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Tuesday, 10 August 2010 20:04

Written by Dan Gigler

I wrote in this space a few weeks ago about an exhibit slated to run through the upcoming football season at Carnegie Mellon's Miller Gallery called "Whatever it Takes: Steelers Fan Collections, Riuals and Obsessions." The idea is to look at the Steelers, their fans, and the creativity that the former spawns in the latter. 

I met with the exhibit curators, Astria Suparak and Jon Rubin over the weekend and their idea is coming into clearer focus. They've come up with text to describe just what it is that they're doing

"Steelers culture is Pittsburgh’s popular culture, and the fans are its primary producers. Often overlooked in discussions of pop culture, much less “high” culture, sports fans are portrayed as immature, uncritical, and passive consumers blindly following a branded product. Whatever It Takes: Steelers Fan Collections, Rituals, and Obsessions looks at the particular and ingenious methods Steelers fans use to construct their own personal and social identities in relation to the team, and in the process, create an active community of cultural producers ...

"Whatever It Takes: Steelers Fan Collections, Rituals, and Obsessions presents the participatory popular culture of Steelers fandom. The exhibition, a first of its kind, focuses not on fans as consumers, but on fans as producers—a creative force that modifies dominant culture into something much more personal, and collectively creates the Steelers Nation."

They've amassed some very cool pieces and concepts for this exhibit, though I don't want to give anything away just yet. But here's where you come in -- they want more. Specifically, they are looking for more hi-resolution pics of your Steelers tattoos, and unlicensed merchandise, especially t-shirts. If you think you've got something cool that would qualify, either on your body or in your dresser, you can contact them on their Facebook page and post pictures.

Stay tuned, we'll have more details on and pics from the exhibit when it opens ...

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