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    Color Factory

    4.5 (119 reviews)
    Open 10:00 am - 7:00 pm
    Updated a few days ago

    Color Factory Photos

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    Recommended Reviews - Color Factory

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    Selfi in the floral room
    Saira M.

    My teenage daughter and I visited the color factory aand we loved the immersive experience!! I e took out time going through each room because we wanted to get our moneys worth and it's a great place to take photos!!!! I e really enjoyed that part!! And they even had a little treat for you at the end!!

    Lauren W.

    Super fun place that engages all of the senses! Loved the built in feature for photographs, especially as I explored this place solo. The engaging of taste in addition to sight was a cool addition you won't get everywhere. I do think every taste including the $1 scoop of sorbet could have been included but it was worth the money. Many interactive displays kept the fun rolling, although more wayfinding and instructions for the "best photo" would have been helpful, there were definitely times when the room was "awesome" but I didn't realize what the illusion or interesting component was. Either way, I was able to pull out some awesome photography and make a few memories. It's worth the visit!

    Leah N.

    This place was so much fun for the kids. They were so happy to explore the different rooms. The laffy taffy and fortune cookie were a nice touch. The ballon room was neat.

    Pa Zao L.

    I really enjoyed this unique experience! In the different rooms there are small treats, various photo opportunities and interesting exhibits! They'll provide your individual QR code and you'll register your email and phone. There are cameras set up where you scan your QR code and the photos are sent to your email after your visit. I can't spoil it for others but definitely a cool place to check out. There is free coat check. If you Google or search on social media, you can find promo codes.

    Frank L.

    The Color Factory is such a fun experience. This is located in the bottom floor of the Willis Tower (where you enter for sky deck). Color Factory is a unique kind of pop up shop experience that will take around 1 hour to experience completely. It's all about colors there - you will tour a ton of different rooms on how we all interact with colors every day a with our senses and more - such a fun experience. The highlight of the experience for me at least was the giant ball pit at the end of the exhibit - made me feel like I was a kid again at jungle Jim's if anyone remembers that in Des Plaines! Definitely check out Color Factory for a unique experience - perfect for dates.

    Went to this place with husband and baby - good times. It was interesting. Got a Groupon for $29 - which seems is the same price as you buy directly from the Color Factory with their 15% discount. Oh well. Had a bunch of colorful rooms with activities. The pit was interesting for my husband and baby. They have some sweet treats at the start, fortune cookies, etc. They also have machines that automatically take your picture with your QR code and it will be sent to your email. This is located in the Willis tower. Parking can be hard to find but we found parking on the street. Overall a good experience. Not sure if it's a long term exhibit or a temporary one.

    Javanesque B.

    This was such a fun experience! Adults can he kids. The random pictures. I need to come back again with the rest of the family. The Kurimu ice cream was YUM!

    Ron W.

    I love checking out art and creativity when I travel so when I ran across an online ad for the Color Factory, I had to check it out. While it's probably best for families or a fun date, I dropped in solo after purchasing tickets online along with a photo package. Get scanned in and there's a small complimentary coat check area along with some beverages to tide you over. The lobby has a pretty surreal prismatic installation above and then head down a brightly striped hallway into the Color Factory rooms. I won't spoil the surprises but most of them are fun and quirky, offering some photo spots where you scan a QR code which sets off a digital camera to capture your visit at various points along the way. I'd have to say my fave room was the ballpit room, I mean who can resist? Anyhow, I found it all quite a bit of wonderous fun and I think you will too!

    Ball pit
    Alex K.

