Arizona Heritage Food Wagon: Calling artists & craftsmen
by Karyn Zoldan on Apr. 14, 2011, under A Tisket, A Tasket, Desert Locavore, Farmers Markets, Life
Arizona food bounty
Arizona Heritage Food Wagon: Calling artists & craftsmen
Hitch your artistic dream to a wagon, a food wagon, a Heritage food wagon.
Sabores Sin Fronteras/Flavors Without Borders is a new regional, bi-national and multi-cultural alliance to document, celebrate, and conserve farming and food folkways that span the U.S./Mexico borderlands from Texas and Tamaulipas on the east to Ambos Californias on the west. This new collaborative is in the proposed Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area not far from the international boundary between Sonora and Arizona, where the de Anza National Historical Trail meanders along the Santa Cruz floodplain.
Hey Tucson: It’s in your backyard.
The project is to build the Arizona Heritage Food Wagon. Here’s an opportunity for artists, architects, designers, carpenters, and metal workers to come together in knowledge and creativity.
The purposes of the Arizona Heritage Food Wagon are to serve as:
1) a piece of art with iconic images of Arizona heritage foods;
2) an information kiosk about the history of those foods and the Arizona based producers and restaurants currently offering them;
3) an educational video display viewing station for presenting DVDs (produced separately) that will be about these foods;
4) a farmers’ market “booth” featuring the actual foods for viewing, sample tasting, or sales;
and
5) a speakers’ platform where humanities content (historic, social and geographic) regarding Arizona’s unique food, farming and ranching legacies can be presented at public events.
The Food Wagon will be built on a 77-inch x 12-foot long flatbed trailer. The walls, doors, and/or windows of the food wagon can be made primarily from recycled materials or from Arizona native woods, copper, and woven materials. The motifs should reflect the multicultural traditions of the state and feature iconic foods such as chiles, cattle, corn, squash, cactus, wheat, and mesquite.
Designers/builders may work as a team or as individuals. Three-dimensional designs of a sculptural nature are highly encouraged, but two-dimensional elements in any media will be acceptable.
Project budget
Artists’ fee of $7,500 ($5,000 up front and $2,500 upon completion) will cover design, building and all materials except the platform, which will be provided.
Preliminary Applications DUE June 1, 2011. For more information, visit the website.
