Warhol City

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) _ An eastern Slovak town which houses
the Warhol Family Museum of Modern Art plans to use a European Union
grant to help change its image and turn itself into ``Warhol city,''
a municipal official said Tuesday.

Medzilaborce has received a 45,000-euro grant from
EU funds for tourism development, town hall official Adrian Kalinak
said in a telephone interview.

``The purpose of this project is to start to change the look of
the town to symbolize pop art and Andy Warhol,'' said Kalinak.

Kalinak said the money will be used to renovate facades of nine
houses in the town's centre and to decorate four bus stops in the
style made famous by Warhol, whose parents grew up in the nearby
village of Mikova before marrying and emigrating to the United
States.

Six giant billboards will also go up to help publicize the town's
main tourist attraction.

Although Warhol, who died in 1987, never visited the land of his
parents, some 10,000 visitors a year come to the museum _ a major
tourist attraction in Medzilaborce _ to see his works and
memorabilia on display there.

Kalinak said a commission that will be set up will in the next
few months choose the project's designer.

He said the town in the future hopes to find more money to
finance other Warhol-related projects, such as building a replica of
his parents' house and further extending the pop art theme
throughout the town of 6,500.