"HomeCooked Stories"
As we entered into the Fall 2010 season, we took the opportunity to reevaluate our goals and mission as a gallery. After deciding we wanted one of our main focuses to be community engagement, the following months centered around a series of events called "HomeCooked Stories" that featured the work of artist Ashley Minner, a member of the Lumbee tribe, and brought together people of the Light and Lumbee communities to share their own stories over a homecooked meal.
Stories lay over our collective history, tucking us into the past and unfolding us into the future. They bring us onto front porches long after nightfall and keep us around the table once the last plate has been scraped. These are our family histories. Baltimore artist, Ashley Minner, celebrates her own family history through her work entitled, “Lumbee Legends.” Minner grew up as part of the Lumbee community in Southeast Baltimore City. Her work consists of 5 artist books, each containing a unique oral history given by a Lumbee elder. Accompanied by photographs and sound recordings, Minner strives to depict the unique fabric of her culture as honestly as possible. By preserving these ephemeral treasures, Minner makes tangible the intangible. Inspired by this work, we joined together to celebrate our own oral tradition by sharing our stories with one another over dinner.
The first part of the exhibition featured an installation of Ashley's work. The gallery space was converted into a 'home environment' to recreate the feel of being present in someone's home.
Inspired by these ideas of 'family' and 'stories' central to Ashley's work, we then hosted two dinner events where we invited members of both the Lumbee and Light communities to come together and share their own stories. Everyone was invited to bring a 'story-starter' - an object of importance to them that either signified family or reminded them of a particular story about their own family - and were given the opportunity to share their stories either verbally during dinner, by recording them in our 'audio booth,' or by writing them down.
After hosting two dinner events, a closing reception was held that brought together the stories gathered over these dinners along with the images and objects used to tell them.