    What's not to like about the color factory? Start with the ticket buying process. Tickets are $30 for adults and $20 for kids. You can use your phone or their devices on the wall to buy the tickets. Everything is electronic and the entries are spaced 15 min apart. Pro-Tip#1: search the internet on your phone for 15% discount codes. We found several that worked. Enter into a room that is mostly white with the sign that says Color Factory and your first snack of jelly belly jelly beans. Pro-Tip#2: you can't take your stroller in if you have little kids and it's best not to have your coat on, or any bags, so there is a free coat check right there. Several of the rooms have some form of sugary sweet candy for you to enjoy. Limit one per person per room. They range from jelly beans to a fortune cookie, saltwater taffy, pop rocks, and ice cream. Pro-Tip#3: Sign in on the tablet with your email and your personalized QR code because there are cameras at different angles and you can get some unique pics using your QR code. End the experience at the ball pit room with its slides and squishy plastic balls. On your way out, smell the various smells in the smells room. Exit through the gift shop where you can get any items stored in the coat check and buy any souvenirs. I did find the souvenirs a bit pricey but when you get the ice cream from the ball pit room, there is a $2 off coupon there. Grab it because you can't later if you decide to buy a souvenir. I don't know any kid or adult that didn't love this place and didn't have a big smile from ear to ear.

    Ali B.

    So so cool! I go to Chicago all the time to see family but this was my first time with a toddler so I've been looking for age appropriate things we can all do! Color factory was perfect for all ages. This appeals to all senses and is so interactive and fun. Loved the tasty treats involved and all the cool photo ops. My son's favorite was the ball pit and the room with the color gradient lights, he kept running back to the pink room! Ticket prices vary depending on the time of day that you visit, and when we got there they were running behind so we had to wait an extra 15-30 minutes past our time. A tiny bit tough to find as they don't have it marked super well but we asked a few people for directions. Absolutely loved our visit here and so happy we visited!

    Jane V.

    a dark and stormy night....... But all that changed when we walked into the wonderful, colorful world of the Color Factory With 12+ rooms to explore, complimentary sweet treats, and unlimited digital photos from their photo stations, we had a blast! Did I get in the ball pit? You bet I did! And it was so much fun

    Haley S.

    We went to Chicago over the 4th of July holiday weekend and booked a time to visit the Color Museum. We were greeted right away by friendly staff and were started on our journey through the experience. It does have some fun snacks for kids and the first one was colored/flavored fortune cookies. Each room was a different color and sensory experience which was really interesting. Some of them even with deep meanings for adults visitors. At the end of our trip when I asked my daughter what her favorite activities were she said definitely the Color Factory!

    Balloon room
    Lily H.

    This was the best experience of my life! I went with a pal and we spent nearly 2 hours there. We loved the ball pit, pop rocks taste test, audio coloring room, and the horns. You truly can't go wrong with a single exhibit. Great to get out of the Chicago winter cold. Also don't forget to pre buy your ice cream! We loved the melon one :) go to the color factory because we WILL be back.

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    Ask the Community - Color Factory

    How's parking ?? Do you pay for parking is there free parking lot?

    No free parking. We had parked on the street by Giordano's.

    When is the best time to visit if we don't want to deal with the crowd?

    We visited the museum on Saturday 4 pm. And it was pretty much our group until the last room. Also going in winter be better

    Is there a locker to store my jacket and bags before going in?

    Yes! There's a coat check area

    Is this good for 3-6 year olds?

    Yes! It is very interactive and is fun for all ages.

    View All 5 Questions

    Review Highlights - Color Factory

    There are cameras set up where you scan your QR code and the photos are sent to your email after your visit.

    Mentioned in 16 reviews

    Read more highlights

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    Field Museum - Ancient Americas, first level

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    The Africa Fashion exhibit was everything. The colors, the fabrics, the way each piece told a story…read moreit gave me chills. Seeing over 20 countries represented in one space felt powerful and inspiring, and honestly it made me look at fashion in a whole new way. This is one of those shows you have to catch while it's here. It's not just fashion, it's history, culture, and art all in one. You can check out my full review and everything I did on Instagram and TikTok: @travelnistaonthemove

    An institution here in Chicago. I went over the weekend with my husband and toddler and we had a…read moregreat time! The parking situation (which with a toddler can sometimes make or break an outing) was honestly super easy which made the entire experience that much more smooth. There is a dinosaur exhibit happening here now which was really our main pull. This exhibit was AWESOME! It goes on to show what happened after an asteroid ended the dinosaurs' reign and what happened between then and the world we know now. It was done really thoughtfully and was my favorite of the day. My son was gobsmacked -- especially at the dinosaur fossils! His favorites were the Spinosaurus and Apatosaurus. He also really enjoyed the mummies, which surprised me because it was a little scary. We were in and out in about 2 hours which ended up being the perfect about of time for us with a kid. We will continue to come back over the years!

