What if this was a classroom

What

.

To learn without desire is to unlearn to desire

.

Mario Savio on the roof of a police car in Sproul plaza – 1964

Chez Panisse 40th birthday

Berkeley Art Museum

FRIDAY, AUGUST 26 ~ Unveiling Ceremony ~ 7 to 8 pm ~ $100/$45.

The Smithsonian Museum unveiled Alice Water’s portrait to be included in the National Portrait Gallery.  OPENrestaurant collaborated with artists Ann Hamilton and Sherry Olsen to create a performance installation which included a video projection, a parade and speeches as well as food catered by Paula LeDuc and cocktails by St George Spirits. This event was a fundraiser for The Edible Schoolyard.

More about Chez Panisse 40th Birthday

SATURDAY, AUGUST 27 ~ OPENeducation ~  11 am TO 5 pm ~ FREE EVENT. Everyone welcome !

From the ‘knowledge factory’ to factory farming, homogenization has traded diversity for efficiency. Eager to point to alternative strategies, new and historical, OPENrestaurant proposed an educational experience based on curiosity, play, and desire. Transforming the grounds of the Berkeley Art Museum on the UC Berkeley campus into an open classroom and living kitchen, visitors were able to shape their own education, participating in the creation, production, and consumption of food as collective performance. Part demystification of the lore of the kitchen and part tracing the genealogy of Chez Panisse and its influences – from the free speech movement to Edible Schoolyards – OPENeducation invited participants to collaborate with students, educators, farmers, cooks, and artists in constructing the elements of a lunch menu in a series of independent classrooms.

.

The work of art of the future

will be the construction

of a passionate life

Raoul Vaneigem

Reheating Werner Herzog’s shoe

Inspired by Les Blank’s movie “Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe” participants, together with chefs Nicole LoBue, Kuulani Imira, and Suzanne Drexhage make a simple summer vegetable soup flavored with a  pigskin shoe handcrafted by Al’s Attire

Students from local Waldorf schools provide expertise on knife care and skills along with Josh Donald from Bernal Cutlery, teacher Monica Leicht from the Friends of Potrero Hill Nursery School, and artist-curator Marina McDougall.

Served with pesto

Les Blank and friends re-eat Werner Herzog’s shoe

.

Digger’s bread bakery

 In the mid-60s the Diggers in San Francisco proposed a form of ‘community anarchism’ in which they offered free food, medical care, and street performance. They also baked and gave away bread, and were rumored to have introduced whole-wheat flour into US hippie counterculture. Artist Chris Sollars , Steve Sullivan from Acme Bakery and James Whitehead from Fist of Flour bake Digger bread in cans while David Simpson and Jane Lapiner recount stories from their experience as Diggers

.

Free speech police car

Inspired by the Sproul Plaza events of October 1964 and Mario Savio’s speech, a police car is the stage for free expression. The car is covered with chalkboard paint and attendees are encouraged to write on it.  A series of talks, interviews, and speeches is curated around food issues, education, and Chez Panisse’s early cultural influences. With the participation of Jack Wienberg, shown above seating on the back seat after his arrest, Twilight Greenaway, Bob Cannard, Les Blank and UCmeP, among others

Jack Weinberg seating in the back of the police car after answering questions from UC Berkeley students

.

Fourbarrel~Ojer Caibal school kitchen project

Fourbarrel and Jeremy Tooker talk about the Ojer Caibal school kitchen project in Guatemala and offer samples of their coffee. Small holding farmers from the community each contribute coffee grown at or near their homes – coffee plants tended with the care given to a small garden.  This project also includes community improvements, providing cooking appliances, clean water, waste management, and improvements to the school. These improvements benefit the whole community of approximately 300 families (1300 inhabitants) all from indigenous (Kaqchiquel) descent who depend fully on agriculture for subsistence.
Fourbarrel purchased the entire blended lot from these 61 tiny coffee gardens, for which they attached 25 cents per pound to the already agreed price, to be used to
build a new kitchen for their school.

.

Lemonade stand

Artist Alison Pebworth with students from METAS at Contra Costa College create custom sodas, lemonade, and aguas frescas with herbs, fruits, and honey from edible schoolyards. METAS students discuss do-it-yourself alternatives to mass-produced beverages. METAS is an enrichment program that helps Latino students to achieve personal and higher education goals

.

OBUGS pickle workshop

Oakland Based Urban Gardens prepares vegetable pickles. OBUGS functions as a network of schools, neighborhood gardens, green spaces and farmers markets that offer in-school and after-school programs as well as a summer camp

.

Edible Schoolyard bicycle powered wheat grinder

Students from The Edible Schoolyard will make chapati with local wheat ground by a bicycle powered flour grinder while discussing “Edible Education,” the relationship between school, the kitchen, and the garden. The mission of the Edible Schoolyard Project is to build a national curriculum around food for the American school system

.

Lettuce daybed

“If you don’t let us dream, we won’t let you sleep”  (Indignados-Spanish protesters)

Inspired by both protestors of austerity in Spain and a conversation with the farmers of Little City Gardens, salad beds, after harvesting, will be transformed into daybeds for reading and dreaming. Hayes Valley Farm provides seed bombs, a salad starts and compost take-out plus answer questions about urban farming

.

Three sisters garden

OPENrestaurant planted a garden of corn, squash and beans, known as the three sisters, at the entrance of the museum. Planting the three sisters is an indigenous agricultural technique and one of the first lessons learned at the Edible Schoolyard. The three crops support each other and form a complete protein when eaten together. Corn is central to American agriculture

.

The Library

Mini-library with food-related books from the Chez Panisse Library and Moe’s bookstore plus a copy machine to make reproductions.

.

La Cocina

Salsa making with the metaphorical harvest of the three sisters garden with Dilsa Lugo from Los Cilantros. Dilsa and Caleb  Zigas discuss La Cocina, a business incubator designed to reduce the obstacles that prevent entrepreneurs from creating successful small businesses

.

Airstream bee trailer

Rob Keller, from the Napa Bee Company, parks his trailer housing a live bee colony at BAM. He will be on hand for honey tasting and bee keeping education

.

Goat pen

Goat milking and processing with Jeannie McKenzie in a pen designed by John Bela from Rebar. Jeannie McKenzie is a music teacher and East Bay homesteader. Rebar is a San Francisco studio working at the intersection of art, design, and ecology

“I am speaking of sublime visions and you ask about goats” Hafiz

.

A Curious Radio

Bryan Welch and students from A Curious Summer, an alternative summer school in San Francisco, run a small radio station which will broadcast throughout the museum grounds with the help of small portable radios. The student will report on events, conduct interviews, and play music in between

.

Alphabet soup

A giant pile of large cardboard letters to be used to make words, phrases and … The letters spell a quote from the situationist Raoul Vaneigem: “The work of art of the future will be the construction of a passionate life”

.

Notebook

A free notebook, designed by Sasha Wizansky, describing the different elements of the event will be available to all visitors

.

Berkeley High jazz band

Composed of alumni of Berkeley high school’s prestigious jazz program, the brass band marches through the garden of the Berkeley Art Museum

.

Bob Cannard and his young farmers