Thursday evening the Food for Thought Caf퀌� Staff invited students and faculty members’ suggestions for a mural, which will be displayed near the restaurant.
The mural will be 7 ft. by 21 ft. in dimensions and the only restriction on the Caf퀌� owners by the Smith Memorial Center Approval Committee is that there can be no lettering on the mural at all. It has to all be imagery. The Caf퀌� staff also wishes for the mural to be pleasing to all that see it.
“We want people, regardless of political affiliation, major, religion, to want to come in and enjoy the caf퀌� and mural,” said Janet Hammer, executive board member.
Guests were shown a video, “We speak,” a documentary about the painting of a mural about Columbus Day produced in 1992.
More important than the actual content of the mural was the cooperation between the different artists and varying visions for the mural.
“The mural is to carry a message through a collaboration of images,” said Laura Campos, primary artist for the mural.
“While we do invite everyone to share their ideas we also want to ensure that the images we select are welcoming and inspiring,” said Hammer.
Following the video presentation, the audience was invited into a large group brainstorm session. Members and guests were implored to “throw out” their ideas, at which point they were written down.
“I thought we could show how we are all affected. Paint people in suits, activists, that sort of thing. We are all involved with food somehow,” said Malia Martin, undergraduate in Community Development and a caf퀌� staff member.
A small portion of other ideas introduced included imagery of a garden growing over the seasons, laborers at work growing the food and how food was grown by local Native Americans in the past.
“PCC Cascade has a mural depicting four seasons progressing. We were considering something like that. Show different epochs. Native Americans in one part, traditional farms in another. Incorporate food workers as well, show how food is produced,” David McDowell, a caf퀌� staff member, said.
Following the initial brainstorm, attendees broke up into three different table groups for some small group discussion.
There were books available for attendees to get ideas. Cookbooks such as The Greens Book by Carolyn Dille and Eco-Cuisine by Ron Picliarski vied for space with From the Good Earth and On Good Land, both by Michael Ableman.
Colored pens and pencils, pads of paper, scissors, glue sticks and plenty of copies of the magazine “Smithsonian” were allocated to the tables for use in their brainstorm.
At the end of the 45-minute small-group time the pictures taken from “Smithsonian” and those drawn were gathered together to share with the entire group.
“This is so exciting seeing everyone work together on this,” said April Bertelsen, executive board member.
The final sketch of the mural has to be presented by Aug. 12 to the Smith Memorial Center Advisory. The final painting must be completed by Sept. 23.
“We’re going for [Sept.] 23, but if we are not ready then we will wait. Debut is very important,” Hammer said.
Food for Thought Caf퀌� is a student run restaurant located in the Smith Memorial Center basement this fall. The project, spearheaded initially by Hammer, Bertelsen, Alex Welsch, Jocelyn Furbush and Marc Hinz has been in the works for over two years.