Waffle Shop: A Reality Show | |
---|---|
Artist | Jon Rubin and Carnegie Mellon University students |
Year | 2008 | - 2012
Type | Performance art, talk show, restaurant |
Location | East Liberty, Pittsburgh |
40°27′37.2″N79°55′30.3″W / 40.460333°N 79.925083°W |
Waffle Shop: A Reality Show was a performance art project and restaurant in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The restaurant was operated by Carnegie Mellon University students. [1] [2] The Waffle Shop was part of a trend in Pittsburgh to support performance art within the urban core. [3] In addition to serving food, students operate a talk show live-streamed online, featuring restaurant patrons as guests. [4] [5]
It opened in 2008 by Carnegie Mellon University art professor Jon Rubin as a 2-semester student art project. [6] The project/restaurant was so successful during that initial run that it was continued for several more years. [7]
Some special talk shop themes have included ringtones as "art." [8] [9]
The related sign atop the building was also used for public art purposes, [10] and later became known as The Last Billboard. The billboard stayed in place and continued to be changed periodically until it was removed in April of 2018. [11]
Local food critics reviewed it relatively favorably, noting the unique talk show situation. [12] [13]
It closed in 2012.
Pittsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the second-most populous city in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia, and the 68th-most populous city in the U.S., with a population of 302,971 as of the 2020 census. The city is located in southwestern Pennsylvania at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River, which combine to form the Ohio River. It anchors the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, which had a population of 2.457 million residents and is the largest metro area in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the 26th-largest in the U.S. Pittsburgh is the principal city of the greater Pittsburgh–Weirton–Steubenville combined statistical area which includes parts of Ohio and West Virginia.
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology and began granting four-year degrees. In 1967, it became Carnegie Mellon University through its merger with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, founded in 1913 by Andrew Mellon and Richard B. Mellon and formerly a part of the University of Pittsburgh.
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Jon Rubin is a contemporary artist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
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Media related to Waffle Shop: A Reality Show at Wikimedia Commons