The Art of Food: In Conversation

The Art of Food: In Conversation with Neal Ambrose-Smith and Chef Loretta Barrett Oden
April 6 | 7-8 p.m.

Join artist Neal Ambrose-Smith (Salish/Cree/Shoshone descent) and Chef Loretta Barrett Oden (Citizen Potawatomi Nation) for a conversation about the intersection of contemporary art, Indigenous foodways and food sovereignty, moderated by food/culture writer Greg Horton. Ambrose-Smith and Oden have both contributed significantly to bridging intergenerational Native practices in visual and culinary art spaces. We look at their careers and engage in an expansive conversation about creativity, consumption and indigeneity.

About the Panel

Neal Ambrose-Smith, descendent of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation of Montana, is a contemporary Native American painter, sculptor and printmaker, and taught at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M. He has also developed an app, Artist Ideas, with 100 ideas for making art, available for Android and Apple. His work is included in the collections of many national and international museums and institutions, including the New York Public Library, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Galerie municipale d’art contemporain in Chamalières, France, and Hongik University in Seoul, Korea. He received his BA from the University of Northern Colorado and MFA from the University of New Mexico.

Loretta Barrett Oden, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, is a chef, Native foods historian, food writer and television show host who has traveled the world learning about indigenous cooking. She wrote and hosted the PBS series Seasoned with Spirit: A Native Cook’s Journey, for which she won a New England Emmy, as well as the AARP series Native Origins. She is also a founding council member of the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, an organization that advocates for the food security of Native peoples. Oden is the consulting chef at 39 Restaurant in the First Americans Museum.