Foundation „Rucka Art Foundation” together with the Donorstate project partner from Norway – „Vitenparken Campus Ås” till November 30, 2023 realize the project „Art+Food+Next Generation.” First project story:
“In 2023, Rucka Art Foundation in Cesis, Latvia, collaborated with Vitenparken Campus Ås in Norway to offer a series of online and onsite creative activities for Latvian children and youth, aged 10 to 18. The project, titled “Art+Food+Next Generation,” was created to promote art as a tool for addressing global challenges today and in the future. A vital aspect of this initiative was its international and interdisciplinary aspect. Art and food were strategically used as a creative mediums to connect and communicate with the young participants. Moreover, the participants were also active contributors, shaping the content and direction of the project and all its activities. The integrative approach used in the project “Art+Food+Next generation” makes it unique in the context of contemporary education and culture.
In the project’s first phase, online workshops were conducted, offering youth creative experiments while also gathering their views on future scenarios and exploring the way they perceive arts. Further, the invited artists designed a series of onsite workshops, actively involving their audience in the planning. During this period, the artist team and youth explored fictional futures and alternative ways of thinking through the lenses of food and art. Through the conducted activities, youth experimented with artificial intelligence (AI) to envision unseen futures, explored alternative realities, and reflected on our relationship with non-human organisms.
Then, in July 2023, the project’s second phase continued with a week-long festival at the Rucka Artist Residency in Cesis. The festival was organized around five unique onsite workshops that dived deeper into the themes touched upon during online sessions. The project further used food to foster active engagement and collaborations between the artists and the participants.
Artists Stahl Stenslie and Zane Cerpina invited workshop participants on an exciting journey into utopian and dystopian futures creating food visions with the help of artificial intelligence. Inspired by AI generated images the participants in collaboration with chefs made future-looking pizzas. The hands-on approach let the youngsters to challenge their creatively and realize their visions from an idea to a physical object. The result was a series of unique edible art objects.
Latvian visual artist, Alise Kinasta, guided a workshop where participants illustrated their visions of potential futures on porcelain plates. At the beginning of the workshop, they embarked on an explorative tour of Rucka Park and the “Jume” community garden. Throughout the day the young participants documented nature’s hidden treasures that they considered important to preserve for the future. Their findings, captured in photos and notes, were used as a basis to visualize their dinner plate of the future.
In a workshop led by Norwegian artist Annike Flo, participants transformed into eco-fashion designers, exploring the world of oyster mushrooms and recycled second-hand clothing. This fusion of nature and art enabled them to channel their creativity in a sustainable and experimental manner. During the workshop, expert from Cesis-based mushroom lab “Spora” delved deeper into the intricacies of oyster mushroom cultivation.
Artist Kirsty Kross invited the youngest festival participants into a playful workshop and together they discussed the invasive American signal crayfish from the perspective of aliens. Together with the artist, the participants co-created an interactive game, while expert biologist Maris Olte further shared his knowledge of these invaders. The experimental approach of the workshop not only educated the youth about the invasive species but also provided them with artistic tools on how to approach environmental challenges.
Cosmos was another captivating thematic focus of the festival. The Center for Genomic Gastronomy engaged participants in envisioning life and food in outer space. The youngsters designed space outfits to get comfortable with the idea of living far from the earth. In the second part of the workshop, together with artists and chefs, the youth came up with concepts of dishes suited for extraterrestrial environments. The workshop resulted in a new space menu that provided a unique perspective on a future outside our terrestrial confines.
Throughout the festival week, chefs from the restaurant “Pavaru maja” (Chef’s House) realized a series of food experiments inspired by the workshop themes and ideas of the participants. In addition, Ance Dalmane, an Art Academy of Latvia student, showcased the capabilities of 3D food printers, offering a glimpse into this modern food technology. These experiences provided additional understanding of how art, science, and technology can shape futures.
Each workshop day concluded with an event open to the public, inviting additional guests experience the festival’s vibrancy, view workshop outcomes and challenge one’s own creativity. These events encouraged conversations about the festival themes and allowed everyone to taste a variety of edible experiments.
The festival culminated with the exhibition opening and a performative show in Rucka Park on the July 16th. The event was accompanied with several edible experiments, and reflections on the festival week. The culinary highlight of the day was the mermaid soup, a dish based on an AI-generated image conceived by a child during an online workshop earlier this year.
In autumn 2023, the project’s third and final phase was launched, distributing 150 DIY “Eat+Art” kits to youngsters across the whole country. Their feedback on the art kits and a short film produced during the project will be presented at the project’s closing conference in the end of October. The results will also be featured on Rucka Art Foundation’s social media and the project’s website at www.rucka.next.lv.
We express our gratitude to the EEA grants for their support, allowing us to undertake these creative experiments. Collaborating with the youth to explore diverse future scenarios has been a privilege to the organizing team and all involved. The project “Art+Food+Next generation” (No. EEZ/2022/2/23) has been realized with the support of the European Economic Area (EEA) Grants Financial Mechanism funding period 2014. – 2021. program “Local Development, Poverty Reduction, and Cultural Cooperation” open call “Support for the Creation of Professional Art and Cultural Products for Children and Youth”. The project’s realization period is from 1 October 2023 until 30 November 2023. The project’s total eligible costs are 164,958.33 EUR. The project receives a 140,214.58 EUR grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway through the EEA Grants and a 24,743.75 EUR grant through national co-financing.”
Subscribe to news
Receive notifications of the latest contests, news and news events in programs that are important to you!
Report Irregularities
Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway have a zero-tolerance policy on corruption and mismanagement in the EEA and Norway Grants. We strongly encourage you to share your concerns and report suspected irregularities.