All attendees are invited to an opening reception at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens from 5–7 p.m. on Oct. 12.
Oct. 13, Pittsburgh
Richard Piacentini, executive director of the Phipps Botanical Gardens and Conservatory, and Elizabeth Merritt, founding director of the Center for the Future of Museums at the American Association of Museums
9:15–11 a.m.: Promoting Food Literacy
Moderator: Susan Breitkopf, assistant director of marketing and communications, American Association of Museums
Panelists:
- Jane Pickering, deputy director and assistant director for public programs, Yale Peabody Museum, New Haven, Conn.
- Andrew Ackerman, executive director, Children’s Museum of Manhattan
- Ismael Calderon, director of science, Newark Museum
11 a.m.–12:30 p.m:. Feeding the Visitor part 1
Moderator: Caroline Lewis, education strategist and director, The CLEO Institute, Miami
Panelists:
- Richard Piacentini, executive director, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Pittsburgh
- Jane Sledge, associate director for museum assets, National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.
- Chazz Alberti, national director for culinary development, Leisure Division, Sodexo, Philadelphia
Remarks by Claudia French, deputy director of museums, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Washington, D.C., introduced by Andy Masich, president and CEO, Senator John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh
1:30–2 p.m. Feeding the Visitor continued
2–3:15 p.m. Food as Connector
Thought leader: Erika Allen, Chicago and national outreach coordinator, Growing Power
Moderator: Greg Stevens, assistant director, professional development, American Association of Museums
Panelists:
- Clement Hanami, art director, Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles
- Lisa Lee, director, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Chicago
- Eliza Fournier, Chicago Botanic Garden
3:30–4 p.m. Food as Connector continued
4–4:30 p.m. Summary observations
5 p.m. Lecture, Jessica Harris, culinary historian, Queens College, CUNY
6–6:45 p.m. Reception
Speaker Biographies
Andrew Ackerman has served as executive director of the Children’s Museum of Manhattan since 1990. He began his museum career in 1975 as an instructor at The Exhibit Museum in Ann Arbor, Mich., where he taught history and natural science to school groups and conceived and implemented a program for preschoolers. In 1977, he moved to New York to become director of education of The Jewish Museum until 1985, when he became its assistant director. From 1986–1990, Andy served as director of the arts in education program of the New York State Council on the Arts.
Chazz Alberti, national director, culinary development, Sodexo Leisure. Chazz began his career in the food service industry in 1976 during the Philadelphia restaurant renaissance and the birth of fusion cuisine. From the early days of purchasing locally farmed duck or lamb from the Reading Terminal Market to receiving kitchen door deliveries from the pioneers of urban heirloom farming, he has always gravitated toward heritage foods. His position today as National Culinary Director for the Leisure Division of Sodexo involves leadership to executive chefs at cultural destinations, public attractions and conference centers. Tasked with advancing culinary development and sustainable sourcing and policy, Chazz believes that bringing slow food sensibilities to large formats is both a mission and a challenge.
Ismael Calderon, director of science for The Newark Museum since 1997, is an accomplished museum educator and administrator with over thirty years of experience in the field. At The Newark Museum, Dr. Calderon is responsible for directing all science initiatives.In 2002 he completed the interactive exhibition Dynamic Earth: Revealing Nature's Secrets a semi-permanent exhibition utilizing the Museum's 70,000 specimen Natural Science Collections. Since arriving in Newark Dr. Calderon has been collaborating with Rutgers University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, the Public Health Research Institute and other institutions to join their resources with those of The Newark Museum to develop constructivist, inquiry based science learning opportunities for students, families and teachers.
Claudia French, deputy director for museum services at IMLS since August 2011, most recently served as director of the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. French has served as the executive director of The Gill Foundation in Denver, the AIDS Action Foundation in Washington, D.C., as well as working in both the Baltimore Goodwill Industries and the Girl Scouts Council of the Chesapeake Bay. She has an extensive background in grants administration and program development.
Jeannette R. Ickovics is with the Yale School of Public Health. Her research lies at the intersection between public health and psychology, investigating the interplay of the complex psychological, medical and social factors that influence the health of the person and of the community. She uses this lens to examine the challenges faced by those who have often been marginalized by the health care system and by society.Clement Hanami, art director of the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), holds a Master in Fine Arts from UCLA. He has designed, curated or installed every major exhibition at JANM since its inception in 1985 and is a prominent Southern California multimedia artist whose work has been featured in numerous galleries throughout the region, and been recognized with an Artist in Residence Grant from the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.
Our keynote lecturer is renowned culinary historian Dr. Jessica B. Harris. The author of 11 books and the world’s leading expert on the foodways of the African diaspora, Dr. Harris has shared her scholarship with audiences around the world, in print and live, including at such major museums as the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Caroline Lewis is founder and director of the CLEO which designs and expands creative, collaborative programs for diverse audiences. In her additional consulting work, Lewis also conducts workshops and delivers keynote addresses nationally and internationally.
Elizabeth Meltz is director of food safety and sustainability for the Batali/Bastianich Hospitality Group. Currently she handles the company’s health and food safety program and green initiatives, including (among other responsibilities): managing the Green Restaurant Certification process for each of the 14 restaurants, overseeing the corporate No-bottled-water policy, advising the new business development team on new restaurant design with regard to green ideals and food safety compliance, and responding to media inquiries about the environmental strides the restaurant group is making.
Richard V. Piacentini has served as executive director of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens since 1994. Piacentini is responsible for the ‘green’ transformation of Phipps including: the opening of the first LEED®-certified visitor’s center in a public garden, the most energy-efficient conservatory in the world, a Green Restaurant certified cafe and the Center for Sustainable Landscapes, a net-zero energy and water building designed to meet the Living Building Challenge. Piacentini believes that beautiful gardens can be environmentally friendly and can inspire the public with examples of sustainable living. Piacentini led the development of Let’s Grow, a program for public gardens to engage in the Let’s Move program, and Let’s Move Pittsburgh, a regional effort to address healthy lifestyles for children.
Jane Pickering joined the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, where she supervises all aspects of public programs, in 2002. She began her career 20 years ago at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History where she was assistant curator for zoology. After a year as senior curator at the Royal College of Surgeons in London, she moved to the U.S. in 1998 to be director of the MIT Museum. She is currently working with Jeannette Ickovics on the exhibition "Big Food: Health, Culture and the Evolution of Eating."
Jane Sledge is associate director for museum assets and operations at the National Museum of the American Indian. She has worked for almost 30 years in developing and applying electronic tools for the management of museum information through the Canadian Heritage Information Network, the Smithsonian Institution, the UNESCO-ICOM Museum Information Center in Paris, the Getty Information Institute and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.