Starving Artists.
Performance artist Naty Tremblay plants a seed in a patron’s hand at the weekly Toronto’s Starving Artists Collective free lunch series. The hot lunch for artists takes place Mondays at the Raging Spoon on Queen Street West. The six-week series' final day takes place Feb. 13.
Staff photo/ERIN HATFIELD
The arts community is often talked about as being one of the most under served groups in the city, but a hot lunch program addresses the issue at a very basic level.
In partnership with the Raging Spoon Cafe, the Toronto's Starving Artists Collective have been hosting The Artists' Soup Kitchen.
"This brings people together, specifically to break bread together, which already has a performative aspect in thinking about food and community and nurturance," explained organizer and artist Jess Dobkin.
"The idea is to serve a free hot lunch to Toronto artists. It is kind of about community and about recognizing artists as an under served community in this city."
For six Monday afternoons this winter artists have been invited to a free hot lunch, each week featuring a different artist bringing their creative practices to the Soup Kitchen.
"We talk a lot in abstract terms about arts funding and the need to support artists," Dobkin said.
"This does it in a very particle sense by providing a basic need and also recognizing that, especially at this time of year, artists can be quite isolated."
Each week artists take turns bringing their art pieces to the soup kitchen and the menu and decor theme is created to coincide with their work.
On Jan. 30 the menu was vegetable barley soup with salad and corn bread. Tables were covered in hay while artist Naty Tremblay was performing, singing and telling stories about farming.
"The menu ties into the themes of Naty's performance," Dobkin said.
The lunches serve up to 100 people and the turnout has varied from week to week.
Toronto's Starving Artists Collective includes Dobkin, Raging Spoon manager Catherine Clarke and Stephanie Springgay, an assistant professor at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of University of Toronto.
They came together for this specific project.
"With anything I am always interested to see what might come out of it," said Dobkin. "And not just for us as a collective, but it might implore people who come to this space to do something."
The program began on Jan. 6 and the final event will be this coming Monday, Feb. 13 with Swintak as the featured artist.
Funding for the Soup Kitchen, which runs out of the Raging Spoon at 761 Queen St. W., was through grants from the federal government and the Toronto Arts Council.
This is the last project to be held since the building has been sold to a developer.