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Food programming in museums

  • 1.  Food programming in museums

    Posted 11-14-2014 01:27 PM
    Who is experimenting with programming around food for adult engagement? 

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    Ellen Rosenthal
    President & CEO
    Conner Prairie Museum
    Fishers IN
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  • 2.  RE: Food programming in museums

    Posted 11-14-2014 01:57 PM
    Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation has an upcoming special event called Foods and Feasts of Colonial Virginia. Our Historical Interpreters do all kinds of neat period foods and food preservation. They usually butcher some animals and show the process of food preservation. They also make period recipes and show traditional cooking methods.

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    Steven Prokopchak
    Associate Producer
    Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
    Williamsburg VA
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Food programming in museums

    Posted 11-15-2014 08:04 AM
    We do an adult cooking workshops/classes with a functioning reproduction colonial bake oven along with hearth cooking. We found the targeted workshop approach with a hands-on component proved to be more popular than regularly scheduled demonstrations or activities for the adult audience.

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    Dan Roe
    Director of Education
    York County Heritage Trust
    York PA
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  • 4.  RE: Food programming in museums

    Posted 11-14-2014 02:26 PM
    Smithsonian Gardens and the National Museum of American History have been putting on food-based programing during the late summer for the past two years:

    http://americanhistory.si.edu/events/food-garden


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    Joe Cialdella
    Program Officer
    Michigan Humanities Council
    Lansing MI
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  • 5.  RE:Food programming in museums

    Posted 11-15-2014 09:48 AM
    I am organizing titled, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Visualized. The show is scheduled to open at UCONN’s, Contemporary Art Galleries on February 4, 2015, and continue through April 25, 2015.

    CAG is curating a dynamic contemporary art exhibition of high artwork produced in diverse media by internationally renowned, as well as some lesser known, emerging talent. The works selected reflect the specific content within key chapters in Michael Pollan’s food-centric book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Some of the artists included are: Robert Gober, Janine Antoni, Alexis Rockman, Frank Moore, Agnes Denise and others.

    A key reason, I decided to curate this show is that the University of Connecticut has chosen as this coming years UCONN READS selection. This means that thousands of our students and faculty in various departments are reading and studying Pollan's book.
    Barry Rosenberg
    Director, Contemporary Art Galleries
    University of Connecticut, Storrs CT




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  • 6.  RE: Food programming in museums

    Posted 11-16-2014 04:12 PM
    Barry,

    This sounds like a fascinating show. Please post the invite on the list serve!

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    Robin White Owen
    Principal
    Mediacombo, Inc
    New York NY
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  • 7.  RE: Food programming in museums

    Posted 11-15-2014 12:25 PM
    The Burke County History Museum in Morganton, NC has a program called Meet and Eat. Groups from around the area plan a meeting for their group at the museum and bring their own food or have it catered. The Women's Club, or the Garden Club, or DAR, for example. When their meeting is finished (and the food disposed of) the group takes a tour through the museum. It's a great promotion for the museum at no cost since the group furnishes their own food.

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    Chesley Peabody
    National Music Museum
    Vermillion SD
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  • 8.  RE: Food programming in museums

    Posted 11-17-2014 08:36 AM
    The Senator John Heinz History Center has various levels of programming. The From Slavery to Freedom exhibit has content that focuses on the history of African and African American food traditions as it relates to slavery and how runaways carried that knowledge of natural plants and flora into the wilderness for survival. In connection with this aspect of the exhibit, the Heinz presented two workshops and a opening presentation. The workshops were conducted by culinary historian Michael Twitty who presented authentic cooking techniques of enslaved people using at the Meadowcroft Historic Village site. The opening presentation was by Jessica B. Harris, author of nine books on African and African Diasporic culinary traditions. In addition to these exhibit related programs, the Heinz also offers Healthy Heritage cooking programs where local ethnic cooks are invited in to present and cook in the kitchen classroom. We have presented Italian, Bulgarian, Jewish, Syrian, and Thailand. In addition our annual Hometown, Homegrown program is somewhat of a cooking trade show with a guest cooking demonstration. 

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    Samuel Black
    Director of African American Programs
    Senator John Heinz History Center
    Pittsburgh PA
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  • 9.  RE: Food programming in museums

    Posted 11-17-2014 01:51 PM
    We started doing a series of "Art of Cuisine" dinner parties held off-site at a restaurant we have built a relationship with. Each dinner party is inspired by a current exhibition, the curator does a short talk while guests are seated before dinner is served and the chefs curate a multi course menu inspired by the exhibition and do their own little talk. We bring the curator and chefs together to brainstorm the menu and whole evening. It's very multi-sensory, we have a playlist, dress the table with other elements from the theme of the exhibition. They create artist inspired cocktails. It works well with this restaurant, The Kitchen, in Columbus, Ohio because they're a concept restaurant that does participatory dining experiences and aren't open as a regular walk in restaurant every night of the week. We have done 3 different exhibition inspired dinners and most of them have sold out. We also have our cafe under construction, so it worked out well to partner with a local restaurant that can host these events. It's open to the public, but we have special member prices. We generally have 4 large tables of 45 people and have a museum staff member at each table to engage with guests. It's been great stewardship to give guests intimate and meaningful conversation and time spent with curators, development officer, exec director. 

