The new monthly series “Art at the Intersection” will explore the ways the arts are helping to shape and inspire work being done in many areas of society, such as in healthcare, city planning, infrastructure design, and public spaces. The list is long, varied, and sometimes unexpected. The Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture) is a case in point. Co-founded by artist, researcher, and organizer Carlton Turner in 2016 in his hometown of Utica, Mississippi, Sipp Culture uses story to address food insecurity and to support community, cultural, and economic development. In fact, its motto is “Telling our story. Growing our future.” Their research program Equitable Food Futures—a collaboration with Imagining America—gathers stories about Utica from community members and uses that information to help create infrastructures that support the community’s needs, such as creating a community farm and a small farm apprenticeship program.
In this podcast, Turner talks about the connection between story and food, the dinner table as focus for storytelling and sharing history, and Sipp Culture’s artist residency program for rural artists in a five-state region. Turner also talks about creating purposeful art in, with, and for community, his growing up in Utica where his family goes back eight generations, and what Sipp Culture’s success in Utica will look like.
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