We’ll share Rockwell food related images as well as Whitney Sherman’s illustrations to build awareness and connection to health and the environment. All participants will receive a selection of comforting Thanksgiving recipes.

Panelists:
Amy Bentley, Professor of Food Studies at New York University. She is a historian with interests in the social, historical, and cultural contexts of food, she is the author of Inventing Baby Food: Taste, Health, and the Industrialization of the American Diet (University of California Press, 2014), (James Beard Award finalist, and ASFS Best Book Award).

Whitney Sherman, Illustrator, Founding Director of the MFA Illustration Practice and Co-Director of Dolphin Press & Print at MICA. She is an associate editor and contributing writer to the History of Illustration and writer/editor of Playing with Sketches. Her award-winning illustrations have appeared in most major publications, and she is the creator of the Breast Cancer Research stamp, which has raised almost $90 million dollars for research; it is the first semi-postal and longest running stamp in the U.S. Postal Service’s history. Whitney has made art for social good and humanistic causes throughout her career.

Alana Chernila writes, cooks, teaches cooking and cheesemaking, and blogs at EatingFromTheGroundUp.com. She’s been a featured contributor for numerous publications, including Yankee Magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Parents, Fine Cooking, and Food52.com. She is the author of three books: The Homemade Pantry:101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making, The Homemade Kitchen: Recipes for Cooking with Pleasure, which was nominated for an IACP award, and Eating From the Ground Up: Recipes for Simple, Perfect Vegetables.

Norman Rockwell was a very prolific illustrator throughout his career. During which time, he illustrated numerous food-themed images.  Additionally, the Norman Rockwell Museum has been the beneficiary of a number of food inspired illustrations created by other noted illustrators.  Here is a sampling of that combined output.

For more food images, please visit the Norman Rockwell Museum Digital Collection.

Currently on view at the Norman Rockwell Museum is the exhibition Norman Rockwell: Imagining Freedom. The power of images to shape cultural narratives is revealed in this dynamic and evolving exhibition, which invites viewers to trace the origins and legacy of the Four Freedoms from the trials of the Great Depression and World War II to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and the call for freedom today across racial, gender, ethnic, and religious lines.

Initially envisioned with this exhibition was a virtual reality (VR) experience that took the patron into a virtual world where one could experience the primary source materials of the exhibition firsthand.   These primary source materials covered all aspects in which citizens of the United States and its allies supported the war effort.  One of the initiatives during that time was the creation of Victory Gardens.  Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the VR experience is not currently available at this time, however, below is a sampling of content that has been pulled from the experience for you to explore.