If you’re looking for a way to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your significant other that’s more than dinner, chocolates and flowers, Factory Obscura is hosting its V-Day Bash on Feb. 12 from 7-9pm. As a brilliantly immersive art museum, Factory Obscura presents an opportunity to experience the magic of local and national artists’ creations by listening to, climbing on, and wandering throughout. You and your partner can walk through the constantly evolving exhibit, taking advantage of the plethora of photo ops and detailed creations at every nook and cranny.
“There are five co-founders of Factory Obscura, and we had a lot of goals when we got started in 2017,” said Kelsey Karper, co-founder and director of logistical creativity at Factory Obscura. “Our primary goals include supporting artists to create new, ambitious, collaborative work and generating a new economic engine that supports artists at thriving wages. We are a B-Corporation, which is a for-profit company with a social good mission—to support art in education.”
The intrigue of Factory Obscura surrounds its ability to produce ever-changing art exhibits that the public is welcome to physically interact with. Photos are encouraged for personal use, as participants in the experience are the most important aspect of the venue.
“When you make immersive, interactive art, the work is never really finished until people come in to experience it,” said Karper. “One of my favorite things is witnessing those moments of discovery, and the connections that can be made by sharing those moments with someone else.”
With the initial creation of Factory Obscura, artists and other contributors wanted to create a platform for art appreciation in a diverse and reimagined way, while ensuring that each creator involved is compensated for their efforts.
“We hope that Factory Obscura can provide a venue for creative work that might not fit easily into more traditional spaces, and also provide opportunities to make collaborative work that might not exist otherwise,” said Karper. “We bring together artists from all disciplines—painters, sculptors, poets, musicians, engineers, builders, dancers—to make things together that are so much bigger than anything we could do as individuals. It’s also important to us that we do this in a way that is sustainable, and allows the artists to be paid fairly for their work.”
Factory Obscura’s V-Day Bash isn’t its only upcoming event; the Mix-Tape exhibit is open to the public from Wednesday through Sunday, with over 6,000 square feet of hand-crafted art.
“Being a part of Factory Obscura has confirmed for me the real potential for creative collaborations,” said Karper. “Working with a team of such diversely talented people makes it feel like anything is possible. And usually, it is.”
For more information, visit factoryobscura.com.
