Fine Dining

We are presented with a series of crossword-style clues (corresponding to the “modern art pieces” in the flavortext) and four mini-exhibits. We can start by solving the first set of clues, aided by the observation that the answers are in alphabetical order:

As prompted by the flavortext, the next step is to figure out how to sort these “modern art pieces” into the four mini-exhibits. This is also confirmed by counting the number of components in each mini-exhibit (11 lines, 14 lines, 14 letters, and 9 images respectively), which sum to 48 — precisely the number of crossword clues. Furthermore, the puzzle title and mini-exhibit names suggest various kitchen/dining implements used for various purposes.

Mini-exhibit 1 - For Mixing

The key break-in here is that eleven of the clued terms in the first section are the names of college football rivalry BOWLS (suggested by “mixing bowl” and the flavortext mentioning “traditional battles”). Additionally, we identify the mascots (“symbolic figures”) of the teams that participate in each bowl.

These mascots fit perfectly into the provided blanks:

• SCRAPPY vs. PERUNA
• THE TIGER vs. MR. & MS. WUF
• BIG AL vs. AUBIE
• KEGGY vs. WILD E. CAT
• HOWL vs. TOM
• TOM vs. SEYMOUR D'CAMPUS
• TESTUDO vs. BILL
• OWLSLEY & HOOT vs. ROARY
• THE TIGER vs. COCKY
• MIKE vs. TONY
• AUBIE vs. MIKE

The highlighted letters spell out the phrase RUBTOASHINE, which clues the mini-puzzle answer POLISH.

Mini-exhibit 2 - For Measuring

This mini-exhibit is all about CUPS — in particular, Reese’s peanut butter cups (clued by “measuring cups” and the word “nutty” in the flavortext). Indeed, fourteen of the clued terms in the first section are the names of Reese’s peanut butter cups variations: BAT, BELL, BUNNY, CHRISTMAS TREE, CRUNCHY, FOOTBALL, FUDGE, GHOST, HEART, INSIDE OUT, KING SIZE, PUMPKIN, SNOWMAN, and UGLY SWEATER.

Additionally, the flavortext tells us that the clues in this mini-exhibit all refer to specific people, but at first it appears impossible to uniquely identify the person in each case. The key realization is that all of these people are named Reese. Furthermore, each clue is also directly associated to one of the Reese’s peanut butter cups variations. We can then use the age of each person in the provided year (as clued by “associated with people through the ages”) to index into the Reese’s variation:

The indexed letters spell out ANSWER CERAMICS.

Mini-exhibit 3 - For Serving

The fourteen pieces in this mini-exhibit are all words or phrases found on state license PLATES. The provided letters in the mini-puzzle are the first letters of the corresponding states. Prompted by the flavortext, we seek to find the state capital corresponding to each license plate text:

We then “trace” out a path between these capitals on a map, following the provided routes:

We see that “9+2” is spelled out, cluing the mini-puzzle answer ELEVEN.

Mini-exhibit 4 - For Cooking

The final mini-exhibit is about POT (following the cannabis interpretation). The phrase “best of high-time competition” in the flavortext clues the historical winners of the Cannabis Cup, an annual competition held at the High Times festival. In fact, the remaining nine clue answers from the first section are all one half of a two-word name of a winning pot strain. The other halves of the pot strains are almost-anagrams of the words clued by the provided images (“hazily depict” in the flavortext). Finally, we observe that the provided images clue words in alphabetical order, implying we should reorder them somehow; the key is to sort by the year in which the corresponding pot strain won the Cannabis Cup (clued by “over the years” in the flavortext).

After sorting, we consider the modified letters from the counterpart strain words and the image words. This spells out the phrase PH OF H TWO O, cluing the mini-puzzle answer SEVEN.

Putting it all together

After solving the four mini-puzzles, we arrive at the four answers POLISH, CERAMICS, ELEVEN, and SEVEN. Put together, these form another clue-phrase yielding the final answer, BOLESLAWIEC POTTERY.