AIC RSS Greater Boston Maine Pioneer Valley Rhode Island
This website is an archive of previous AIC activities.

Click here to link to the current AIC website.

April 17-20, 2012
ICA @ Maine College of Art (MECA)
522 Congress Street, Portland, Maine 04101

Between Tuesday, April 17th through Thursday, the 19th, the ICA @ Maine College of Art will return to our annual immersive week, this iteration exploring various aspects of consumption – with particular focus on and concern about food. In collaboration with local and regional experts we will play host to numerous lectures, public discussions, workshops, and film screenings on our ongoing relationships with food: how it is harvested & cultivated, prepared, and its global impact.

ICA @ Maine College of Art (MECA)

ICA Special Hours:
Tuesday - 9AM-8PM
Wednesday - 9AM-8PM
Thursday - 9AM-8PM
Friday - 11AM-6PM

 

Tuesday, April 17
Food Harvesting and Cultivation

YOUTH WORKSHOPS
9:00AM - 12:00PM

KITCHEN IN A CAN
Learn how to grow your own organic herbs and vegetables; take them home in your own decorated can.

FARM CAMP
Spring is here and so are the baby rabbits and chickens. Come meet and hold a furry friend, learn more about Farm Camp opportunities at Turkey Hill and Morris Farms, Maine and find out what you need to know about raising chickens in the city.

FILM SCREENINGS
12:00PM - 3:30PM

YOU WANTED TO BE A FARMER: A DISCUSSION OF SCALE
Food for Maine’s Future is pleased to announce the release of You Wanted to Be a Farmer: A Discussion of Scale, a new documentary by No Umbrella Media and the Sap Pail profiling Dan and Judy Brown of Gravelwood Farm in Blue Hill, Maine, and the issues surrounding the lawsuit filed against them by the State of Maine and Maine Department of Agriculture. The film features “inside-the-barn” interviews with Dan and Judy as well as conversations with their farm patrons. Topics range from the importance of producing food locally to the control over food policy by corporate-influenced government regulatory agencies. You Wanted to Be a Farmer is a revealing bottom-up look at food policy that raises important questions about the need for scale-appropriate regulation for neighbors feeding neighbors.

FISHING VOICES: INSIGHT INTO THE FUTURE
Using the voices of fishermen and members of fishing communities, Fishing Voices documents eastern Maine fishing communities as they struggle to adapt and survive while preserving their proud fishing traditions. The film explores what the ocean provides to the many small towns on the coast, how to restore and sustain those ocean resources for the future, but most importantly why the culture of fishing matters so much in the first place, and why it must be preserved. Pull-Start Pictures is a Maine-based production company owned and operated by Cecily Pingree & Jason Mann. We are primarily focused on feature-length documentary film projects, but we have extensive experience in promotional and other forms of factual video production, narrative film projects, and more.

PRESENTATIONS
3:30PM - 5:00PM

Loud. Dangerous. Outrageous. Suspended form the ceiling, harvesting and preparing fruit that is out of reach, this performance by Rob Doane, with live music by Black Lodge, draws a critical eye to the structure of our food system.


6:00PM - 7:30PM 
URBAN FARM FERMENTORY
Eli Cayer, a Mainer, is a Portland based entrepreneur whose position of connecting communities and encouraging creative sustainable living sits at the heart of this environment. A few months ago Cayer took on an all but abandoned single-story warehouse in the East Bayside neighborhood with the vision of reusing it as the Urban Farm Fermentory.

Wednesday, April 18
Food Preparation

YOUTH WORKSHOPS
9:00AM - 12:00PM

GREEN MONSTER LAB
It’s easy being green! Explore our juicing and smoothie lab with fresh local produce and home-grown wheat grass.

BUTTER IN A JAR
Learn to churn your own fresh butter in a jar.

FILM SCREENINGS
12:00PM - 3:00PM

FOOD MATTERS - YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
Food Matters is a hard hitting, fast paced look at our current state of health. Despite the billions of dollars of funding and research into new so-called cures we continue to suffer from a raft of chronic ills and every day maladies.

