The Walker Kitchen Lab

Part research, part practice, the goals of the Walker Kitchen Lab were to explore how the kitchens function as places for cultural expression and social action, and to produce a series of prototype objects and events as experiments in public design. As part of the Open Field at the Walker Art Center the project was also a platform for investigating new forms of collectivist action and learning in a museum context.

The Walker Kitchen Lab project spanned 18 months. It began with participatory design programming in the Spring of 2011 to determine the structure and content of the Walker Kitchen Lab. In the summer of 2012, Betsy DiSalvo and I were artist-researchers in residence at the Walker Art Center, as part of their Open Field program, where we hosted the program. The Walker Kitchen Lab consisted of a cohort of local designers and artists, Betsy and I, and curators and educators from the Walker Art Center, who learned and worked with food activists, other artists, and chefs. We hosted a two-week full-time participatory design workshop in June, and two large-scale public events. The second of these events featured mobile and modular kitchens designed around themes drawn from local communities and their cultures. Each of these kitchens became sites of public engagement, with hundreds of participants.

2011 - 2012

The Walker Kitchen Lab Collective consisted of Susy Bielak, Anna Lawrence Bierbrauer, Erin Garnaas-Holmes, Rebecca Krinke, Sara Nichol, Derek Schilling, and Emily Stover. It was made possible by the curatorial direction and endless support of Sarah Schultz.

The kitchen featured in the image above was design by Emily Stover.

Information on the members of the collective and their kitchens can be found on this blog, which served as documentation of the Walker Kitchen Lab during the Summer of 2022.
https://walkerkitchenlab.wordpress.com

Further information about the Walker Kitchen Lab can be found in these articles on the Walker Art Center website.

Kitchen Lab: An Unveiling
https://walkerart.org/calendar/2012/walker-kitchen-lab

Kitchen Lab: A Mobile Hearth for Collectivist Action
https://walkerart.org/calendar/2012/kitchen-lab

Kitchen Lab: Food As A Catalyst of Community and Culture
https://walkerart.org/magazine/experiments-food-design-and-conversation 

Walker Kitchen Lab’s Amuse-bouche, a Game of Flavor and Feeling
https://walkerart.org/magazine/walker-kitchen-labs-amuse-bouche-a-game-of-flavor-and-feeling