The Sustainable Feast - Open Call

Prospectus

The 39th annual Art About Agriculture Competition and Touring Exhibition 2022: The Sustainable Feast invites all artists from the Pacific Northwest to celebrate the region’s sustainable, diverse, and innovative food.  Working closely with Oregon State University’s Food Innovation Center, this year’s open call asks artists to reflect on food, including production of ingredients, preparation of food, food packaging, cooking food, sharing meals, dining, and presentation.  We are also encouraging exploration of important food topics such as environmental impact, food waste reduction, nose-to-tail cooking, food ethics, local foods, food for medical needs, reduced waste food packaging solutions, plant varieties for enjoyment and disease resistance, sustainable fisheries, grassland management, food science, and nutrition among many others.  To help inspire we have included links below to food and food production research by Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

As a world-class leader in agricultural, environmental, and life sciences at Oregon’s Land Grant, Sea Grant, Space Grant, and Sun Grant institution, the College of Agricultural Sciences encourages diverse points of view and for nearly 40 years has invested in visual arts as an important part of its mission.

As the founding College of the state’s land grant university, it is dedicated to serving all Oregonians. As champions of science, the College of Agricultural Sciences embraces differences to find common ground and create opportunity – committed each day to make tomorrow better.

Helen Liu

Helen Liu was born in Taiwan and raised on a chicken farm in the southern part of the island. Since leaving the country with her parents in 1972, she lived in Jakarta and Bangkok and eventually came to study at the University of Oregon in 1977. Upon graduating from the Pacific Northwest College of Art, she worked in design firms in Portland and Eugene. After the birth of her daughter in 1994, Helen worked from home.

Since 2013, Helen began using waste plastic bags generated from her own household as well as coffee bags from local coffee shops like Allan Bros. and Starbucks, most of them laminates with a thin aluminum layer, which makes recycling them nearly impossible. Over the next 8 years, Helen’s art has focused on using these non-recyclable plastic waste. The largest one of the works from this period was Plastic Waste to Art Quilt, 40ft x 12ft, funded in part by the Springfield Arts Commission and displayed at the Academy of Arts and Academics in downtown Springfield on Earth Day 2021. Helen is also involved in a Plastic to Fuel project with Prof. Skip Rochefort at Oregon State University working toward creating a small-scale, neighborhood-size plastic recycling machine that will turn #2, 4, and 5 plastics into farm-grade diesel.

Helen’s project in 2021 involves locally sourced wool from small farmers whom she personally knows, and dye plants grown in her garden. The fleece is cleaned, dyed and spun into yarn with a Navajo spindle and then woven.

With Prof. Ellen Johnston Laing, Helen co-authored Up in Flames: the Ephemeral Art of Pasted-Paper Sculpture in Taiwan, which was based on Helen’s MA thesis and published by Stanford University Press in 2004.

Yelena Nowak

As the head of the Oregon Trawl Commission, Yelena represents the interests of Oregon trawl fishermen, working to enhance the image of the industry and increase opportunities for its profitability. With a Masters degree in International Management from Portland State University and a background in both public and private sectors, Yelena's experience is centered around various areas of business, including trade development, marketing, global supply chain management as well as international trade and compliance. Prior to joining the commercial fishing industry, Yelena worked at the Oregon Department of Agriculture in its Market Access Program.

Dr. Dave Stone

Dr. Dave Stone is a Professor in Food Science and Technology at Oregon State University.  His expertise is in emerging food technologies, food safety and risk analysis. Dr. Stone Directs the OSU Food Innovation Center, an agricultural experiment station in downtown Portland with the mission to support food and beverage companies across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Dr. Stone is engaged with diverse clients across the globe to develop advance sustainable agriculture and safe foods. He has served on several regional and national expert panels to address topics on food safety, community development and toxicology.