What may seem like a strange pairing to outsiders– art and appetites – makes perfect sense in Jackson. Hungry for high culture, art takes on the primacy of food, sustaining our souls and nourishing our minds. Or so we tell ourselves. Loftiness aside, the success of the pairing may be more elemental: free food, without fail, gets people to show up at events. Like chipmunks stockpiling nuts for winter, we Jacksonites gravitate toward platters of food. Ergo the popularity of this Friday’s Palates & Palettes, the art walk that kicks off the annual Fall Arts Festival. Everyone in town turns out to sample the fare served during this special stroll. From 5 to 8 pm on Friday, each gallery hosts a local chef and shares bites inspired by ambiance.
With the help of food virtuoso Amanda Flosbach, we are creating two quirky takes on Palates & Palettes for WRJ Design and ITP Space. In both places, we aim to have fun with the grazing gallery walk.
With our new café poised to open soon, we are riffing on the idea of staging a picnic within the pristine setting of WRJ, in counterpoint to their exquisite fleet of featured artists: Taylor Glenn, Heidi Jung, Ed Riddell, Lee Riddell, Tim Rein, Craig Spankie and Ashley Tudor. Against the backdrop of a grassy wall tapestry and unfurled Astroturf, we will present a banquet of mini, white to-go boxes: peek inside and find our versions of classic fast food. Think Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe meets Sonic Drive-In, a play on beauty and familiarity, choreography and spontaneity.
Our playful approach extends to ITP Space’s late-night opening (8 to 10pm), where we will present ice cream of the future – dippin’ dots topped with spoonfuls of tasty textures – to complement the exhibit, “Lynchpinned & Bitten: Kate Bonner & Daniel G. Baird.”
From tiny pizza boxes to pointillist spoonfuls, we hope people have as much fun participating in the grazing gallery walk as we had prepping for it.