As a former manufacturing hub so productive that it was once referred to as the "Workshop of the World," it shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that some areas of modern-day Philadelphia are unfortunately rich in brownfield sites, those former industrial areas that are oftentimes contaminated by hazardous wastes. In an effort to illuminate the issue, a temporary public art project--
Soil Kitchen--will be installed atop a brownfield site in Northern Liberties during the first week of April, where it will remain for roughly one week. The installation is being scheduled to coincide with the EPA's
National Brownfields Conference, which is being held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center from April 3-5.
Commissioned by the city's
Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, the Soil Kitchen installation, as its name suggests, will actually operate as a working kitchen, serving locally-sourced soup. What's more, soil samples from area neighborhoods will be the only accepted form of currency. The public will be invited to trade their soil for soup, according to the OACCE's Gary Steuer, after which the samples will be tested by soil contamination experts, and the results posted on a map of the city. "It's a really interesting, multi-layered project that involves an educational component," says Steuer.
There's no telling, of course, just how much soil contamination will actually be discovered during the project's brief run, although Steuer hopes that Soil Kitchen's efforts will continue to facilitate conversations about Philadelphia brownfields, even after it closes up shop. "The fact that our soil may be contaminated is something we really need to be thinking about," he says. "I also hope that (Soil Kitchen) will help people understand that art can be a vehicle through which we better understand these issues."
Source: Gary Steuer, Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy
Writer: Dan Eldridge