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    Lauren Emond
    Member Relations Manager
    Columbus Museum of Art
    Columbus OH
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  • 10.  RE: Food programming in museums

    Posted 11-17-2014 02:59 PM

    At the Milwaukee Art Museum we've just launched a series titled "The Art of Craft", which consists of a series of evening events spread out over about a four month period. Each evening event focuses on a different culinary craft, generally addressing Wisconsin culinary arts,  e.g. artisanal  cheese, craft meats, beer (because.... it is Wisconsin), etc....   We've partnered with local crafts people and program participants will meet the craftsmen and get the opportunity to taste their product and learn what makes it unique, and how many of these artisanal products can be made at home. The museum's culinary team has also started a  series that is open to all museum guests during our Thursday evening hours and have been very well attended.  These include "Scary Halloween Treats", "The Perfect Turkey", and "Professional Plating".  In the Winter and Spring we have programs for children and families, Including "How Does Your Garden Grow" which introduces children to vegetables which may not be familiar to them,  with children leaving the program with seeds and garden packets they can use to grow their own vegetables.  
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    Bryan Kwapil
    Sr. Director of Visitor Experience
    Milwaukee Art Museum
    Milwaukee WI
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  • 11.  RE: Food programming in museums

    Posted 11-18-2014 10:25 AM
    It's not food, but wine - we're introducing a series in 2015, "The Art of Wine" where we'll tie a discussion about a wine topic to art in our galleries, or art in general. One example of the link between the two: presentation methods. In wine, you have stemware and depending on the type of wine, you have a different type of glass. In art, you have framing/presentation of the piece and there are methods for optimizing the visual impact. It's basically a series based loosely on aesthetics and/or connoisseurship.

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    Dawn Salerno
    Director of Education
    Mystic Arts Center
    Mystic CT
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  • 12.  RE: Food programming in museums

    Posted 11-18-2014 11:32 AM
    When I worked at The New Jersey Historical Society, we did an exhibition called "Dining In, Dining Out" about communities created around food and food events.  We featured diners, family meals, church suppers, firehouse dinners, and other community events where people gathered around food.  As a result, our lunchtime Brown Bag weekly programs (targeted to adults working in the area) were all centered around food for a few months.  We had cooking demos from local chefs, historic recipes, some of the family dinners featured in the exhibit brought in food to share (and discuss traditions, etc). 

    My local library is starting programming for adults around food (full disclosure - I am on the "menu" for the inaugural program this Thursday) http://www.jfpl.org/polCalendarEvent.cfm?Event_Id=21794

    I recall awhile back that Hull House offered lunchtime programs where they'd discuss issues around hunger and food, I think they mostly served soup, but I believe the idea was that a discussion about a difficult topic was able to be breached by strangers when there was a common element, i.e. food, around which to gather and discuss (and it fit in well with the mission of Hull House).

    Would love to know more about what you are planning/thinking!

    Claudia

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    Claudia Ocello
    President & CEO
    Museum Partners Consulting
    Morristown NJ
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  • 13.  RE: Food programming in museums

    Posted 11-19-2014 12:56 PM
    At the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia, where I was before here, a colleague and I started a very popular Kitchen Chemistry series that continues to today, even though both she and I have moved on. We choose topics based usually on exhibition themes (the latest was about space food, since the museum is hosting the SITES exhibition Suited for Space) and the presentations include a bit of history, a bit of science, and a bit of the art and craft of cooking. The audience at CHF is primarily adults, but these have proved very popular with kids as well, admittedly more so with the cupcake one than cured fish! We always include a tasting with each presentation. Jen and I have also adapted these presentations for other venues, including an historic house, a theatre festival, and the Philadelphia Science Festival. 

    Here at the American Philosophical Society, I had a great wine program back in October. I worked with a local sommelier to translate Thomas Jefferson's love of French wines of the 18th century to modern varietals easily accessible at your local liquor store (at a much more reasonable pricepoint). That program supported our current exhibition, Jefferson, Philadelphia, and the Founding of a Nation.

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    Gigi Naglak
    Curator of Museum Education
    American Philosophical Society Museum
    Philadelphia PA
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  • 14.  RE: Food programming in museums

    Posted 11-20-2014 09:16 AM

    Keep in mind that you need to consider local health code requirents as you start to become food and beverage handlers and servers rather then just educators :) . You may be required to have specilaized training or certification.  
    There typically is specific requirments for food storage. Check to make sure you have insurance coverage for these activities.  


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    Sheila Palmer
    Chubb & Son, Inc.
    New York NY
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    Original Message


  • 15.  RE: Food programming in museums

    Posted 11-21-2014 11:27 AM
    I am thrilled by the responses to this discussion. Conner Prairie Interactive History Park has long offered participatory dinners, Hearthside Suppers, in an historic house during our off season. We allow 10-14 guests to make the small stuff (churn butter, grind coffee, peel carrots, make biscuits), but we cook the main courses in a health department approved kitchen. The menus are historic and appropriate for the season. In the last few years, the dinners have become very popular as the foodie movement has taken off in this area.
    Because our daily families, we started to talk about ways we might engage adults audiences - particularly potential donor adults.
    We hypothesized that farm to table, historically inspired, food events might do the trick. This year we began a program called Prairie Plates in which we partnered with local chefs who took on the challenge of designing dinners. We held the dinners in six different places on the property to get people to experience the museum. One dinner was held under a covered bridge. At the last one, a local charcuterie offered a class in pig butchering in the afternoon. Then the charcuterie cooked a 9 course "pig" dinner, each course was a different part of the pig. (FYI For me, it was 6 pig courses too many.)
    We also offer samples of authentic foods on a regular basis to our daily visitors, cooking in our approved kitchen.
    I thank everyone for their great examples of other takes on food programming.
    We all know that the best "hooks" are those which visitors are already interested in.
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    Ellen Rosenthal
    President & CEO
    Conner Prairie Museum
    Fishers IN
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    Original Message