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MSU Museum’s Michigan Foodways tours with Smithsonian’s Key Ingredients exhibit

By Lora Helou
MSU Museum

Photo by Al Kamuda, for the MSU Museum Lebanese bakers in the Detroit area display their savory treats.

The MSU Museum shares the hearty and varied story of food in Michigan as a companion to a Smithsonian Institution exhibit touring the state during 2007-08.

The Michigan Humanities Council brought the Smithsonian exhibit, Key Ingredients: America by Food, which depicts the national food culture, to Michigan. Michigan Foodways, the MSU Museum exhibit, explores the state’s rich agriculture, diverse ethnic cuisines and special culinary traditions.

Michigan Foodways was developed by Yvonne Lockwood, curator of folklife at the MSU Museum. Lockwood is a nationally known researcher and scholar on foodways: the entire complex of ideas, behaviors and beliefs centered on food production, preparation, presentation and consumption as well as the role of culture in shaping and preserving it.

“Michigan has food specialties not found in other parts of the United States,” Lockwood said. “People are proud of their food traditions and the history that accompanies them. It’s a key to understanding culture.”

Each community hosting the exhibits will add its own local flavor to the national and state stories. The tour schedule is:

• Chelsea: Chelsea District Library, through July 8
• Calumet: Keweenaw Heritage Center, July 13-Aug. 26
• Cheboygan: Cheboygan Area Public Library, Aug. 31-Oct. 14
• Whitehall: White Lake Community Library, Oct. 19-Dec. 2
• Frankenmuth: Frankenmuth Historical Museum, Dec. 7-Jan. 27, 2008
• Dundee: Dundee Museum and Historical Center, Feb. 1-March 16, 2008

Michigan Foodways is scheduled to be on exhibit at the MSU Museum after the conclusion of the statewide tour.

Key Ingredients: America by Food is a touring exhibition of Museum on Main Street, a partnership of the Smithsonian Institution and the Federation of State Humanities Councils. With photographs, illustrations and artifacts, it explores the connections between Americans and food by examining the historical, regional and social traditions of everyday meals and celebrations.

The MSU Museum is the state’s first Smithsonian affiliate, and this project is the most recent in collaboration with the nation’s largest museum and research institution.

For more: museum.msu.edu

www.michiganfoodways.org