 1966, a selection of toy paintings displayed on Fish wallpaper and a group of early drawings.

‘The Silver Factory’ also includes a range of exciting, interactive activities developed to complement the works on display and to introduce children to Warhol and his world. Have your photograph transformed into a Warhol-style portrait and see yourself on the big screen. Find out more about Warhol and his art by taking the ‘Warhol’s World’ quiz and seeing his toy paintings and drawings from the 1950s. Look for the Andy Warhol mascot to guide you through the spaces and make sure your visit includes both the upstairs and downstairs Children’s Art Centre spaces.

Don’t forget to collect a free kids’ activity book for even more things to do and see.

The Silver Factory: Andy Warhol for Kids art works and interactives

Warhol’s world

Who is Andy Warhol? What was he like as a kid and how did he become famous?

Warhol’s World is a computer touch screen quiz presented as a series of time capsules. Interactive questions and lively animations take children back in time where they meet Andy’s family, discover his art work and find out about the kind of artist Andy grew up to be.

Play Warhol's world online

15 seconds of fame

To make a portrait of a person, many artists either paint a picture or take a photo, but Andy came up with a new idea and decided to make short films called Screen Tests. Andy made almost 500 of these silent black-and-white films of the many people who visited the Factory in the 1960s. In this activity, children are invited to appear on the silver screen in the style of Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests and experience 15 seconds of fame.

Photobooth portraits

Andy made hundreds of portraits, always working from photographs. Sometimes the photographs were from newspapers, taken with Andy’s Polaroid camera or even at a photobooth. Andy often printed people’s portraits four times, like the pictures from these photobooths, but he used different colours for each one. Children can make their own photobooth self-portrait and email it home or to a friend!

At the factory

Andy often made pictures of everyday things that you buy in the supermarket. He even had the idea to make sculptures that look like the cardboard boxes seen on supermarket shelves holding cans of peaches, soap pads, ketchup and tomato juice. In the activity At the Factory, under 5s can play with specially made boxes like Andy’s, which can be sorted into piles, rows or stacked on top of each other to make an ever-changing art installation!

Silver Clouds 1966

Experience Andy’s spectacular Silver Clouds — a room full of silver balloons! The installation in the Silver Factory extends over two levels, providing views of the art work from the upper and lower levels of the Children's Art Centre. Silver was one of Andy’s favourite colours — it can make things look precious and reflects the light to make things sparkle. The rectangular balloons float gently around the room, bumping into people (and each other!), and moving off in all kinds of directions.

My favourite toy

Andy’s toy paintings are all based on his large collection of toys, including monkeys, boats, trains, dogs, motorcycles and robots. The paintings are displayed on Fish wallpaper and hung at a low height for children to see, just like they were when Andy first showed them in an exhibition in 1983. Kids are invited to make a drawing of their favourite toy.

Andy Warhol and the alphabet

When Andy was a commercial artist in the 1950s, he drew a series of alphabet pictures of ladies showing off their new clothes and jewellery bought from the famous New York department store Saks Fifth Avenue. Some of the letters of the alphabet are missing. In the Andy and the Alphabet drawing activity, kids can help finish the alphabet drawings by choosing one of the missing letters and drawing a picture about it.

Download the Andy Warhol Kids' activity book (3.2 MB)

Andy Warhol Summer Festival!

18–28 January 2008
10.30am – 2.30pm daily

Don’t miss the Andy Warhol Summer Festival these summer holidays! The free, 11-day program will include a range of exciting performances, artist-run workshops and activities to celebrate the ‘Andy Warhol’ exhibition for kids.

Download the Andy Warhol Summer Festival program guide (1.6 MB)

Andy Warhol Summer Festival – Queensland

Regional Queensland venues hosted a free day of the Queensland Art Gallery’s Andy Warhol Summer Festival activities for children and families on Saturday 19 January 2008.

Locations of participating venues across Queensland included Beaudesert, Blackwater, Bundaberg, Cairns, Caloundra, Charters Towers, Childers, Crows Nest, Gatton, Gladstone, Goondiwindi, Gympie, Hervey Bay, Logan, Mackay, Miles, Noosa, Townsville, Pine Rivers, Redcliffe, Rockhampton, Stanthorpe, Toowoomba and Warwick.

Children explored Andy Warhol’s interests, techniques and styles through activities such as Andy Warhol and the Alphabet, My Favourite Toy, the animated Warhol’s World quiz, Time Capsules, the Warhol Money Making Machine and the “What I think about Andy Warhol!” competition. More than 25 000 children and their families across the state participated in the Andy Warhol Summer Festival.

Winner’s responses to the “What I think about Andy Warhol!” competition:

‘I liked drawing and getting to make my own money’
Joanna Yallop, 5, Townsville

‘An ordinary guy who made extraordinary art with ordinary things’
Jacob Munday, 9, Gympie

‘He made strange artwork which looks good when put together’
Charles Smith, 12, Crows Nest

‘I love Andy’s shoe art works. He made nice money paintings and I liked making my own money. His art is very colourful’
Taylor Gibbon, 4, Redcliffe

‘It made me laugh because Andy Warhol gave his friend fifty dollars for an idea’
Sofia Drew Pepe, 9, Noosa

‘I like shoes too, just like Andy. He used good colours.’
Juliet Smith, 6, Cairns

‘I think he used very bold and bright colours. He made art out of anything he could find, things that I would never think of. I didn’t know it was art’
Annabel Miskell, 9, Gladstone