Opening in the New SoFAB Location, Spring of 2013
A focal point of the new Southern Food & Beverage Museum is the Gallery of the South: States of Taste. In an effort to tell the stories of the entire American South, 15,000 square feet is dedicated to this collection of exhibits on the food and foodways of each Southern state. The exhibits, created by a group of curators from each state, explore and celebrate the food items, recipes, people, brands, dishes, agriculture, industry, cooking techniques, and everything else that is woven together to create the quintessential food geography of each state. The exhibits are both historical and modern. The artifacts reveal what makes each state’s food and culture of eating unique. In addition the exhibits celebrate the food traditions we all share to create a distinct regional food culture that can be so clearly described as “Southern”.
In keeping with the museum’s mission of being a collaboration of many that “allows food lovers of all stripes – Southerners and non-Southerners, locals and tourists, academics and food industry insiders — to pull up their chairs and dig into the food and drink of the South” SoFAB has assembled a diverse group from all over the South to curate these exhibits. Ranging from food writers, historians and researchers to chefs, bloggers, and business owners each curator brings a unique perspective to their exhibit. The exhibits will reveal insights from industry and academia, drawing upon a large body of academic backgrounds of the curators in fields such as: Public Health, History, Culinary Arts, American Studies, Food Policy, Library and Information Sciences, Nutrition, Chemistry and much more. Click here to learn more about the curators.
Visitors will travel a walking highway through the Gallery of the South, moving through each state exhibit organically. Signs for each of the states, commissioned by popular New Orleans folk artist, Dr. Bob, will mark the movement from one state to the next. Dr. Bob has become a treasured favorite among New Orleans locals for his “Be Nice or Leave” signs seen all over New Orleans in restaurants and bars and he brings that same style to the signs for the exhibits. His pieces for SoFAB celebrate the food of each state. Each state sign is a work of art, unveiled at SoFAB’s Hungry in the South weekend September 2012.
The Exhibits will open sequentially beginning in Spring of 2013, with the first ones being unveiled as part of the museum’s grand re-opening year.
If you would like to be a part of the collecting effort, click here.
