How does the NY Times, Pittsburgh Steelers and an Art Exhibit fit together? Well it really does and came as a total surprise to both Murray and me as we researched some statistics related to our blog. This week I took a course on Search Engine Optimization and learned about inbound links and how they can help add credibility to one's website or blog. After an excellent class, part of WESST's networking and Training here in Santa Fe, I came home and discovered that Author and Artist had an inbound link from the New York Times. "Now that is high on the authority/credibility score" was Clare Zurawski's comment when I reported the link to her the second day of the course she was leading.
OK... so now what was the link? Written by Eric Dash, it was published on September 18, 2010 titled, "The Steelers at the Intersection of Iron City Beer and Art Basel." It features how "football and cultural life are so intertwined" in Pittsburgh and particularly focuses on a exhibit at the Miller Gallery of Carnegie Mellon University which opened on August 27 and runs through January 30, 2011. The Author and Artist Blog is linked when Dash talks about the "life-sized statue of running back Franco Harris's Immaculate Reception" that greets visitors to the Pittsburgh Airport. Here's the link to the NY Times article and you can link back to our article when you see the "life-size statue" highlighted.
Murray took the picture when we arrived at the Pittsburgh airport at the beginning of April 2008. We were returning to our home town of Pittsburgh to help with the Obama primary. What a trip that has proved to be from our picture with now President Obama at the Pittsburgh Airport, to great time spent with friends and family, to having this inbound link from the NY Times, not to exclude seeing Franco and other stalwarts of the Steelers' Dynasty at a Steeler Rally for Obama.
I end with a fantasy. What fun it would be to tour the "Whatever It Takes: Steeler Fan Collections, Rituals and Obsession" at the Miller Gallery of Carnegie Mellon University with my father-in-law Joe Tucker. Of course that is not possible. Joe died in 1986 and Murray has written a wonderful book about his father that I hunch many of our blog readers have enjoyed. It's called Screamer: The Forgotten Voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
I can imagine Joe's enthusiasm and delight at the exhibit which "focuses on fans not as consumers but on fans as producers" with all kinds of imaginative displays. A description of the exhibit points out that the fans are "a creative force that modifies dominant culture into something much more personal and collectively creates the Steeler Nation."
Alas... living now in Santa Fe I doubt that I will get into Pittsburgh to see the Exhibit. We would love to hear from people who have seen it and if someone would like to write a guest blog on the Exhibit we would welcome that.
