This class will explore food-related items from the Hart-Cluett collection, and use them as a jumping off point for writing. Focusing on the early 20th century, we will look at the food landscape through grocery stores, cafeteria menus and community cookbooks.

We'll begin our time together with tea and sweets prepared from these materials, and move on to studying the artifacts themselves. With this information in mind, we'll use writing prompts as springboards for our own writing. This could take any shape you'd like: an exploration of personal food memories, or small pieces of fiction/creative nonfiction. 

No experience is necessary -- just curiosity, and a desire to play with words through the lens of food. If you do have a notebook and pen you like to use, or prefer to write digitally, bring these along. Otherwise, we will have paper and pens available.

Registration, snack and materials- $40

Scholarships available! Reach out to Amanda at airwin@hartcluett.org or 518-272-7232 x 115

AMY HALLORAN spent her teenage years prowling the ghost town that was Troy in the 1980s. The first manager of the Troy Waterfront Farmers' Market, she ran the food pantry and community meals program at Unity House. Her love for food, and for the people who grow and make it, led her to write a book about the revival of regional grain production, The New Bread Basket. She is working on a book about history: her own, her city's, and that of bread baking in Troy and America. 

THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDERS:

The Arts Center of the Capital Region

Arts Thrive and Grow has been funded by New York State, Kathy Hochul, Governor. We thank Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins for her extraordinary commitment and leadership, and our elected officials who represent our grantmaking region: Senators Jake Ashby and Neil D. Breslin; Assemblymembers Scott H. Bendett, Patricia Fahy, John T. McDonald III, Angelo Santabarbara, Phil Steck, and Mary Beth Walsh.