Artist Sean Starowitz's three-day D-LAB residency at Beach Museum explores food-related issues
Monday, April 13, 2015
MANHATTAN — A three-day workshop at Kansas State University's Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art will explore food production, consumption, service, convenience and cultural identity in 21st century Kansas through the practice of artist-researcher Sean Starowitz.
The Center for Food Perception and Aesthetics, April 15-17 in the museum's Vanier Gallery, is a socially engaged, collaborative project of Starowitz's Dialogue-Lab, or D-LAB, which hosts collaborative research projects utilizing public programs and projects, conversations, workshops and exhibitions. For the Beach Museum's D-LAB, local and regional partnerships will be used to explore a range of food-related issues.
Starowitz, from Kansas City, Missouri, aims to place artists, collaborators and attendees into equal roles that generate socially engaged endeavors.
Along with the Beach Museum of Art and the Prairie Studies Initiative, supporters of this D-LAB project include several Kansas State University departments, Radina's Bakehouse, the Land Institute and Farm to Market Bread Co.
The following events, all free and open to the public, will be part of the Center for Food Perception and Ascetics:
• Throughout Starowitz's residency, attendees can participate in Open Cookbook, a recipe exchange and archive, view cookbooks from the K-State Libraries, and browse the gallery and engage with Starowitz.
• Wednesday, April 15 — The first Drop-in Discussion, from 10 a.m. to noon, will look at the convenience of uniformity and forced serving size in the context of coffee, bread and other beverages and foods; and the second Drop-In Discussion, from 3 to 4 p.m., will look at platforms for food sustainability.
Thursday, April 16 —Drive Thru Nation, from 10 a.m. to noon, is an interactive workshop and presentation on car culture and food, as well as presentations by students from the landscape architecture and regional & community planning department and a film showing by Kate Nesse. From 3 to 4 p.m. will be the roundtable discussion, The Art of Fermentation, which includes beer brewing, sourdough and yeast breadmaking, and cheesemaking. It will feature Brandon Gunn, Tallgrass Tap House brewmaster; faculty members from the university grain science and industry department; and Alison Olewnik and Nat Bjerke-Harvey, cheesemakers. An artist talk by Starowitz will be at 6 p.m., followed by a reception, kernza bread tasting and interpretive performance, "Happy Meals," by Jui Mhatre.
Friday, April 17 — An informal roundtable discussion will be from 3 to 4 p.m. with leaders from the university's Rural Grocery Program and Global Food Systems Initiative, as well as the Land Institute in Salina.
The Beach Museum of Art is on the southeast corner of the Kansas State University campus at the corner of Anderson Avenue and 14th Street. Admission is free. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Free parking is available adjacent to the building. For more information, call 785-532-7718 or visit http://beach.k-state.edu.
