I first started hearing about this interactive pop-up “museum” a couple of years ago. There were so many positive reviews on my Facebook Momma’s page about The Color Factory in New York City. I was so curious to see for myself if it was all that. I tried to get tickets for so long, but it was always sold out. Finally, last weekend, I found an open time slot that worked for us.
When you approach The Color Factory’s rainbow striped building, you are immediately thrust into this world of hues. A ball of Mochi Ice Cream is your reward for waiting on a short line to have your timed-tickets scanned. (We were not fans of the confection, but that’s ok, it was just the first of many sweet treats at Color Factory). A few minutes later, you enter the exhibition.
What’s Color Factory in New York City like?
After a video orientation, you enter a color-blocked room filled with matching pins. Factory employees instruct you to select a button that has a “color that speaks to you”, and proceed to the next space. Later in the exhibit, you come to another wall with identical hues on sliding doors. There, you can match your pin color to a sliding door that names your color and tells what it represents.
The next activity was my favorite. We split up into teams and went into two narrow rooms. Each room has cubicles separated by a glass window, like the kind of partition you would find in a prison. Every cubicle is stocked with paper, pencils and a set of headphones. Our initial task was to chose a color palette to represent our partner. Then, we created a portrait of our partner without looking at the paper. I love the way my drawing of Nina came out!
We passed through many vibrant spaces, each with an interactive component. Many of the rooms also had scanners and cameras so that photos of our full party could be captured hands free. Unfortunately, most of those pictures didn’t come out great, so I’m glad I also took some on my phone.
There were so many things to do. Here are just a few of the activities that we enjoyed:
- the xylophone room
- the flow chart space
- and of course the obligatory ball pit. This is one of the best ball pits that I have ever been to. It is gigantic so there is enough space to avoid being smothered by others. It is also quite deep, so you can really sink in! (Plus it appeared to be very clean…but we are all fighting off colds this week, so who knows…).
Whats the bottom line?
- We spent about an hour and a half at The Color Factory.
- The exhibition moved along quickly for us because it was fully interactive and so much fun!
- The timed tickets were really well spaced out, so it was not too crowded.
- Aside from Candytopia (which we visited pre-blog), we all agree that Color Factory is our favorite interactive experience so far.
- One complaint: There are so many papers and gifts to collect at Color Factory. It would have been nice to have a swag bag provided.
Where We Ate in SOHO, New York City
Lucky Strike for brunch
We had a reservation for The Cupping Room, but when we got there, we saw a B-rating in the window. Luckily we found someplace nearby that didn’t have an hour wait: Lucky Strike! This adorable French-American bistro has a great menu and nice servers. Sadly, the food took a really long time to arrive and it was cold when we finally got it.
Pi Bakerie for take-out dinner
We just happened to walk by Pi on our out of The Color Factory. The food looked so yummy that we decided to take some home for dinner. Our favorite dish was Briam (Greek Ratatouille). The Spanakopita, Horiatiki, and charcoal bread were also quite good. We felt the lentil and black-eyed-pea salads were too vinegary, and the desserts were not sweet enough for our taste. All in all, we really enjoyed our dinner.