Re-thinking Soup
SOUP DATE
February 14, 2012
TOPIC OF THE WEEK
Food and Fluxus: Legendary Artist Alison Knowles
SPEAKER OF THE WEEK
Alison Knowles is a visual artist known for her soundworks, installations, performances, and her important role as part of the experimental avant-garde Fluxus group formally founded in 1962. Knowles and other Fluxus artists create event scores, which involve simple actions, ideas, and objects from everyday life re-considered as performance.
ABOUT
Step into the world of avant-garde art for a special Valentine's Day Re-Thinking Soup with the legendary Fluxusartist, Alison Knowles. Knowles will perform "Make a Soup" from 12:00 - 2:00 PM, and invites the audience to participate. This piece premiered Nov. 9th, 1964 at Cafe au Go Go in NY and is a variation of her event score "Make a Salad" (premiered October 21st, 1962 at Institute for Contemporary Arts in London).
Slice mushrooms, eat soup, and read out-loud to help us invoke New York sixties modernism in our 19th-century space.
Join us as we challenge our notions of art, lunch,and everyday experience!
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RE-THINKING SOUP PROGRAMING
CURRENT SEASON
PAST SEASONS
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Click to view pictures from when Re-Thinking Soup went on the move to London!
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About Re-Thinking Soup:
Every Tuesday from 12:00-1:00pm, the Hull-House Museum hosts a modern day soup kitchen that is a public and communal event where we gather together and eat delicious, healthy, soup and have fresh, organic conversation about many of the urgent social, cultural, economic, and environmental food issues that we should be addressing.
Jane Addams was the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and worked on many issues in her life to create the conditions of peace to flourish. We meet in the historic Residents' Dining Hall, where Upton Sinclair, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, Gertrude Stein and other important social reformers met to share meals and ideas, debate one another, and conspire to change the world. Activists, farmers, doctors, economists, artists, and guest chefs join us each week to present their knowledge, ideas, and projects and foster a space where we can move toward solutions.
The bread is provided by Nicole Bergere, who grinds the grains and uses all natural ingredients and no preservatives for her baked creations. Please visit her website here.
THE HEIRLOOM FARM
The mission for the farm reflects our belief that monocultures are undesirable and dangerous for the environment and that promoting a pluralistic society is essential for a healthy democracy. The Heirloom Farm at the Hull-House Museum affirms the link between a healthy, diverse bio-culture that is sustained by varieties of heirloom fruits and vegetables, and a vibrant and diverse culture in society, promoted by artisans, farmers, ethnic restaurants and markets and by the people who support these spaces. The farm tells the stories of food, by showing and growing heirlooms crops that are imbued cultural identity, be it Italian De Cicco Broccoli, German hard-neck garlic, Chinese napa cabbage, or Purple Cherokee tomatoes. In the city, where residents are removed from the sources of their own food, the urban farm can reconnect social and cultural tradition with healthy eating, make fruits and vegetables accessible to all people, of any background, and create local networks of commerce. By growing heirloom crops, our farm reflects broader attempts to preserve a rich cultural heritage, and pursue avenues of egalitarian food access, health, and sustainability.
THE HEIRLOOM SEED LIBRARY
Seed saving is the most secure way to ensure sustainable food systems and healthful food access. By adapting this habit of conservation we are not only fostering biodiversity, but the notion of multiculturalism as well. Saving and planting seeds allows us to gather and conserve what we share culturally: food. The Seed Library asserts the connection between social, environmental and economic systems within the Chicago community. By providing free and regionally-adapted seeds to any seed library card holder, there is an opportunity for people to grow their own heirloom vegetables and to know where their food comes from. The library provides as a network as well, allowing urban farmers and gardeners to share their interest in sustaining a diverse bio-culture and educate novice farmers about the dangers of a monoculture. Hull-House Heirloom Seed Library seeks to confront food related issues and works to build a community through food.
WANNA VOLUNTEER?
For information about volunteer opportunities for Re-Thinking Soup or The Heirloom Farm, please contact Harish I Patel at harishi@uic.edu or 312.355.4683.
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Re-Thinking Soup funded in part by
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* All views expressed are those of the guests and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum or the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Architecture and the Arts.