Grove Gallery’s latest exhibition, “Food for Thought,” raises awareness for food insecurity and plans to donate more than 50% of its proceeds to Evanston-based nonprofit C&W Market Foundation, which provides access to groceries for those in need.
Gallery Director Sarah Kaiser-Amaral said part of the gallery’s mission is to give back to the community, so Grove Gallery hosts a few fundraisers each year for non-profits. At the “Food for Thought” opening, $2,650 was raised for the C&W Market Foundation.
Kaiser-Amaral was first introduced to the foundation through volunteer work with the Evanston Lighthouse Rotary Club, she said. There was already a surplus of volunteers at the foundation, but Kaiser-Amaral said she still wanted to do something for the “massive community lifeline.”
She said she hopes the gallery’s exhibition will help people not only appreciate the aesthetic pleasures of food, but also think about how food insecurity can affect visitors and their broader community.
The idea for “Food For Thought” started with local artist David Roberts and his “Art for Meals” campaign, Kaiser-Amaral said.
At the end of 2019 and the months following, Roberts bought a stack of small canvases and began practicing painting fruits and vegetables, which he called “the classics.”
At the same time, Roberts said he started noticing a growing line at the food pantry at Hillside Church near his house.
“I had to do something about it, and I looked around my studio and I’m like, ‘I am producing all this artwork of food and all it is for me is practice,’” he said. “It just hit me, all of a sudden, I was just like, ‘I can do this. I need to do this.’”
Roberts began advertising the paintings as a part of an “Arts for Meals” campaign. He sold each canvas for $120, with all of the proceeds going to the Greater Chicago Food Depository, he said.
Over the course of roughly a year, Roberts said the campaign provided over 22,000 meals.
Paintings from the campaign that didn’t sell are featured in “Food for Thought,” as well as work from two other art series involving food.
Roberts’ “Grocery Bag” series is a collection of paintings of food he bought at a market spilling out of paper bags. His third featured series repurposes manufacturers’ samples of doors and cabinetry, and depicts oil paintings of food in the center of the piece.
But “Food for Thought” doesn’t only feature paintings, drawings and prints of food. It also includes works that made broader statements on food insecurity, such as a painting of hungry figures in a line by Kaiser-Amaral and a print of a wishbone by Anna Marie Crovetti.
Stuart Cleland, who made the exhibition’s first purchase at the opening with his wife, said that the “Food for Thought” theme was particularly relevant in light of the recent halt and then reduction of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
“That’s why we came over today because we wanted to support C&W and the whole issue of food insufficiency, particularly today when the SNAP benefits are not being paid,” he said.
Roberts echoed Cleland’s sentiment that the exhibition held a special significance with the changes in SNAP benefits.
It is going to hurt members of the community, he added. He anticipates lines to grow at food pantries like they did when he first started the “Art for Meals” campaign.
As an artist, Roberts said he is compelled to produce art. But when it intersects with something meaningful, that’s when it feels right, he added.
Kaiser-Amaral echoed this sentiment and said art can play an important role in raising awareness and supporting causes.
“Art is a good way to level the playing field,” she said. “We have a surplus of artists in Evanston, and we’re surrounded by all this beautiful art, and in terms of revenue, I like to give back to the community.”
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