<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; "></span>
</span></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><br></span></div></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"><o:p>Hi everyone,</o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none">Sorry for the delay in contributing (and not on my correct week )- thanks Amanda for inviting me with this super cool group - and for asking questions to get me started. I have worked on several food/agriculture related exhibitions since 2009 which I've outlined below briefly. I've added website links and also attached the press release and artist project descriptions for FOODshed:Art and Agriculture in Action. Below I put Amanda's questions in red and my answers below.</p><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div>Amy</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#ed2227">I
wonder if you might talk about your interest in the intersection of food and
art as it relates to the work you have been doing over many years at the
intersection of art and ecology? You joined forces with Patricia Watts to do
curatorial work under the umbrella of ecoartspace.
<a href="http://www.liptonarts.com/ecoart/">http://www.liptonarts.com/ecoart/</a><o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none">In
my work both with ecoartspace and in my curatorial projects as an independent
curator I have covered a wide range of environmental topics with artists
encompassing various challenging issues including climate change, land
use/sprawl, remediation, pollution, waste water, habitat loss, endangered
species, energy use -and of course food and agriculture. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none">My 2002 exhibition
<i>Ecovention: Current Art to Transform Ecologies</i>, co-curated with Sue Spaid was my first large museum show at the CAC with 32
artists including Brandon Ballengee, Betty Beaumont, Joseph Beuys, Jackie
Brookner, Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI), Mel Chin, Betsy Damon,
Agnes Denes, Helen and Newton Harrison, Patricia Johanson, Ocean Earth
Development Corporation/Peter Fend, Aviva Rahmani, Robert Smithson, Alan
Sonfist, Superflex, Mierle Laderman Ukeles. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span><a href="http://greenmuseum.org/c/ecovention/intro_frame.html"><span style="color:windowtext">http://greenmuseum.org/c/ecovention/intro_frame.html</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri">Sue
Spaid and I defined an Ecovention (</span><span style="font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:
Verdana">ecology + invention) to describe an artist-initiated project that
employs an inventive strategy to physically transform a local ecology</span><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"> . From my broad perspective
ecological issues are connected. All living things are inter-related, part
of the web of life. Air and water quality (or lack of quality/pollution) impact
soil quality and nutrition of food. Climate is taking a toll on everything from
plants and trees moving to cooler elevations and how this impacts wildlife and
humans including migration. We have the decline of pollinators, pesticides and insect resistant
genes bred into plants, etc... Warming oceans and overfishing have degraded the
oceans dramatically. Mass killing of large predators such as wolves and bear
cause over-population of deer and ruminants, which can decimate forests and
lower canopy trees. Factory farms/feedlot breeding of animals causes manure
pollution in water and the need for antibiotics in the animals, all washed down
into our waterways and into our human digestion. The food chain determines the
health of our planetary ecological system. Ecovention included several artists
focused on these issues such as Ocean Earth (Peter Fend) on harvesting
ocean algae for energy; Superflex did a bio-gas project for African villages
without means to cook and Susan Steinman created a public permaculture garden
growing food for the homeless and using salvaged materials in the outdoor plaza
below the CAC. Georg Dietzler grew oyster mushrooms in the museum that
remediated toxic soil and Mel Chin's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Revival
Field</i> used plants called hyperaccumulators that were developed by USDA
scientist Rufus Cheney to absorb heavy metals such as cadmium and lead out of
the soil at a superfund site in Minnesota. Other artists in Ecovention such as
Helen and Newton Harrison and Hans Haacke had been experimenting with water
purification, soil, agriculture, breeding of shrimp, for many years beginning
in the early 1970's.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#ed2227"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span>And
more recently you've realized two iterations of the exhibition "FOODshed:
Art and Agriculture in Action" <a href="http://www.liptonarts.com/foodshed-at-cr10/">http://www.liptonarts.com/foodshed-at-cr10/</a></font></p><div><br></div><div><a href="http://ecoartspace.blogspot.com/search?q=foodshed">http://ecoartspace.blogspot.com/search?q=foodshed</a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none">The
original iteration of my exhibition F<i>OODshed: Art and Agriculture in Action</i>
was at Franklin Street Works in Stamford, CT (2013). It was part of an
exhibition titled Strange Invitation. Artist/upstate NY farmer Andrea Reynosa
was invited to come up with a project and invited me to curate. That show,
titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Digging Deeper</i> included
Reynosa, Habitat for Artists collaborative (greenhouses, rain barrel
collection, hydroponics), Elaine Tin Nyo (goat cheese-making), Jenna Spevack
(urban farming), Joan Bankemper (farming/raising animals/gardening) and Linda
Weintraub (homesteading, canning food from her gardens). <i>Digging Deeper</i>
was the pilot project that culminated in <i>FOODshed: Art and Agriculture in
Action</i> at both Smack Mellon in Brooklyn 2014 and at CR10 in Hudson 2015. I
added artists Tattfoo Tan (dehyrdrated food and survival issues), Bonnie
Sherk(public food gardens and K-12 education), Peter Nadin (farmer/artist), Kristyna
and Marek Milde (community urban farming), Cary Peppermint and Leila Nadir
(fermentation), Natalie Jeremijenko (edible flowers), Susan Steinman (heirloom
apples), Joy Garnett (vinegar), Lenore Malen (beekeepers), Dan Devine (raising
sheep)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"><a href="http://www.franklinstreetworks.org/?s=strange+invitation&submit=Search"><span style="color:windowtext">http://www.franklinstreetworks.org/?s=strange+invitation&submit=Search</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri">There
were public art components in Brooklyn outside of Smack Mellon. Andrea Reynosa
converted an abandoned (soon to be developed) waterfront lot into John Street
Pasture <a href="http://johnstreetpasture.com/"><span style="color:windowtext">http://johnstreetpasture.com/</span></a>
which she collaborated on with Brooklyn Grange and Alloy architects to
plant a cover crop of Crimson Clover. At the end of the project goats were
brought in from Queens Farm to eat the clover. </span><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Kristyna and
Marek Milde had a community public art project</span><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"> at Old Fulton Street Plaza. <i>À
la cart</i>, a temporary vegetable garden used shopping carts, soil and plants
to create a participatory, edible workshop experiment. The gallery had their
