Latest "Art Project", To Gain National Buzz: The Milk Truck

Jill Miller

Many doubt these "projects", often created by artists connected to CMU, which combine aspects of performance, propaganda and open ended invitations for interaction are "art" at all.

First there was the Waffle Shop, part eatery, part broadcasting facility and talk show, recently called one of the world's weirdest restaurants.

Soon, came Conflict Kitchen a take out place which only served food from countries America was in some type of political or social conflict.

Now comes an idea to create a funny, on call food-(or feeding truck) intended to help nursing mothers who feel embarased or socially harassed in public places that discourage or ban breast feeding.

From Ivillage

"Enter the Milk Truck. The “mobile breastfeeding unit” is artist and mom Jill Miller’s idea for really raising the profile of nursing mothers’ right to breastfeed in public. If you think a nursing mama catches some attention, wait til a giant, nipple-topped van cruises your ’hood. There’s not a nursing cover in town big enough to hide a boob like that!"

The Milk truck will debut outside the Warhol as part of The Pittsburgh Biennial.

The Milk Truck's Kickstarter

On CNET

On Boing Boing

On CBS News

Bruce High Quality Foundation, Teach 4 Amerika Tour Visits Pittsburgh

For the last 30 or so years, it seems like the art world, lived with a huge contradiction-endorsing free form experimentation, active collaboration and public engagement--while still supporting an elite, hierarchical university system.

"The Bruce High Quality Foundation’s (BHQF) Teach 4 Amerika tour is a five-week, 11-city, coast-to-coast road trip that crosses state lines and institutional boundaries to inspire and enable local art students to define the future of their own educational experience. Traveling the byways of America in a limousine painted as a school bus, BHQF will visit university art departments, art schools, art institutions, and alternative spaces across the nation, bringing together concerned educators, artists, arts administrators, and—most importantly—students to brainstorm on the future of art schools. What are they for? How should they be organized? If not for careers, what is the essence of art itself? These fundamental questions have long haunted artists, and the BHQF are interested in putting the questions back in the hands of students across America. Curated by Nato Thompson, Chief Curator at Creative Time, Teach 4 Amerika will include a combination of dynamic public rallies and intimate conversations hosted by local partners in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Denver, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland."

The rubber has really met the road, as more students and the wider public question more closely what art is, how should it be learned, who can participate? Does it take $150,000 or much more in college bills (including an MFA) to become an artist?

Not so ironically, the project attempted just to engage students at a group of art schools and a few trendy alternative spaces in this dialog.

Anyway, here's the great post they did about their visit to Pittsburgh.

"People that want to learn about art, who think making better work might be supported by a collaborative critical environment, ought to organize learning situations for themselves.

The pushback we’ve gotten on occasion from professors seems to assume we’re calling for an out and out revolt of the twenty-year-olds. But that’s not the case. We don’t think a group of twenty-year-old students would be served well by divorcing themselves from the wisdom of their forbears. Quite the contrary. We just don’t see why a generational difference should constitute a hierarchy. The best teachers we’ve met think they have something to learn from their students. And we’ve heard that the best way to learn is to teach. So if we really believe these time-honored clichés have any tooth to them, why don’t we scrap the power dynamic for something a bit more fluid?"

Conflict Kitchen on NPR

I admit to still not catching the food from Conflict Kitchen yet even though I live pretty close by. Once one gets past the increasingly lame is it art questions and takes it as mostly a new opportunity to experience new foods and perhaps cultures on a different level it's great.

You see, Conflict Kitchen only serves food from countries we currently are in some type of conflict with--although often short of outright war and it's a product to a large extent of CMU's Art and Design departments.

Listen to
NPR's story on Conflict Kitchen

"In a few months, the grant-funded restaurant will switch countries — and cuisines. In September, it will serve food from Afghanistan. After that, maybe Venezuela or North Korea.

"You know what, it's delicious," says Joni Perri, a Kitchen regular who works nearby. "Every bite full, delightful. And it's just smashing that stereotypical myth that just because there is conflict in those countries ... I don't let it stop me from buying good food."

Weleski says what most people know about the featured countries is through the media. To prompt the discussion, she will host events such as live webcam meals with diners in Tehran."

Also read, the great post about it on Reimagine an Urban Paradise where she advocates a violent conflict with somebody with great vegetarian food. (not)

Sadly, a huge amount of historic cultural exchange has come through war as surviving soldiers bring back wounds; internal scars; memories of lost friends and sometimes fond affection for the great food "over there."

Apparently it worked that way in Iraq.

"Minutes after the place opened, Travis Post, a Marine captain from Oklahoma who had been stationed in Iraq for seven months, pulled up in his car. "So you've really got shawarma back there?" Mr. Post asked, referring to the spicy grilled meat sandwich popular throughout the Middle East.

"You want one?" asked Ms. Hazime's husband, Crisantos Hajibrahim, who was working the cash register.

"Heck, yeah!" Mr. Post responded. While training Iraqi police, he had shared meals with locals daily. "There was a lot of lamb in my life," he says."