ART // Our Precarious Food System
Hunger, art, and community at Pittsburgh’s Contemporary Craft
by Lauren Earline Leonard
“The House Built on Chicken Legs,” by Logan Woodle; 14” x 8” x 10”; pewter, 2014. Photo: T.J. Roth
EXCERPT //
Among the many revelations of the Covid-19 pandemic is the uneasy relationship we have with our industrial food systems. While some were able to heed the call to order-in to support their favorite local restaurants, millions of others, many for the first time, waited in long lines and traffic jams at food banks. As they waited, disruptions in supply chains resulted in millions of gallons of milk being dumped and produce being left to rot.
According to Feeding America, the nation’s largest anti-hunger organization, more than 38 million people, including 12 million children, are food insecure, meaning they do not have consistent access to the kinds of foods that sustain life. Rural, Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities are hardest hit.
In Philadelphia County and Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, rates of food insecurity are 14.4% (226,890 people) and 10.4% (126,660 people), respectively.
Working to address this inequity are nonprofits, government agencies, food scientists, and artists.
Pittsburgh’s Contemporary Craft has a long tradition of exhibiting craft art and artists whose work provokes challenging conversations and promotes meaningful change (past exhibits include Enough Violence: Artists Speak Out, Mindful: Exploring Mental Health Through Art, and Shelter: Crafting a Safe Home). Initially delayed by the pandemic, the organization opened the doors of its new venue in a 13,500-square-foot, LEED Silver-certified former light-manufacturing building this fall. //
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