Freedom from Want: Food and Culture
Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United StatesFood is fundamental to personal, family, community, national and global health. Food is love. Food is culture. Every human is in relationship with food. Cookbook author Alana Chernila and NYU Nutrition and Food Studies professor Amy Bentley have each, in their own way, committed to the study and celebration of food and culture. In their work, in different ways, each invites us to think about the decisions made and comfort created from our own kitchens through paving the way for planetary wellness. And then there is joy. How can intention and care for our food relationships bring joy? Join us for a wide ranging conversation which will leave you with a renewed curiosity to enjoy and celebrate food while also bringing intention and awareness to the choices made each day and how they impact the larger food system. Illustrator Whitney Sherman has made art for social good and humanistic causes throughout her career and will share how she sees visual imagery creating and shaping our attitudes toward food, health, and the environment.
We’ll share Rockwell food related images as well as Whitney Sherman’s illustrations to build awareness and connection to health and the environment. All participants will receive a selection of comforting Thanksgiving recipes.
Panelists:
Amy Bentley, Professor of Food Studies at New York University. She is a historian with interests in the social, historical, and cultural contexts of food, she is the author of Inventing Baby Food: Taste, Health, and the Industrialization of the American Diet (University of California Press, 2014), (James Beard Award finalist, and ASFS Best Book Award).
Whitney Sherman, Illustrator, Founding Director of the MFA Illustration Practice and Co-Director of Dolphin Press & Print at MICA. She is an associate editor and contributing writer to the History of Illustration and writer/editor of Playing with Sketches. Her award-winning illustrations have appeared in most major publications, and she is the creator of the Breast Cancer Research stamp, which has raised almost $90 million dollars for research; it is the first semi-postal and longest running stamp in the U.S. Postal Service’s history. Whitney has made art for social good and humanistic causes throughout her career.
Alana Chernila writes, cooks, teaches cooking and cheesemaking, and blogs at EatingFromTheGroundUp.com. She’s been a featured contributor for numerous publications, including Yankee Magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Parents, Fine Cooking, and Food52.com. She is the author of three books: The Homemade Pantry:101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making, The Homemade Kitchen: Recipes for Cooking with Pleasure, which was nominated for an IACP award, and Eating From the Ground Up: Recipes for Simple, Perfect Vegetables.