This groundbreaking documentary sets about uncovering the trillion dollar worldwide ëSickness Industry and exposes a growing body of scientific evidence proving that nutritional therapy can be more effective, more economical, less harmful and less invasive than most conventional medical treatments.

HUNGRY FOR CHANGE
Hungry for Change exposes shocking secrets the diet, weightloss and food industry don't want you to know about; deceptive strategies designed to keep you coming back for more. Find out what's keeping you from having the body and health you deserve and how to escape the diet trap forever.

Featuring interviews with best selling health authors and leading medical experts plus real life transformational stories with those who know what it’s like to be sick and overweight. Learn from those who have been there before and continue your health journey today.

PRESENTATIONS

5:00PM - 6:15PM 
RABELAIS BOOKS
Rabelais is run by a husband and wife team, Samantha Hoyt Lindgren and Don Lindgren,  who have a love for food, books, wine and art. Through them you can find thousands of rare, out of print and new books about food, wine, farming and gardening. They also host events such as art exhibitions all revolving around this theme of food. In May 2012, they will open a new, larger location in Biddeford, Maine.

6:30PM - 7:30PM 
SARAH KANABEY, Chief Editor of Farmer General
Co-founded by Sarah Kanabay and Chris Onstad, the Farmer General is an epicurean review that is all about food. It aims to be a publication that "celebrates all things food-specific, farm-supportive, and geographically general." The review contains everything from recipes to classic poetry remixes– and much more truly creative and difficult-to-categorize literary fare.

7:30PM - 9:00PM 
ROSEMONT MARKET, BUTCHERING DEMO
Butcher, Jarrod Spangler and John Naylor w

Thursday, April 19
Food Equality

YOUTH WORKSHOPS
9:00AM - 12:00PM

LOCAL FOODS IN THE PORTLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Parents and students will be able to learn more about what local foods means for the Portland Schools.  Information will be presented on school garden to cafeteria connections, from scratch recipes in the school lunch and how local foods purchases have been on the rise since 2009.  Tasting samples of new menu items will also be offered.

Blair Currier is the Local Foods Manager for Portland Public Schools where he oversees school garden to cafeteria connections, utilizing local products through the creation of scratch recipes and training staff in local food implementation. His prior experience includes sustainable food system development for the Chewonki Foundation in Wiscasset, empowering students to make healthy choices for the planet and themselves.

FEED ME!?
Compost feeds the plants and the plants feed us. Composting is fun and it's also easy. Let's learn about how we make compost, view the stages of compost breakdown and how we use it to grow beautiful gardens.

GROW IT!
Learn how to grow common food items like carrots, beets, beans, potatoes and avocado using food scraps.

FILM SCREENINGS
2:00PM - 4:30PM

END OF THE LINE
The End of the Line, the first major feature documentary film revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. Sundance took place in Park City, Utah, January 15-25, 2009. In the film we see firsthand the effects of our global love affair with fish as food.

VANISHING OF THE BEES

Honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives.

Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, this phenomenon has brought beekeepers to crisis in an industry responsible for producing apples, broccoli, watermelon, onions, cherries and a hundred other fruits and vegetables. Commercial honeybee operations pollinate crops that make up one out of every three bites of food on our tables.

Vanishing of the Bees follows commercial beekeepers David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes as they strive to keep their bees healthy and fulfill pollination contracts across the U.S. The film explores the struggles they face as the two friends plead their case on Capital Hill and travel across the Pacific Ocean in the quest to protect their honeybees.

PRESENTATIONS

5:00PM - 6:30PM

BEEKEEPING - HOW AND WHY TO KEEP BEES IN TOP BAR BEE HIVES
Natural Beekeeping in top bar hives with bee keeper Christy at Gold Start Honeybees. www.goldstarhoneybees.com

6:30PM - 9:00PM

PAMFILO FILIPINO CAFE CELEBRATION
Pamfilo is an authentic Filipino café run by Klarizza Cruz, Junior Graphic Design major at Maine College of Art and her father, Ranilo Cruz. Klarizza was raised in a traditionally Filipino family from Wiscasset, Maine. Come sample traditional Filipino food, enjoy live music and be part of this one-time-only experience. You’ll enjoy sweet, salty, and sour taste.