The Andy Warhol Museum

Museum was underwhelming. Staff was rude and pretentious, and they were absurdly obsessed with mask protocols beyond local requirements. Andy Warhol was throwing naked parties during the 1968 pandemic - he would have thought the employees and managers at his museum were lame and uninteresting.

The Andy Warhol Museum is really unique, and it does a great job of preserving the legacy and sharing the life of an incredible artist. There are 7 floors, and visitors are instructed to start on the 7th floor (which covers biographical information and Warhol's early career) and to work their way down.

Floors 7-3 are dedicated to Warhol's life and work (including the Warhol archives on floor 3, which offer a fascinating glimpse into Warhol's life through the artifacts he collected and surrounded himself with), and floor 2 features a special exhibition (sometimes Warhol's work, sometimes a visiting artist), which changes a few times a year.

The current exhibition is Cry, Baby by Devan Shimoyama. It's truly beautiful, and I'd highly recommend checking it out!

The Warhol is open late on Friday nights from 5-10pm. Usually admission is half price for these "Good Fridays," but during January Friday night admission is absolutely free!

The Warhol hosts a wide variety of events-- from a special prom night for LGBTQ teens to fundraising galas to educator nights to concerts.

The Warhol sometimes offers an immersive installation piece called the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, which is one of my personal favorite pieces. It's currently not on display, but I hope it comes back soon :)

The Warhol also has several interactive attractions:
- TACTILE REPRODUCTIONS: Near the stairs on each floor there are 3D printed reproductions of some of Warhol's most famous works. Visitors are encouraged to touch and interact with the reproductions. There's also a guided experience available on The Warhol's free audio guide app, which can be downloaded in the app store or experienced using a device checked out from the front desk of the museum. It's a really interesting and effective way to approach the question of how we can help people with visual impairments have a better museum experience, and I have not seen anything like it anywhere else. It also seems fitting to use evolving technologies like 3D printing to share the work of an artist who was so interested in emerging technologies during his career.
- SCREEN TEST MACHINE: It allows you to star in screen test, one of the black and white films that Warhol famously created in his silver studio in NYC (the room in which the screen test machine lives is painted silver, which I always thought was a nice touch!) The screen test is emailed to you, and then you can save it forever :)
- SILVER CLOUDS: A room full of big, silver balloons that you can interact with.
- AMIGA INSTALLATION: A lot of people don't think of Warhol as a digital artist, but in the mid-80s he began experimenting with emerging digital art-making technologies. The museum currently has an installation that consists of an old Commodore 64 computer (the same kind Warhol used), which you can interact with to open and close files of Warhol's digital work.
- THE STUDIO: In the basement of the museum, you can participate in a variety of (free!!) art-making activities, including screen printing. If you want to screen print something more interesting or longer lasting than a piece of paper, you can purchase other items in the studio (journals, tote bags, t-shirts) to print on instead. It's a great and inexpensive way to make one-of-a-kind personalized gifts for birthdays or holidays!

Overall, The Warhol is an amazing museum and one of my favorite places to be in the city.

I'll preface this review with the fact I'm not much of a pop art fan to begin with.

I came to the museum on one of their free Fridays. I rally only had the opportunity to view a few of the floors. I did thoroughly enjoy the current temporary exhibit: Devan Shimoyama: Cry, Baby. The portraits/ art work really highlighted vulnerability and gender fluidity in the African American community.

An interesting stop in Pittsburgh!

I'll admit the Andy Warhol museum wasn't on my must-see list in Pittsburgh, but I'm so glad we decided to go!

My boyfriend & I arrived at 4:15 on a Friday, and the museum attendant informed us that the price drops to 1/2 off at 5 on Fridays. After debating, we decided to kill 45 minutes & come back to get the discount.

The museum starts on the top floor, where you learn about his upbringing in Pittsburgh & his beginnings as an artist. Each floor brings the tour-goer to the next stage in Andy's career. There were a lot of very cool exhibits of his art and I learned a lot about his interesting life. At a few points in the tour all patrons have to take elevators- stairs aren't an option- and it results in long waits for a very crowded elevator; which are two of my least favorite things.

