Written By David Greisman
It involves chicks and it’s billed as a peep show. But it comes after Easter and it isn’t what you think it is. Forget religion. Forget bared flesh. This “Peep Show,” running from April 3 through April 8 at the Carroll Arts Center in Westminster, is about a sugar rush.
The medium? Marshmallows, specifically Peeps, the colorful, crunchy, creamy confections, made mostly of sugar, corn syrup and gelatin, and manufactured by Bethlehem, Pa., candy company Just Born. The premise: an art show and contest open to all comers and Peep-themed creations, be they digital images, dioramas, paintings, sculptures, videos or whatever else one can come up with.
The pieces can be made of any kind of Peeps marshmallow, said Sandy Oxx, executive director of the Carroll County Arts Council, although there is one criterion:
“They have to fit in the front door.”
Oxx said she decided to hold the event after she entered a local newspaper’s similar competition. Her submission, “Peep with a Pearl Earring,” was modeled after the famous Johannes Vermeer painting.
“It didn’t win, and I was crushed,” Oxx joked. “I said if I didn’t win, I’d have to make my own contest.”
Ten days before the “Peep Show” begins, many youths will find the non-fat, sugary snacks nestled within their Easter baskets. The Arts Center event, however, is not connected to the holiday, and is intended instead to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the Arts Council’s Main Street building.
“People probably expected us to do a chicken-breast dinner with long ball gowns,” said Oxx. “But no. Marshmallow peeps.”
“It’s really important to do just fun stuff, and do things that will bring in a totally different visitor to the Arts Center,” she said. “We’re always looking to expand audiences.”
April’s “Peep Show”– and all the others that have come before it –would not have been possible if the confection had not generated so much enthusiasm.
Before Just Born built its world of Peeps, the Rodda Candy Company of Lancaser, PA produced the sweets by hand, squeezing marshmallow chicks out of pastry tubes, a process that took more than 24 hours. Just Born bought Rodda in 1953, automated the production, and Peeps joined a product line that includes the Mike and Ike and Hot Tamales candies.
Today, a Peep can be made in just six minutes.
First, the ingredients are measured into a large kettle, where they are whipped so that the marshmallow mixture becomes light and fluffy. Next, the formed Peeps are given color and are then sent to a conveyor belt. The Peeps are covered with colored sugar before moving on to decoration, the final step before they are packaged and sent off.
Peeps have grown beyond brightly colored chicks. Over the years, Just Born has introduced such shapes as bats, bunnies, eggs, hearts, pumpkins and trees, expanded beyond yellow and toward new fluorescent colors, and even made items with cocoa and chocolate.
The cult of Peeps fiends is sizable, said Ellie Deardorff, a spokeswoman for Just Born, which sells an estimated 700 million of the chicks each Easter in the U.S. There are more than 500 unofficial Web sites, she said, and the official fan club includes more than 90,000 members. Those who sign up for the club can access perks such as Peep-themed e-cards, chat icons and coloring pages. There is even Peeps merchandise, ranging from necklaces and plush toys to t-shirts with designs that include the slogans “Party Peeps,” “Village Peeps,” “Where my Peeps at?” and the inevitable “Chick Fight.”
“Everyone equates Peeps to their childhood memories and their Easter baskets when they were little,” Deardorff said. “Nothing looks like a Peeps chick or a Peeps bunny. Even if you don’t want to eat a Peep, everyone smiles when they see one.”
Customers, in turn, have taken their fascination further and have been inspired to engage in numerous peculiar Peeps practices, Deardorff said.
Some people make sculptures and other creations out of Peeps, playing to crowds in newspapers, online and at exhibitions. Peeps have played central roles in original poetry and parodies of classic literary works.
For others, Peeps are an acceptable pizza topping, a natural ingredient for s’mores, or fodder for dipping into fondue pots. At least one offbeat Web site chronicles, with scientific dedication, the effects on Peeps of cold and heat, alcohol and cigarettes. And then there are the games.
One Web site suggests Peeps Badminton. Rackets and nets are optional, as long as something allows the chicks to take flight.
Peeps Jousting appears to be far more popular. It entails arming two of the confections with toothpicks and facing them off inside a microwave. As temperatures rise, tensions do, too, until one of the two engorged Peeps finds itself impaled upon the victor’s weapon.
“They’re a very artistic bunch,” said Deardorff.
Oxx is hoping for the same spirit.
“I have great faith in Carroll County. They come out with incredible stretches of the imagination for our wreath festival,” she said. “I expect nothing less with our Peep Show.”
