Soho's Color Factory Is A Vibrant Feast For The Senses

SOHO, NY — New Yorkers can brighten their day with a visit to Soho's kaleidoscopic Color Factory come Monday.

The multicolored museum has moved from San Francisco to Soho at 251 Spring Street with a new line up of 16 installations dreamed up by a roster of top artists and designers, including an ombre floating balloon room, a rainbow cookie conveyor belt and a sky-blue ball room.

Visitors start their journey with Tokyo-based architect Emmanuelle Moureaux's "100 Colors," featuring rows of dangling paper strips inspired by traditional Japanese sliding screens. Onlookers are encouraged to let their minds "drift amongst these heavily hues."

After a brief orientation, guests register QR code cards to their email addresses. Installation goers can scan the cards at various camera stations peppered across the exhibits to take photos and video, which are instantly sent to the registered email address.

As guests peruse the exhibits, an array of sweet treats are available including a rainbow macaroon conveyor belt crafted by Mille Feuille Bakery, a complimentary color candy counter of sweet and sour gummies and gelato from the Lower East Side's Il Laboratorio Del Gelato.

A collaborative installation between artist Lakwena and musician Abimaro explores "the magnetic relationship between the first and fifth note in a scale" where museum goers can pick up a mallet and play the chimes.

Next, an ombre balloon room conjures "the colors you might see at sundown over the HudsonRiver or at sunrise, reflected against a skyscraper." Each ballon boasts a wish from a student at 826NY, such as "For Unicorns to be real, Cassidy, Age 9."

Hanging cue cards give partiers silly dance moves to try out including "shake your money maker and check your mentions cute thing," "Body rigid, arms stiff, sway gently like an ancient shrub" and "You're stuffed with hot cheese now move like it."

Visitors can also peruse a mini-museum within the museum, which celebrates colored and textured oddities such as "Inner Gastronomic Projectile Offerings," otherwise known as fake vomit, as "these truest of abstract creations only happen when we become physically inspired to release the artist inside."

The final room features a sky-blue ball pit with 500,000 plastic balls. Overhead cameras are at the ready to snap photos as people float through the sea of plastic. The room serves almost as a palate cleanser before returning to the comparatively dull streets of New York.

The Color Factory experience doesn't end once you leave, instead the creators fashioned a neighborhood map that features 23 color destinations hidden through Lower Manhattan.

Tickets for the rainbow display can be purchased here and will run visitors $38 to visit the 20,000-square-foot space at Soho's Hotel Manisses on Spring Street. Tykes under two-years-old get in free.

The Color Factory will launch August 20 and open Thursday through Tuesday, from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Photos and videos courtesy of Caroline Spivack/Patch