Come pick up a tomato seedling plant, square dance with caller Susan Michaels and the old time string band Triple Chicken Foot, and take part in a Mortgage Lifter Tomato Workshop with artists Anne Hars and Stephanie Allespach. EATLACMA is a year-long project on food, art, culture and politics that unfolds seasonally, with artist’s gardens planted and harvested on the museum campus, hands-on public events, and a concurrent exhibition, Fallen Fruit Presents EATLACMA (June 27-November 7, 2010). EATLACMA is curated by Fallen Fruit—David Burns, Matias Viegener and Austin Young—and LACMA curator Michele Urton.
BP Grand Entrance | Free, no reservations | Limited quantity of tomato seedlings, download tomato seedling adoption forms HERE please plan to arrive early to receive a plant on the day of the event, pending availability | The event will end at 3 pm.
Date: Saturday, May 22, 2010
Time: 12:00pm – 3:00 pm
Location: LACMA BP Plaza near the Urban Light sculpture , 5905 Wilshire Blvd, LA CA 90036
Triple Chicken Foot is a Los Angeles based Old Time stringband. Having played together for more than five years, The Foot has honed their chops and focused in on playing Old Time music rooted in tradition. Spending time with veteran players around Los Angeles and the country, they have soaked up knowledge and techniques handed down through the years. The Foot finds their voice through their repertoire of tunes and songs, be it gospel songs, archaic banjo tunes, or crooked fiddle tunes. Most recently they have become a powerful new dance band on the Square Dance & Contra scene. They are: Ben Guzmán (Guzmonster), fiddle/mandolin; Mike Heinle (Musty Carl), banjo; and Kelly Marie Martin (K. Boogie), guitar.
Anne Hars is an artist who uses her domestic environment as well as spaces in her neighborhood to create art through gardening and other means. Hars was inspired by a story about the history of the Mortgage Lifter tomato and will be holding a workshop to teach how to plant seeds in handmade newspaper pots. During the last great depression a man by the name of Radiator Charlie developed a gigantic tomato. He sold the seedlings for $1.00 a piece, an
exorbitant price for a plant at the time. He sold so many of these
seedlings he was able to pay off his mortgage of $6000.00. The folks who bought these seedlings, which became known as Mortgage Lifters, got a tomato plant that produced enough tomatoes, a pound or two each, to feed a family of six. That’s a lot food from one tomato plant!
EATLACMA was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and made possible by a Museum and Community Connections Grant from MetLife Foundation and Paramount Citrus. Additional support was provided by the Ralph M. Parsons Fund.
LACMA tomato seedlings provided by Anne Hars, Scott Kleinrock, Lora Hall, Staci Valentine, and Fallen Fruit.