If you've ever visited Headlands Center for the Arts, you'll appreciate it as a place to expect the unexpected, starting with its buildings—former military barracks that open to reveal interiors reimagined by renegade artists like David Ireland, populated by current artists in residence working at the leading edges of their fields.
A favorite in the lineup of spring fundraisers, Headlands' annual Benefit Art Auction brings that spirit to San Francisco, where the party at Fort Mason always includes interesting artist projects. This year, even the food will make a statement: social practice artist and Headlands alum Dawn Weleski is teaming up with local incubator kitchen La Cocina to create a delicious and thought-provoking culinary experience.
As an artist in residence at Headlands, Dawn Weleski staged a Conflict Kitchen dinner in which half the guests had food from North Korea and half had food from South Korea, divided across each table. (Photo: Andria Lo)
Weleski is best known for her work with Conflict Kitchen, a Pittsburgh eatery with a changing menu of gourmet take-out cuisine only from nations with which the U.S. is in conflict, such as Afghanistan, Cuba, Palestine, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Food is delivered in wrappers printed with interviews and quotes that encourage questions and dialogue. As an artist in residence at Headlands in 2013, Weleski produced a similar dinner, called The Two Koreas, where diners were assigned either North or South Korean dishes depending on where they sat, and printed placemats spurred conversation. "With food, it's so easy to come in and have a quick story bite," says Weleski. "My challenge as an artist is to help people consume in a slightly different way." If you think about Weleski's work as art, food is the medium of expression, but engagement is the substance.
When Headlands approached Weleski about the auction, San Francisco's La Cocina was a natural choice for collaboration. The nonprofit helps low-income and immigrant women entrepreneurs launch and grow food businesses—their many success stories include favorites like El Buen Comer and Reem's. Like Weleski, La Cocina's staff spends a lot of time thinking about how to bring underrepresented voices to the table and open economic opportunity, with the side benefit of feeding the Bay Area's culinary vibrancy.
For the auction, Weleski is working with La Cocina chefs to create a dining experience that helps tell a story of food and culture. While they're not yet divulging details on what cuisine will be highlighted, it's sure to break from standard gala fare. As at Headlands, where communal meals served in the artist-renovated Mess Hall are key to the program, this will be a food experience that inspires community, conversation, and thought. As La Cocina director Caleb Zigas puts it, "These women are cooking something that is incredibly personal and often radically different than what you would find at any other formal event. The upside is that, not only is it delicious, and not only is it warm and inviting, but it's also part of an intimate, human conversation about what it means to strive, and it's an exciting vision of what makes California innovative at its core."
// Headlands Center for the Arts 2018 Benefit Art Auction, Wednesday, June 6, 2018, at Fort Mason Festival Pavilion (Marina); tickets at headlands.org/auction.