dinner table for a presentation platform and hub for gathering and talks on
food and sustainability. The Mildes invited members of the local community to
join the project and grow ingredients in the shopping carts for a single dish
which was prepared at the end of the exhibition.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span>Other
projects and workshops included Tattfoo Tan teaching participants “how to
save surplus food by dehydrating vegetables and fruit. As climate change poses
increasing threats to our agriculture, we can eliminate food waste by rethinking
what produce should look like.” He shared creative techniques for salvaging
deformed vegetables, which are transformed into beautiful meals. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">OS
Fermentation: Collaborative Hacks</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
bold"> with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Fruits, Vegetables, and
Microbes,</i> was a workshop with Leila Nadir + Cary Peppermint which took
place during the opening to “</span>revive the ancient, natural,
sustainable rituals of microbiological fermentation that provided our human
ancestors with a method of food preservation, diverse intestinal flora, and a
visually striking unfolding of carefully managed decomposition and death.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span><a href="http://smackmellon.org/index.php?cID=1333"><span style="color:windowtext">http://smackmellon.org/index.php?cID=1333</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color:windowtext"><a href="http://www.cr10.org/EXHIBITIONS">http://www.cr10.org/EXHIBITIONS</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#ed2227">What
was particularly interesting for you about exploring the territory of art and
agriculture? How did that come about?</font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span>I
became personally interested in agriculture when I moved out of NYC at the time
of 9/11 and contemplated survival as a potential imminent reality. That rupture
and the dislocation of my life post 9.11 and living in a quasi-rural area lead
me to attempt gardening for the first time in my life. This was after 20 years
as a city dweller with little regard or awareness as to where my food came
from. After many years I am still a novice at growing food, but I have a
greater understanding and respect for those that do this for a living and as an
art form. My first food related/gardening curatorial project took place in
2009. I was invited by the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in
Philadelphia to curate an exhibition on a large section of their 450-acre nature
preserve that had been farmland at one time and included a dilapidated 19th
Century farmhouse. The fields had gone fallow from years of neglect and we
decided to bring them back to life with 5 artists projects making use of the
land. The artists were Susan Steinman (permaculture orchards), Habitat for
Artists Collective (children's art and farm project), Joan Bankemper (medicinal
herb garden), Ann Rosenthal and Steffi Domeke (American native plant garden)
and Stacy Levy (Kept Out exclosure for deer)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span><a href="http://www.schuylkillcenter.org/art/?ha_exhibit=down-to-earth-artists-create-edible-landscapes"><span style="color:windowtext">http://www.schuylkillcenter.org/art/?ha_exhibit=down-to-earth-artists-create-edible-landscapes</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri">Also
my ecoartspace partner Patricia Watts had paved the way for me. She had already
curated a few exhibitions on food in the S.F. Bay Area when she was curator at
the Sonoma County Museum. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Hybrid Fields</i>
took place in 2006 with artists </span><span style="font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:
Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Carol Selter, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Christy Rupp</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:
Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:
Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Free Soil</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:
Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Free Fruit/Fruta Gratis</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:
Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">JohnKo Systems
Unlimited/Old World Innovations</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:
Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Laura Parker</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:
Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:
Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Matthew Moore</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:
Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:
Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Rachel Major</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:
Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:
Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Marisa Jahn</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:
Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Susan Leibovitz Steinman</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:
Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Ted Purves and
Susanne Cockrell,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Wowhaus</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><a href="http://hybridfields.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:windowtext">http://hybridfields.blogspot.com/</span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none">And <i>Terroir,
A Sense of Place </i>in 2009 at The Cheese Factory in 2011</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"><a href="http://artatthecheesefactory.blogspot.com/2009/02/terroir-sense-of-place-coming-soon.html"><span style="color:windowtext">http://artatthecheesefactory.blogspot.com/2009/02/terroir-sense-of-place-coming-soon.html</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#ed2227"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span>You've
written a bit on the dichotomy of art as object -vs- art as experience in this
territory. I wonder if you'd like to ruminate on that a little here as well?</font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none">Interestingly - having worked for 10 years as a dealer running a gallery, then 15 yrs as a curator running a
nonprofit I have covered the full spectrum of this dichotomy in terms of art as
object vs. art as experience. At this point after being so focused for 15 years
on art as process, I find myself working again (part time) for a commercial
gallery in Chelsea. Artists have to live and those that make traditional
objects and don't rely on academia or grants and public commissions need to
sell their work. Its important for me to get beyond judgment and to accept that
social practice/research/particpatory or collaborative art - is not for
everyone. There is also something to be said for a solo contemplative practice.
But it's no longer an either/or situation for me. Now it's whatever works to
enable creative work to take place. It's all neccessary, it's all important and
like ecological systems it's all connected.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:
major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;
mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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