During Bates College’s month-long Short Term, students in Prof. Michel Droge’s “Art and Social Practice” class combined research of historical and contemporary social practice with practical studio experience and collaborative community engagement, paying special attention to issues of equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Partnering with the Coordinating Team of the Local Foods Local Places (LFLP) Action Plan which includes the Good Food Council of Lewiston-Auburn (GFCLA) and the St. Mary’s Nutrition Center (NC), students examined local solutions to food and land justice issues and investigated how socially-engaged art can raise awareness and motivate action around such causes.

After studying socially-engaged art through a historical lens, looking at political posters, woodblock prints, murals, and other art forms, students were visited by representatives of the GFCLA and the NC who shared the community-driven goals of the LFLP Action Plan. Based on these goals, the students created work that aimed to utilize art-making as a form of collaborative activism and support.

Students gained firsthand knowledge and on-the-ground experience of the local food scene by volunteering with both the Lewiston Farmers’ Market to help with their annual Spaghetti Squash Dinner, and by spending an afternoon planting onions and beets at the New Roots Cooperative Farm in Lewiston.

Each student designed a reduction relief print and produced dozens of copies of their print, which they installed in the windows of the Hartley Block on Lisbon Street in downtown Lewiston. Together, the posters constitute a giant poster window collage that was featured during Art Walk LA and is on view through June 10th.

The Local Foods Local Places (LFLP) Action Plan for Lewiston-Auburn serves both as a record of a community planning process and a road map for Lewiston-Auburn as it grows and strengthens the local food system and economy.  This October, there will be a large public event to create a 2.0 Action Plan with new priority actions to advance the local food system and economy for the next 3-5 years.

Members of the public are invited to visit goodfood4la.org to learn more about the LFLP Action Plan and to join the email list to receive updates including information about the October event to create a 2.0 Local Foods Action Plan when details become available.