Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, New York (2011)
Installed on the first floor of the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center during The Potato Revolution: Cult of Potato 2011 exhibition, The Potato Revolution Café represented one of the earliest large-scale public manifestations of what would later become the Think Potato Institute.
Transforming the historic building into an immersive potato-themed environment, the installation brought together hundreds of artifacts from Jeffrey Allen Price’s growing collection. Display cases, shelves, mannequins, artworks, books, toys, tools, clothing, photographs, prints, postcards, television clips, research materials, and ephemera filled the space, creating a temporary museum dedicated to the cultural life of the potato.
Unlike a traditional exhibition focused on individual artworks, The Potato Revolution Café presented the collection itself as the primary subject. Visitors encountered the potato not only as food, but as a cultural artifact appearing across art, history, advertising, folklore, popular media, design, music, education, and everyday life. For many visitors, it was the first opportunity to experience the scope of what would later become the Think Potato Institute.
The installation also functioned as a social gathering space. During special events, visitors were offered potato-themed refreshments, including potato chips and potato vodka, while the environment encouraged conversation, exploration, and participation. On November 11, 2011 (11.11.11), the space hosted the debut performance of POTATOTRON, Jeffrey Allen Price’s potato-themed musical project, further expanding the intersection of collecting, performance, education, and community engagement.
Looking back, The Potato Revolution Café marked an important step in the transformation of a private collection into a public institution. It demonstrated how artifacts, archives, artworks, and research materials could be presented together as a unified cultural environment—an approach that would continue to shape the development of the Think Potato Institute in the years that followed.
Related Documentation:
• Institute Chronicle: The Potato Revolution: Cult of Potato 2011
Related Timeline Entries:
• The Potato Revolution: Cult of Potato 2011
• Unpacking My Potato Collection (2012)