“While Jennifer Rubell has cornered the high end of the food art market, the thousands of unsung folk artists stretching dough, ladling tomato sauce and tossing pies into their ovens have remained hidden away in the kitchen. That’s all bound to change when the world’s first pizza museum, Pizza Brain, opens this summer in Philadelphia, serving up not only the world’s largest collection of pizza memorabilia, but also fresh artifacts from an adjoining pizza restaurant.”

“Last summer Pizza Brain earned the appetizing distinction of being deemed the Guiness Book Of World Records record holder for have the largest collection of pizza memorabilia in the world, featuring over 1,000 items. The artist and collector Brian Dwyer, who’s behind the forthcoming museum’s copious collection, first exhibited selections from his trove in the spring of 2010. At the time, he told Philadelphia’s Citypaper: ‘I challenge you to give me a more universally celebrated food… It’s the great equalizer. It’s the only food I can think of that’s synonymous with the word ‘party.’”’

“And, in keeping with this fun-hungry attitude, Dwyer and his partners Ryan Anderson and Joe Hunter are planning to make Pizza Brain a living museum, operating a pizzeria within the same under-renovation 19th century building that will house the collection in Philadelphia’s trendy Fishtown neighborhood. Construction of the mouth-watering institution is on pace to be completed this spring, but Dwyer and his partners are, like many smaller museums, struggling to meet their fundraising goals.”