CARE Longmont: Feast and Dialogue

CARE is an artistic collaboration centering on food and art as tools for change and stewardship. Connecting food education, community storytelling, artistic ceramic workshops, the action of caring for others, and the transformative power of the arts, CARE presents our Longmont community feast inspired by an old story: Parable of the Long Spoons. This historic tale is based on the premise that one must choose between heaven and hell.  The story presents people in hell who are forced to eat with long spoons.  Unable to lift the spoons with food to their own mouths using long-handled spoons, they suffer and starve.  In heaven, people realize they cannot continue to just attempt to feed themselves but can and should feed one another across the table to all be sated and saved.

Encouraging people to be kind and generous to each other and to the environment is at the center of CARE community collaboration in the form of ceramic spoon sculpture-making and community story-telling workshops inspired by local farming history and relationship to the land. The project culminates in a Community CARE Feast– a live performance dinner where community-made ceramic spoons will be used by specially invited guests to feed each other as they partake in a curated conversation around three main themes: art and food, regeneration, food access, and pollination.

The project is presented in partnership with Ollin Farms (Aztec term referring to movement/viento), Community Artist Margarita Cabrera, and the Longmont Museum of Art. CARE builds community and relationships through local food and land stories that will offer a better understanding of the food we consume, our connection to the land we share and occupy, and our energetic transborder global connections. CARE supports the creation of a shift of consciousness towards the land and our food, and a stronger and deeper understanding of ourselves and our relationship to others in our communities as a creative and spiritual act of empowerment and collective empowerment.

Just as important as air and water, food is foundational for all living beings to provide energy and development, maintain life, stimulate growth, and promote health and disease prevention. Sustainable agriculture enables us to produce healthy food without compromising future generations to do the same. Food is a powerful way of connecting, healing, and unifying across generations, cultures, and religions. The spoon shapes reflect Longmont’s local community food and agriculture histories, and the internal and external inter-connectedness to our natural surroundings through food, air, earth, water, and fire–our ecosystem.

CARE will be presented in three parts – Storytelling circles at Ollin Farm, ceramic spoon-making sculpture workshops, and a live performance dinner where community-made ceramic spoons will be used by specially invited guests to feed each other as they partake in a curated conversation around three main themes: art and food, regeneration, food access, and pollination.

During the performance, the seated guests at this dinner table will be representative of Colorado’s truly diverse demographic and will be set to include selected politicians, activists, and members of the artistic communities. Seated guests and surrounding audiences will have the opportunity to obtain a more in-depth understanding of the chosen topics, the true makeup of our diverse community, their history, and the community’s call to action.