BostonAPP/Lab Notes from January 26, 2016

 

What kinds of installations, performances, and interactive engagement will work in the Boston Public Market/The KITCHEN?

 

What does, or could, a marriage between food and art look like?

 

Are there ways to incorporate into this new generation of activation other elements within the Trustees’ portfolio -- which now includes The KITCHEN -- of community gardens and open space?

 

Helping to frame up this brainstorming workshop were: John Vasconcellos, formerly Senior Regional Director, Boston and the Southeast, for The Trustees; Cheryl Cronin, CEO of The Boston Public Market; and Mackenzie Sehlke, Assistant Market Manager, Programming.

 

This will be the start of a long-term initiative, and we’ll be announcing next steps at the workshop itself.

 

Workshop participant responses/recommendations, by category:

1. Illumination

• Outside: projections/light shows/lasers/lighted sculptures.

• Signature art piece: cf. BSA Green Staircase.

• Simple, but fun, signage.

   

2. Marketing/communications

• Need to communicate experience to those who may be interested (both in- and out-of-town).

• Consider building’s visibility.

• Generate attention/curiosity via building mapping, projections, art.

• Lighting: opportunity for contemporary projection on exterior.

   

3. Vendor engagement

• Programming: vendors bring live music from their area/farm/town.

• Local music/local food.

• Screens in market with recipe ideas, based on specific ingredients from vendors.

• Branded bags with spaces for vendor-specific info stickers.

   

4. Civic engagement

• Outside “directional” interventions/art that lead people to the BPM/KITCHEN.

• Live streaming video of kitchen activities, visible in the market and/or on the street.

• Create a “community table,” instead of a buffet experience: people talk about their food experiences/share recipes/knowledge.

• Field trips: from schools to market, AND from market to schools, via truck/bus.

• Students study grocery/market layout, food production, entrepreneurship, design.

• Traveling empty school bus w/pop-up kitchen.

• Farm visits: sign up at Market.

• Culinary competitions: different age groups.

• Interview people: experience in the market; sound bites for media.

  • Develop a BPM/Kitchen app, to include storytelling (about vendors, farms).

• Pop-up BPM/Kitchen-branded stall(s) to be placed in different communities.

• Community Garden “State Fair” – e.g., which garden has the best tomato? Connect Market to:

  • Local gardens.

  • Economic diversity.

  • Cultural diversity.

     

5. Partnerships:

• “Home-made food,” “home-made art.”

• Bring artists/artisans into Kitchen to demonstrate

  • Metal fabrication.

  • Woodworking.

  • Letterpress printing.

• Find out what surrounding groups/businesses/organizations do/need, and find a connection via the content of the Market/Kitchen.

• Promote homesteading programming:

  • Canning, cheese-making, kombucha-making, candle-making, etc.

  • Give space over to craft market once/month or so, focused on food-farm-

    related items.

  • Work with region-wide waterfront fish businesses, including fishermen/women.

     

6. Food-as-art

• Vegetable art.

• Latte art.

• Competitions for all ages to make food art.

   

7. Venue

• Extend market and kitchen images/atmosphere/character into (throughout) other parts of the building.

• Kitchen doesn’t look inviting from street; looks like private space: make it look exciting

• Both BPM and Kitchen need to be or feel “messier.”

• Make the street entrance the primary entrance.

• Activate the public/private perimeter – i.e., the outside edges around the building.

  • Flowers, stands with produce, street performers, painted murals on sidewalks.

  • Add art in hallway + lighting +vendor programming: call it "Nourish."

    • Art installation in hallway, changeable, a la Dewey Square.

• Overall, plan for/implement ongoing series of temporary installations throughout the two spaces.