Definitely worth a stop in Pittsburgh- especially after 5 on Fridays!

Ok, so my vision of Pittsburgh has always been natives Rusted Root playing on every corner and not much else besides steel stacks, 3 rivers and The Andy Warhol museum. So happy to find I was completely wrong. This city is pretty great, but yes, Pittsburgh and Warhol have always been synonymous in my mind. This museum has been on my wish-list for as long as I can possibly remember. Being a HUGE fan of Andy, coming here was a dream of mine come true and it was bigger and better and more special than I ever imagined.

Floors and floors and rooms and rooms filled with one of my biggest inspirations was...heaven!!! I previously knew about Andy's childhood and background, but still very much enjoyed seeing it all neatly and chronologically organized on the walls. I thought I've seen all of his early work, come to find out here, I had not even seen half.

I absolutely LOVED the interactive exhibits which kept my littles entertained. Stand outs would be the silver cloud aka silver balloon room, the videos on how to reproduce India ink and Dr Browns ink prints on tracing paper. The screen test which gets emailed to you and done in perfect mod fashion and my absolute favorite which I found hard to leave, the "Factory". The loud, psychedelic music, oversize, comfy white couches and retro images projected onto the white walls came together perfectly taking you back to those NYC 60's days. It was as close as I have or will ever get to that life and it was pure magic for me.

He was a truly fascinating man regardless of whether or not you like his work. He was part of a generation that impacted this world today. He is a part of Americana. If you're into pop art or any art for that matter, give it a go. Early sketches and paintings are great for those not too into screen print. As I stated, there is some interaction to keep your attention if you think you will tire of Brillo boxes and soup cans. For any true Warhol fan, this is an absolute must visit!

We came on the last Friday of the month which is half priced admission after 5pm

The gift shop is pretty sweet as well! Not just Warhol. A bunch of cat stuff and other artists as well. Definitely take a peek around after your visit!

We parked in the lot diagonal from the museum for a mere $8!

Don't miss this!! I loved this museum!! Take your time and enjoy the great art and the stories behind it! He was such a cool and interesting person and artist. Was truly a cant miss gem in Pittsburgh.

If you're a fan of Andy Warhol, then definitely check out his museum in Pittsburgh. If you don't understand, appreciate, or enjoy his style, then obviously I can't recommend it for you, but for the rest of us, it's pretty awesome!

The museum is set up chronologically through his life starting on the top floor and working down. It's amazing to see his earliest works, and how his art has developed over his career.

There are some pretty cool interactive exhibits, like the Silver Clouds and also the screen test, although I would say the screen test felt a bit anticlimactic to me. It probably didn't help that I was being watched by tons of museum-goers for the full 3 minutes I sat there just staring forward.

One of my favorite rooms in the museum was the room filled with paintings of skulls! I also love the classic Campbells Soup cans and all the amazing portraits.

I'm usually not a big fan of museums, but The Andy Warhol Museum is definitely one of my favorites now.

Admission is $20 which seems a little steep, but you get access to 7 floors of his art. If you go into the basement, you also get to create your own art! I made a silkscreen print as well as some water color art. I thought this was a very unique and awesome perk, and it's included with your admission.

There is also a little couch downstairs under the big Andy Warhol painting where you can pose like him and take a cute photo.

Overall a great museum and a fun way to pass time in Pittsburgh.

I wasn't that interested in Andy Warhol prior to coming to this museum, but now I have a much greater appreciation for this museum and the life of Andy Warhol.

They did an exceptional job curating this museum and the information on Warhol was presented clearly and it really highlighted all his achievements and how revolutionary he truly was.

Every time I think of Pittsburgh, I think of this museum! It is a must visit. We spent a whole afternoon here. I would definitely prioritize this museum over Mattress Factory. It is not even comparable.

Can't even enjoy the art. We are being followed around and stared down every single second. Racist workers had to leave right away. They only followed us the only Hispanic family here and even sent a second worker to monitor our every move! HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE. DO NOT RECOMMEND!