Food and Museums

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Description

Museums of all kinds art, history, culture, science centers and heritage sites are actively engaging with food through exhibitions, collections, and stories about food production, consumption, history, taste, and aesthetics. Food also plays a central role in their food courts, restaurants, cafes, gardens, and gift shops. Food and Museums is the first book to explore the diverse, complex relationship between museums and food. This edited collection features theoretical analysis from cultural historians, anthropologists, neuroscientists, and food studies scholars; interviews with museum professionals, artists and chefs; and critical case studies from a wide range of cultural institutions and museums to establish an interdisciplinary framework for the analysis of the role of food in museums. Exploring the richness and complexity of sensory, cultural, social, and political significance of food today as well as in the past, the book demonstrates how food is changing the current museological landscape. A fascinating look at contemporary museums through the lens of food, this is an essential read for students and researchers in museum studies, food studies, cultural studies, and sensory studies as well as museum and food professionals.

Reviews

You may think theres a disconnect between food and museums one is fresh and organic, the other a repository for artifacts and history. This scholarly book dispels such thoughts. * The Toronto Star *
Food and Museums is a banquet in its own right, an intellectual feast cooked up by artists, curators, chefs, and scholars from across the globe. This volume, the first to consider the relationship of food and museums, offers a stunning range of perspectives from the science of sensory experience to food as art and the art of food, whether in museums, restaurants, or museum restaurants. A welcome contribution. * Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, author of Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage *
This delicious and thought-provoking volume is a real eye-opener! A serious book with a light touch, the authors touch on a broad range of themes drawn from museum practice as well as from neuroscience, anthropology, and philosophy. The essays illustrate the many ways museums use food to engage, include and nourish a broad diversity of people. As one author suggests, food is what ultimately brings everyone to the table." * Danielle Rice, Drexel University, USA *
Levent and Mihalache compile a groundbreaking, eclectic collection on food and museumsas an exhibit, as hospitality, and as a hook to teach history, science, or culture. The edited volume unites scholars of cultural studies, history, anthropology, museums, information science, and others with artists, chefs, a farmer, and museum professionals to lead readers through considerations of the topic both expected (a case study of curating a food in a US history exhibit) and unexpected (chapters on the neuroscience of flavor and on the art and science of fine dining plating) The result works like exploring a new museum, where turning the corner can take one to another land and time. Food and Museums is the first book of its kind and a welcome complement to works such as Gillian Rileys Food in Art (CH, Jan'16, 53-2057) Summing Up: Highly recommended. Most levels/libraries. * CHOICE *

Author Bio

Nina Levent is the CEO of West & East Art Group, USA Irina D. Mihalache is Assistant Professor of Museum Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada