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Art+Food+Next Generation

Programme	Local Development and Culture
Selection	Open project
Competition title	Second round of the open call “Support for the Creation of Professional Art and Cultural Products for Children and Youth”
Donorstate/international project partner	Vitenparken Campus Ås, Norway (https://vitenparken.no/)
Project national Nr.	EEZ/2022/2/23
GrACE project Nr.	LV-LOCALDEV-0033
Contract No.	4.3.1-12-16
Contract Date	21.09.2022
Project title	Art+Food+Next Generation
Project promoter	Foundation “Rucka Art Foundation” (https://www.rucka.lv/)
Start of project eligibility	01.10.2022
Project end	30.11.2023
Total eligible costs	164 958.33€
Grant financing	140 214.58€
National co-financing	24 743.75€
Project status	In implementation
Project goal/description	Project : Art+Food+Next Generation combines visual arts, technologies, environmental sciences and gastronomy into a series of interdisciplinary artistic workshops for children and youngsters in age between 10 and 18. The project results will include online arts platform Create+Eat+Share; DIY art kit Eat+Art; series of online and onsite workshops in Cesis, final exhibition, and short film series. Particular focus is given to individuals with little access to high quality artistic and cultural activities. The unfolding environmental and political crises have an immense psychological impact on children and youth. It is the next generations who will experience increased and severe impact of these crises such as war and global warming. Together with children, invited artists and chefs, the project uses art and food as a medium for critical reflection on the ongoing and future crises both in Latvia and globally. The project helps the next generation to creatively address and deal with climate anxiety and uncertainty about futures. Project objective: The Art+Food+Next Generation project creates several professional contemporary arts and cultural products. The main outputs come in six groups: ● Online platform Create+Eat+Share, ● DIY art kit box Eat+Art, ● Online workshops, ● Onsite workshops, ● Exhibition & Performative show Art+Food+Next Generation, ● Short film film series Kids+Climate+Futures. 1) Online platform Create+Eat+Share. During the implementation period of the project, the platform’s main function will be to serve as a virtual meeting space for children and youth to 1) take part in the online workshops led by artists; 2) explore the onsite project program and sign up for planned activities; 3) get to know the unique DIY art kit box Eat+Art; 4) share the artististic outcomes with other individuals from the target group. The Create+Share+Eat online platform will have an educational dimension as the created activities and online material revolves around the critical and contemporary themes of sustainability, environment, ecological and socio-political crises both in the Baltic region and on a global scale. The online platform will be a safe space for unique artistic expressions on environmental and socio-political issues that have been recognized to cause eco-anxiety and a sense of uncertainty about the future by the children and youth. 2) DIY art kit box Eat+Art (Apēd+Mākslu) will be an experimental and interactive arts and cultural product developed as an important part of the project. Eat+Art will be a physical box containing 1) step-by-step guidelines for artistic and edible experiments; 2) a selection of materials and ingredients for creative experiments; 3) prints, images and short textual material created by the invited artists; 4) and access to AR (Augmented Reality) sculptures made by artists. 3) Online workshop #1 Exploring the Alien The online workshop will be developed and led by Norwegian based performance artist Kirsty Kross. Through the online platform Create+Eat+Share target group will be able to sign up for a performative, playful and visual online arts session to explore a variety of invasive species in Latvia. The online workshop will serve both as a standalone experience for the participants and a preparation for the onsite workshop and performance in Cesis. The content will include introduction to food ethics, artistic food thinking, performance as an art format for expressing ecological issues. 4) Online workshop #2 My Kitchen, My Art Studio The online workshop by bioartist and scenographer Annike Flo in collaboration with designer Nina Havermans will turn the participants' kitchen into their own art studio. See description of onsite workshop #3 I am a Metaorganism for more information on the thematics of the workshop. 5) Online workshop #3 New National Dish The online workshop by The Center for Genomic Gastronomy will allow the participants to explore new directions for the Latvian national dishes in the future. The workshop will use food as an artistic and cultural medium to explore and address the environmental, economic and social impacts of climate change. The online activities will be used as a basis to further develop the onsite workshop in Latvia. 6) Online workshop #4 Future Food Dreams In this online workshop, artists Zane Cerpina and Stahl Stenslie together with children and youth will explore the most fantastic food future scenarios. The workshop will be based on the artistic research done for the Anthropocene Cookbook (2022). The workshop will be imaginative and provocative leading to positive thinking about our futures even in the age of ecological catastrophes. 7) Onsite workshop #1 Performing the Alien The first onsite workshop will be developed and led by performance artist Kirsty Kross. Kirsty will create a participatory performance project with children and youth from the local area about the invasive species, the Signal Crayfish. The performance piece will deal with the depressing and anxiety-evoking theme of the environmental crisis in a fun and darkly humorous way to explore the target group’s connection to the environmental issues of the local landscape. The artist addresses the anxiety about the climate crisis felt by the children and youth and through her project aims to explore and develop new ways in which they can strategically express their opinions and gain a sense of empowerment. 