In the 2004-2005 school year, Jack Straw Cultural Center started the Family Celebration Foods project with Kimball Elementary School, which evolved from our pilot 2001 collaboration Historias de las Familias and continued throughout the years. Highlighting the rich cultural history of Beacon Hill’s diverse community, this project focused on everyone’s favorite cultural subject: food.

For the first phase of this project, the students interviewed their parents and other family members about a favorite cuisine, its history and significance to the family with help from the Jack Straw teaching artist Laurel Anne White. For the second phase, they went to the Jack Straw studios and recorded their pieces with help of audio engineers Moe Provencher and Scott Bartlett and voice coaches Laurel Anne White and Amy Broomhall. You can listen to the produced pieces below:

In the spring of the same school year, the students, parents, teachers, and Jack Straw artists listened to the produced pieces at a potluck at Kimball Elementary School and feasted on the foods students talked about in their stories.

The Jack Straw artist team included writer and vocal coach Laurel Anne White, vocal coach Amy Broomhall, audio engineers Moe Provencher and Scott Bartlett, and Executive Director Joan Rabinowitz.

Family Celebrations: Food project was possible with generous support from The Washington State Arts Commission Arts and Education Program, The National Endowment for the Arts, Kimball Elementary School’s PTSA, and individual contributors.

Artists