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    Intuit Art Museum - "Henry Darger: The Room Revealed,"
Duchossois Family Darger Exhibition Gallery. Photo by by Cheri Eisenberg

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    4.6(53 reviews)
    1.5 miRiver West, Noble Square, West Town

    Intuit Art Museum has recently completed a massive renovation that expanded the facility threefold…read moreor so. Intuit features self-taught art by artists many of whom have a Chicagoland connection. My lovely wife and I have been to the "old" museum before, and it was an eye-opener to visit yesterday (Memorial Day) during a special free admission Grand Re-Opening weekend (the regular admission fee has also tripled to $15 from its former $5 ticket price). The star attraction is the recreation of Henry Darger's apartment and studio, along with a celebration of his works and methodologies. There are also spaces for the interesting and diverse Permanent Collection, as well as Special Exhibitions. Also interesting is the fact that the museum featuring self-taught art has bathrooms with fairly posh fixtures. Intuit Art Museum is not far from the Chicago Blue Line station. Check out the compact but cute gift shop before you leave.

    A museum that celebrates the self-taught, accepts the "outsider" and values intuitive art. Current…read moreexhibit focuses on the im/migrants of Chicago. At the time of my visit, the entrance fee was $15. I live that I was able to see every piece in the museum display within 2 hours. Worth it

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    International Museum of Surgical Science - Skull from gift shop

    International Museum of Surgical Science

    4.0(185 reviews)
    2.2 miGold Coast, Near North Side

    The International Museum of Surgical Science ended up being way more interesting than I expected…read more It's inside this gorgeous old mansion on Lake Shore Drive, the kind of place you walk into and immediately think, "Wait... surgery happened here?" The whole building used to be a private home modeled after a French chateau, which makes the contrast between crystal chandeliers and antique bone saws kind of fantastic. I'd say 1.5 to 2 hours is the sweet spot, depending on how deep you want to go into the placards. You can easily stretch it longer, because every room has some wild piece of medical history to learn. There's everything from early anesthesia equipment to an iron lung, to old surgical kits that look like something a pirate would carry. It really hits you how fast medicine has evolved , I mean we really went from "bite this leather strap and hope" to modern surgery in basically a cosmic blink. Makes me wish I could time-travel forward to see what medicine looks like in 200 years...though I'll be very, very gone by then:( One thing to know: there is absolutely no place to eat or drink inside. No cafe, no water bottles for sale, nothing. Just a tiny gift shop with some quirky souvenirs. So show up hydrated or plan to escape for snacks afterward. Overall, it's a great stop if you like history, science, or simply marveling at how humans figured out how to keep other humans alive. A little eerie, very educational, and surprisingly beautiful.

    I went there for an event last night, but we got full reign of the museum. We did a scavenger hunt…read moreso we got to see every inch of this place. Chicago has a bunch of these smaller niche museum, but I thought this one was one of the better ones. It's an an historic house that would have overlooked the Lake before LSD existed. The exhibits were all pretty good, but my favorite was eye care. They had some great optometry artifacts and a collection of sunglasses over the years. They also have quite a bit of original art, mostly in sculpture form which is both odd, but still important. Another thing I liked was that it wasn't overly graphic. There's a plastic surgery section that has a few slightly unsettling portraits of people maimed during WWI. I mean, I kind of felt more bad for those poor people which I think was the point. If I were to give it all a rating, it's a light PG13. If there are any downsides, the place is a little on the expensive side for its size, but they're constantly running events that include admittance. They also seem to lean on some kind of artist or researcher that does a lot of dream stuff. I didn't like his stuff as much. Also, the sections are a little disorganized, but that might be spacing in issues. Either way, this was a pretty interesting place. I'm betting they do an awesome Halloween event because it's a little spooky, but all educational. The gift shop is neat too!

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    Color Factory - artmuseums - Updated August 2026

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