8) Onsite workshop #2 New National Cuisine Based on the online workshop program, The Center for Genomic Gastronomy will develop and lead an onsite workshop that imagines an entirely new national Latvian cuisine. Together with the children and youth, they will create a series of food sculptures that comment on the current and future environmental, economic and social impacts of climate change in Latvia and the Baltic region. 9) Onsite workshop #3 I am a Metaorganism The third workshop will be developed and led by Norwegian bioartist and scenographer Annike Flo. Through the Covid-19 epidemic the society has deepened the negative perception of microorganisms as enemies. However they are an important part of our bodies and the external environment. The workshop will thematically introduce the idea of the human body as a metaorganism - consisting of both human cells and billions of microorganisms. Through a better understanding of the other and ourselves, the workshop aims at developing a closer connection to our environment in order to take better care of our planet. The daily co-existence with microorganisms in our environment and ourselves will be explored through biomaterials as a medium for art. The workshop participants will cast sculptures from naturally occurring polymer called agar as well as food waste that they will be invited to bring along from home such as coffee grounds, used teabags, fruit and vegetable peel to be used in the workshop. In the workshop, participants will explore biomaterials in a purely practical manner, but also as ingredients for sustainable futures and art. The workshop will result in unique bio artworks created by children and youth leaving the participants with a curious question of how long does a 100% degradable artwork last? 10) Onsite workshop #4 Food Futures The workshop will be led by Vitenparken representatives and artists Zane Cerpina and Stahl Stenslie. The topic of the workshop will be future foods, how and what we will eat in the future. There will be experiments with a variety of unusual, but edible ingredients. The participants will be able to cook and compose not only from a cookbook of the future, but they will further be encouraged to make their own experiments with a range of safe but unfamiliar food sources. The workshop builds on Cerpina’s and Stenslie’s long range of experiments in the field of artistic food making. In addition to the artistic dimension of the workshop there will also be classes in food science and food safety. At the end of the workshop all participants that have completed will receive a diploma for having qualified to be a Future Food Visionary. The workshop will utilise several cutting edge technologies throughout the classes such as the latest 3D printing technologies to make moulds for edible sculptures as well as directly print with and on edible materials. This will enable the participants to create a wide variety of unusual looks, feel, textures and taste for their food creations. 11) Onsite workshop #5 Edible Crisis paintings. Through the workshop together with Latvian artist, graphic designer and art historian Alise Ķīnasta the participants will use abstract painting and experimental art techniques to communicate their thoughts, fears and dreams about their place in the world marked by environmental changes and challenges. The workshop will result in paintings made with natural and dyes on edible rice paper canvases. 12) Exhibition & Performative show Art+Food+Next Generation The Food+Art+Kids project will culminate in an exhibition and performative event in Cesis. The exhibition will showcase artefacts created by children and youth throughout the workshop series online and onsite in Cesis. The exhibited objects will vary in form, expression and materials, ranging from 3D-printed food sculptures, to edible paintings created with rice paper and natural dyes, artistic objects created from kitchen ingredients, and videos and images of performances developed together with children and artists. The exhibition opening will include edible performances by invited artists in collaboration with local chefs. In parallel with the physical exhibition we will also make an online virtual and twin exhibition. It will include various digitally distributable content such as i) 3D scans of all the food sculptures, ii) the data files of food moulds that anyone can download for free, iii) description of how to make your own DIY toolkits, iv) documentation and archival videos of workshops, exhibitions, interviews with artists and more, all made by Rucka Art Foundation, v) detailed recipes of future foods. After the exhibition in Cesis, the developed art objects will be packed and shipped to Vitenparken Campus Ås in Norway where they will be exhibited in parallel to the results from a Norwegian workshop with the same age group. We also aim for a last workshop where all the participants are invited to an online feast and celebration of their co-creative and artistic contributions. 13) Short film series Next Generation+Climate+Futures Major part of the project is the development of a short film series Next Generation+Climate+Futures. The short film series will be directly produced by Rucka Art Foundation. Based on the Rucka Art Foundation’s expertise and extensive experience in film making, the project will result in a thought-provoking and attractive series of short films addressing and exploring the eco-anxiety and uncertainties about futures in children and youth in the age group from 10 to 18. The documentary will be made using documentation of the workshops, interviews with the target group, and discussions between the target group, artists, invited experts and chefs. Through this documentary, we aim to uncover how the increasing concerns and coverage about the climate crisis impact children and youth. This will be done using food and the future of food as the focal point for conversations, as food is something we all are passionate about.
Implementation place	Vidzeme

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