Media Advisory: As NFL Season Opens, Steelers Nation On Display at New Carnegie Mellon Exhibit

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Sep 09, 2010, 02:49 ET

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ --

What: With the Pittsburgh Steelers set to kick off the season Sunday at Heinz Field, Carnegie Mellon University is recognizing Steeler fans and their methods (sometimes unusual, sometimes humorous, often borderline crazy) to support and honor the Black and Gold. "Whatever It Takes: Steelers Fan Collections, Rituals, and Obsessions," running through Jan. 30, 2011, is a first-of-its-kind exhibition that looks at the ingenious methods Steelers fans use to construct their own personal and social identities in relation to the team.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020422/CMULOGO )

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Curated by Carnegie Mellon Professor of Art Jon Rubin and Miller Gallery Director Astria Suparak, "Whatever It Takes" shows how Steelers fans brilliantly remix and meld the team's identity with their own through game-day rituals, Steelers dens, fan sites, costumes, tattoos, videos, Web shows, unlicensed merchandise and more.

The exhibit will include a tour of Denny DeLuca's homemade Steelers Den, which has been moved in its entirety from his basement into the gallery and is crammed with hundreds of handmade and altered objects, each with its own story that describes both the biography of the team and his autobiography; new episodes of Jim Shearer's weekly, low-budget, post-game Web-show called "Yinz Luv 'Da Stillers"; slide shows of "Great Moments in Unlicensed Steelers Merch" from the Pittsburgh Sports and Mini Ponies blog; and a live Skype feed with a Steelers bar, La Botticella, in Rome, Italy.

A slideshow of the exhibit can be found at: http://www.cmu.edu/news/media/multimedia/steelersslideshow.mov

More details about the exhibit can be found at:

http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/creativity/2010/summer/miller-gallery-exhibit.shtml

About Carnegie Mellon: Carnegie Mellon (www.cmu.edu) is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the fine arts. More than 11,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university is in the midst of a $1 billion fundraising campaign, titled "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.