Feast for your eyes

MICA Gallery’s next exhibit opening is adding an artful twist to the adage, “The more, the merrier.” A Friday evening opening reception will bring culinary arts, visual arts and music together to form a unique, multi-sensory art experience. The reception kicks off a new exhibit, “Curating Roots: The Art of the Local Food Movement in Lansing.”

The opening reception is designed to complement the new exhibit, which celebrates the Lansing’s local food economy. Subjects in the exhibition range from eastside urban farms to farmers markets to nonprofit food organizations like the Greater Lansing Food Bank. Katrina Daniels, program director for the gallery, noticed the rising popularity of these local food organizations in the community and wanted to find a way to bring art into the picture.

“Lansing has this wonderfully rich local food movement, and I really wanted this exhibit to celebrate that and to create some discussion points for it,” said Daniels. “And we now are seeing an upsurge in restaurants that are starting to capitalize on this hyper-local, fresh cuisine and are creating beautiful dishes out of it.”

“Curating Roots,” on display at the gallery until Oct. 31, comprises works from several local artists. The exhibit is largely photography-based but also features paintings and a sculpture installation in center of the gallery space.

“We’ll have a mix of the documentation of some of the farmers of the nonprofits, some of the locations where the food is actually being grown and the people who are doing it,” said Daniels. “For the sculptural element, we’ll have a theoretical dinner table set with pottery — set with actual plate settings by local potters. It will be set out in the middle of the gallery and serve as a discussion point about the idea of community and how food can bring us together as a community.”

MICA Gallery will attempt to use local food to bring the community together at the opening reception for “Curating Roots,” designed to parallel the exhibit. The event begins at 6 p.m. with 45 minutes of live music played by four local musicians including Chelsea Koziatek, who carefully chose the selections.

“I picked all of the music myself, and in keeping with the idea of the exhibit I tried to pick composers that I knew were living in Michigan to bring the idea of a community-based project full circle,” said Koziatek.

Following the music, Soup Spoon Cafe will serve custom tapas dishes based on the music. Each course of cuisine will attempt to mirror a music selection in terms of tone, emotions and message. An actor will describe the food’s connection to the music as it is being served, resulting in a thoughtprovoking blend of food and art.

“It´s going to be a wonderful opportunity to be able to experience art on a multi-sensory level. They’ll be able to hear music and taste the food that was created based on the music,” said Daniels. “It will be visual, aromatic, there will be sounds — we’ve never done anything like this before. I think it’s going to be really spectacular.”

“Curating Roots” Opening Reception

6-9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4 FREE/$10 suggested donation MICA Gallery, 1210 Turner St., Lansing (517) 371-4600 micagallery.org