Feeding the Spirit Symposium
Oct. 13, Pittsburgh
in collaboration with Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Association of Children’s Museums and American Public Gardens Association.
Feeding the Spirit: museums and public gardens leading their communities in an exploration of food and health.
American society is immersed in a reexamination of its relationship to food. The collective issues of sustainability—human and environmental health, food equity and social cohesion—pose some of the greatest challenges facing the U.S. in coming decades. There is a growing sentiment that our current systems for growing, distributing and eating food are unsustainable, inflicting damage on our health and our environment. Many communities in America don’t have access to fresh, healthy food; school lunch programs struggle with barriers that make it difficult to promote healthy eating; attitudes towards food choices are changing incrementally while behavior lags behind; the obesity epidemic may be slowing, but its health effects will be felt for decades through increased rates of heart disease, diabetes and other weight-related ailments.
As communities increasingly self-sort by politics, race, culture and income, food is one of the deeply human ways we come together and explore commonalities. The experience of growing food reconnects us to nature and fosters thoughtful awareness about what we eat. Preparing food helps us to share traditions and culture. And museums and public gardens are embracing the fact that food strongly influences where and how we spend our time. Research on participation in the arts shows that while people are becoming less likely to partake of “high culture” (museums, classical music concerts, theater, dance) they increasingly attend multi-faceted cultural events that include food in the mix. Young people say an important aspect of a welcoming public environment is the ability to eat and drink with friends.
“Feeding the Spirit” will recruit museums and public gardens to respond to these challenges—internal and external—by helping their communities explore our collective values about food, our bodies, our environment and society. It will unify the field around key messages about food critical to transforming the health of the country, and challenge museums and public gardens to integrate these messages into their exhibits, programs and operations. It will lead the field to examine the food choices we provide in our facilities and how these choices align with health and nutrition.
The initiative will document and share the many ways museum and public gardens can serve as catalysts for community action on food and nutrition—e.g., starting community gardens, exploring the history of our attitudes towards weight, hosting community meals as venues for discussion and help children explore growing and eating healthy food. And Feeding the Spirit will help museums and public gardens prepare for the future as they re-examine their own attitudes and relationships towards food and explore how food can play a key role in fostering relationships and building new audiences.
Oct. 13, Pittsburgh
in collaboration with Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Association of Children’s Museums and American Public Gardens Association.
Feeding the Spirit: museums and public gardens leading their communities in an exploration of food and health.
American society is immersed in a reexamination of its relationship to food. The collective issues of sustainability—human and environmental health, food equity and social cohesion—pose some of the greatest challenges facing the U.S. in coming decades. There is a growing sentiment that our current systems for growing, distributing and eating food are unsustainable, inflicting damage on our health and our environment. Many communities in America don’t have access to fresh, healthy food; school lunch programs struggle with barriers that make it difficult to promote healthy eating; attitudes towards food choices are changing incrementally while behavior lags behind; the obesity epidemic may be slowing, but its health effects will be felt for decades through increased rates of heart disease, diabetes and other weight-related ailments.
As communities increasingly self-sort by politics, race, culture and income, food is one of the deeply human ways we come together and explore commonalities. The experience of growing food reconnects us to nature and fosters thoughtful awareness about what we eat. Preparing food helps us to share traditions and culture. And museums and public gardens are embracing the fact that food strongly influences where and how we spend our time. Research on participation in the arts shows that while people are becoming less likely to partake of “high culture” (museums, classical music concerts, theater, dance) they increasingly attend multi-faceted cultural events that include food in the mix. Young people say an important aspect of a welcoming public environment is the ability to eat and drink with friends.
“Feeding the Spirit” will recruit museums and public gardens to respond to these challenges—internal and external—by helping their communities explore our collective values about food, our bodies, our environment and society. It will unify the field around key messages about food critical to transforming the health of the country, and challenge museums and public gardens to integrate these messages into their exhibits, programs and operations. It will lead the field to examine the food choices we provide in our facilities and how these choices align with health and nutrition.
The initiative will document and share the many ways museum and public gardens can serve as catalysts for community action on food and nutrition—e.g., starting community gardens, exploring the history of our attitudes towards weight, hosting community meals as venues for discussion and help children explore growing and eating healthy food. And Feeding the Spirit will help museums and public gardens prepare for the future as they re-examine their own attitudes and relationships towards food and explore how food can play a key role in fostering relationships and building new audiences.