FOODshed: Art and Agriculture in Action originated at Smack Mellon in Brooklyn, NY in 2014, curated by Amy Lipton of ecoartspace. An updated version was recently on view in August/September 2015 at CR10 Arts, a few miles south of Hudson, NY. The goal from the beginning was to travel the show to the Hudson Valley since many of the artists live and work there, as well as grow food on their own small farms.
CR10 Arts is in Columbia, County, an agricultural region with the now flourishing small town of Hudson where art, culture and food are thriving. CR10 is housed in a re-purposed 15,000 square foot concrete block building, constructed in 1954 for agricultural storage. Installing the show in this enormous space was a challenge for the artists since there is very little usable wall space, the building is mostly windows. But the exposed barn beams and simple wooden floors made a great backdrop for this show which was focused on sustainable agriculture, entrepreneurship, and artists' use of food as subject matter or medium.
The exhibition featured artworks and inventive projects around agriculture and food that addressed farming as both activism and art form. Many of the artists in the exhibition are known for bringing community-specific issues into their work and are exploring the real-world implications of small-scale farming and raising community awareness about our food systems. The artists advocate for an organic, regional and local approach, which they are manifesting in their own lives and where the boundaries of real world and art completely disappear.
To learn more about the show and the installations go HERE
FOODshed was reviewed in Edible Hudson Valley and IMBY (in my backyard).
