Pop-up museum serves up slice of history with art

NEW YORK — A museum for pizza lovers has popped up in New York City.

The Museum of Pizza is dedicated to all things cheese and sauce, but there’s more to it than meets the tongue.

“It’s often that the simplest ideas are the best. And we wanted to use pizza’s ubiquitous appeal to get people through the door and looking at art and hearing about history in a different format,” said Alexandra Serio, chief content officer at Nameless Network, the group that baked the Museum of Pizza idea.

“Our approach to this Museum of Pizza is a fine art approach, so we went out to multiple artists contemporary in many mediums, and asked them for their interpretation of pizza,” said Serio. “And what we got back is — it ranges the gambit, let’s just say that. That’s an understatement.”

Located on the street level of Brooklyn’s William Vale hotel, the museum is an expansive, one-floor space that houses a variety of art, from giant photographs to sculptures to large installations that engulf visitors. And the pop-up museum, also known as “MoPi,” has already drawn a lot of interest — more than 6,000 people came through the doors when it opened this month.

Another instantly recognizable attribute of the space is the bright colors weaved throughout the exhibits.

“Honestly, I thought it would be like more of a museum, like at the beginning with the pizza boxes, and it kinda tells you when it was developed and stuff like that,” said Nene Raye, visiting from New Jersey. “Then I was kinda hoping they had something artsy in it because I love taking pictures. So this is a mashup of everything — so you get a little bit of education and then some fun, which I love.”

Serio said selfie-friendly exhibits are becoming a priority for museums as they try to get younger legs to walk through their doors. Lydia Melendez, a self-described “pizza aficionado,” bought her tickets in April. For her, this experience was worth the wait.

“I thought it was going to be kinda boring, like I’m going to walk in and there’s just going to be a book about pizza and how to make it. But this is definitely one for the books.”