A Museum for Everyone

Did you ever wonder if there’s a museum out there just for you? If you like storybooks, you should visit the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. If tennis is your thing, the International Tennis Hall of Fame will “serve” you well. I even found a museum in Quebec, Le Choco-Musée Érico, that fulfills my love for chocolate. Recently we visited a museum whose niche everyone can connect with…food. Whether you like to grow it, cook it or just eat it, there is something for everyone to enjoy at the Culinary Arts Museum at Johnson & Wales University.

My foodie friend Christine (an instructor at Johnson & Wales) and I had the pleasure of touring the museum with Richard Gutman, its director and curator. We had the chance to chat with Richard and ask him a few questions:

SLD – It’s clear that the Culinary Arts Museum has a well-defined niche, but what really differentiates your museum from others?

RG – Our museum is unique in its comprehensive treatment of the vast culinary world. Some institutions have collections of cookbooks or menus, some even have kitchen vignettes, but we have all this and more.

Within 25,000 square feet of gallery space, visitors can explore the past, present and future of all things related to cookery. We feature equipment, personalities (like Julia Child and Emeril Lagasse, Class of ’78), recipes and menus, and even the architecture of eateries. Here is a little taste (no pun intended!) of our offerings:

- Devices for toasting bread, from fireplace forks
  to the first electric toaster (1909)
- A display on Betty Crocker, a fictitious mid-20th century Martha Stewart who
  proffered homemaker advice and peddled her own line of toasters and cookbooks
- Wine vessels found in the tomb of Tutankhamun with labels identifying the vineyard,
  winemaker and date of production (more than 3300 years ago)
- An Art Deco Prohibition-era bar
- A 1833 stagecoach tavern taproom
- A children’s kitchen where little ones can play and explore.

As our tour continued Richard shared some of the many stories behind the exhibits. “Diners: Still Cookin’ in the 21st Century” is a permanent exhibit that Richard helped develop. Diners are a passion of Richard’s. He is the author of American Diner Then and Now and a leading authority on diners, consulting on more than 80 restorations and new diner projects across the United States and abroad.

RG – When our 1950s diner exhibit was being developed, I moved more than 250 objects from my home to the museum. Some of these include toy models, postcards, blueprint drawings and a selection of diner photographs, which are displayed right outside my office. I put them nearby so I can hear visitors discussing the various places in the pictures.

My wife is from Palo Alto, California, which was once the fruit-growing capital of the Bay Area. My dozens of visits there since 1969 led me to focus on that area for our show on the art of fruit crate labels, “Dripping with Color.” I was able to relate a story of my mother-in-law working in the apricot fields in the 1930s, cutting the fruit in half and placing it on trays for drying, receiving 10 cents for each 4-foot-by-eight-foot tray she filled. Much to my surprise I also discovered a business card that belonged to my grandfather, who built and sold fruit crates.

SLD – How have you aligned your museum’s mission to the educational mission of Johnson & Wales University?

RG – Our mission is to be an educational resource for the university, the community, food scholars and the food service industry. We seek to preserve and interpret culinary and hospitality heritage. The museum is a showcase for the work of students, faculty, alumni and distinguished visiting chefs. Through exhibitions and special events, the museum strives to interpret the evolution of food preparation and presentation, the development of culinary equipment and technology, the diverse menus offered and the places where people partake in food. The museum also supports the university by helping to ground students in the history of their chosen field. We have set up honors projects, whereby groups of students work together utilizing our resources for hands-on projects that include work in the kitchens as well as research in our collections.

One other highlight of our visit was a private tour of the museum’s archives with collections manager Erin Williams. We were blown away! Their archives hold more than 60,000 cookbooks, 11,000 food-related booklets, 18,000 postcards, 8,000 magazines and 7,500 menus from around the world. With those resources at your fingertips, you would have no excuse for not knowing what to make for dinner tonight!

The museum also has a research room that is available to anyone by appointment. My friend Christine shared with us how she and her students use the museum’s archives and research room for class projects.

CS – I'm preparing to teach a new sociology course this fall called "Culture and Food," where students will explore how American culture has evolved in terms of how we perceive food, both at home and within the industry. This will require them to research a topic – such as diners, the evolution of food in the travel industry (planes, trains, etc.), or the evolution of the food industry as a profession – and then access the information in the museum in order to experience some of the changes that have occurred over time. Conducting such a comparative analysis can be challenging for students and yet rewarding because they become immersed in the information.

SLD – Richard, are you developing any programs that help you create a sense of place within the university and surrounding community?

RG – The museum is a unique gathering place for a number of clubs and groups within the university and the community. It is used as a showplace for the university to hold events and bring together students and parents. This fall we will be initiating a series of ongoing programs to bring more people inside: curator’s tours, brown bag lunches, culinary story time, decorate-a-cupcake day and more.

Decorate-a-cupcake day? Yum! We’ll be there. So the next time you’re in Rhode Island, stop by the Culinary Arts Museum. Explore their exhibits, stories and the history of food while you satisfy your appetite for art, artifacts and all things cookery.


What Museum Shares Your Passion?
Have you found a museum that showcases and shares your passions? Share your visits and stories with us by posting a comment to this blog. We’d love to hear from you and see what other museums are doing.