Photo by Bridget Fertal
Naaem Martinez, artist education at The Warhol, explains to museum goers how silk screen printing is done.

By Nick Eustis

Northside art lovers will be pleased to hear that The Andy Warhol Museum is offering a host of programs for the summer crowds.

A highlight of the Warhol Museum’s summer offerings is “Andy Warhol: Stars of the Silver Screen,” an exhibition displaying Warhol’s deep obsession with all things Hollywood.

Created by the Warhol’s Curator of Film and Video Geralyn Huxley, as well as archival consultant Matt Wrbican, this special exhibit contains hundreds of items, from Warhol’s personal belongings, to paintings, to films and television episodes. The collection meditates on the nature of celebrity, as well as Warhol’s relationship with his own fame.

“Stars of the Silver Screen” opened on June 16 and will be open through September 24.

The Warhol Museum also provides educational and interactive programs on a daily basis.

Gallery talks are offered twice a day by the Warhol’s artist educators. Guests are guided through the seventh floor of the museum, detailing Warhol’s early life, artistic beginnings in Pittsburgh and New York City, and the beginning of his interest in Pop Art. Of Pop Art, educator Marlon Fullenwider said “[Warhol] wanted people to know that anything can be art if you choose to make it art.”

Also offered daily in the museum lobby is a demonstration of how to make a photographic silkscreen print. Silkscreen prints were a favorite medium of Warhol’s as he could take photographs and make multiple versions of the image in a variety of color combinations.

As artist educator Naaem Martinez explained that silkscreens are created by stretching a piece of fabric, traditionally silk, over a frame, then coating that fabric in light-sensitive paint. Then, the frame and an acetate of a photograph are placed in an “exposure unit,” a box which forces light through the acetate and screen. This creates a copy of the image in paint on the screen.

For the young and young at heart, the Warhol offers an underground studio called The Factory, where visitors can try their hand at some of Warhol’s favorite techniques. Pick up an old-fashioned ink pen and make some blotted line drawings, or play with colored acetates and photographs to create your own Warholian souveniers.

Click here to learn more about the programs The Warhol has to offer.