Trade School

Taught by Jeremy Lyman & Paul Schlader

The class will be instructed by two individuals who successfully didn’t know anything about starting a business but took the leap anyway.  They currently operate a very successful coffee shop in mid town Manhattan. 

It will guide the attendee through the process of developing their idea using a number of different mediums. 

The instructors will let the class know how to start and operate a profitable and successful business, simply by redefining “profitable” and “successful”. 

The instructors will talk about their personal experience and relay what to do and what not to do at the onset and to give attendees realistic expectations moving forward.

Paul and Jeremy are two individuals with some college experience who were extremely unhappy with their jobs and felt like there was “just something more” for them to be doing.  They teamed up and took a big leap of faith in opening their first small business.  Their coffee shop has been open for less than two years and has already been raved about in the NYTimes, Time Out New York, and The New York Post.  Paul and Jeremy’s passion for business and personal happiness continues to drive them on a path of good intention and honesty.

In exchange for:

• box of dog treats
• raw chocolate bars
• donate a comfortable amount of money to a charity of your choice
• buy a cup of coffee from an independent shop, bring in the cup
• a snack for the class
• an empty journal
• organic bananas

Taught by Liz and Anaheed

It’s a myth that you need to be an expert or have a “nose” in order to enjoy the finer points of perfume. Really, you just have to know what kinds of things you like. We will guide you to pinpoint what that is.

This isn’t a history lesson about sense of smell. We’re not getting into the chemical structure of building a stable perfume, and we’re not here to review fragrance. Moreover, we’re not serious weird ladies teaching a beauty class. This is simply about enjoying perfume, identifying what you like, and knowing how to trust that if and when you walk into a store.

We are full-on perfume nerds. We’ve kept a blog about it for more than two years. We go into fancy stores, throw our stuff down, and start yelling rude jokes to each other about perfume for an inexplicably long time. After about 15 minutes of trying to push their opinions on us, the salespeople always give up and either leave us alone or join in the fun. We’re here to have a good time and host a smelling workshop, not to show off our expertise.

We’ll be bringing lots of perfumes and scents for you to sniff. It’d be great if you’d bring one perfume you love (to compare with others) and one perfume you hate (to possibly trade with a classmate).

Our goal is that you will walk away hopefully discovering something new that you love.

There’s an easy questionnaire to fill out ahead of time that will help us better direct the class.

Anaheed is half of the perfume blog Invisible Magnet. She’s an editor for Tavi Gevinson’s as-yet-unnamed magazine for teenage girls, a producer of the Talent Show Brand Variety Show in Gowanus and an occasional fact-checker for the New York Times Magazine. Her favorites are dark and dirty smells—leather, smoke and incense—and lately she’s been really into old-lady kinds of perfumes that smell like your rich grandma’s handbag.

Liz is half of the perfume blog Invisible Magnet. She’s the online director for ReadyMade, beauty editor at Hint, a sometimes contributor to places like New York magazine and Vice, a forthcoming columnist for JanePratt.com. She likes dirty floral fragrances and thinks tonka bean has recently replaced coconut as the devil’s cologne.

In exchange for:

• proof of a random, possibly anonymous, act of art, kindness, or gratitude expressed to the general public
• proof of an intentional, possibly anonymous, act of art, kindness, or gratitude expressed to a group or individual you don't know very well

Taught by Athena Kokoronis

Please join us this evening for dinner and dance choreography by Athena Kokoronis with performers.

PERFORMANCE
Everybody’s Solo is a dance work with a meal that depends on a series of bartered gestures, examining the value of taste and the relationship of taste to movement. See an excerpt of a past performance here.

SUPPER
For this evening at Trade School, Athena is composing a menu that will include fermentation, seeds, stock, leaves, and dessert.

BARTER
Please bring at least one or more barter items/services in exchange for the performance and supper. *Performers include Christina Andrea, Karen Gleeson, Julia Handshu, Kate Cahill, Brianna Kalisch, Emmet McMullan, Meredith Ramirez Talusan

Athena Kokoronis is cooking/dancing artist based in NY. For this evening at Trade School, she is composing a menu that will include fermentation, seeds, stock, leaves, and dessert.

In exchange for:

• Karen Gleeson: Special handmade clothing
• Julia Handshu: A small work on paper such as a drawing, painting or some words.
• Brianna Kalisch: Chocolate, or learning opportunity (particularly one pertaining to dance or movement but open to others)
• Christina Andrea: Barter tba
• Athena Kokoronis: A 5-25 second dance move/gesture
• Emmet McMullan:A really great sandwich or a bike light
• Meredith Ramirez Talusan: Dark or milk chocolate
• Christina Andrea: a massage, a bottle of wine, good percussion music, or take me out for a drink
• Kate Cahill: a sketch book, home made or store bought, blank or used

Taught by Max Liboiron

How safe am I eating from plastic take out containers? Can I put them in the microwave? Can I reuse them? What’s this I hear about BPA? Am I at risk? What about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Does that affect me? How can I help stop the patch from growing?
  First we will talk about how plastic pollutes your body and in the global environment. Then we will discuss how to be as healthy as possible in this Very Plastic world, and what sorts of things need to change to deal with plastic pollution effectively. Participants will get a resource booklet at the end of the class that outlines best practices of the politics and consumption of plastics.

Max Liboiron is a PhD candidate at New York University. Her research focuses on models of pollution and how twenty-first century waste such as ocean plastics or plastic chemicals that accumulate in human bodies defy those models. The ultimate propose of her dissertation is to extend notions of pollution to include these cases so that future practices can be more environmentally viable. Max also coordinates NYU’s Green Grants, a grassroots stakeholder granting program to increase the university’s environmental performance and culture. She is also a trash artist (hence the barter request for used tea bags and broken jewelry).

In exchange for:

• Vegetarian food (wrapped in anything that is not plastic)
• Dried, used tea bags
• Broken jewelry

Taught by Huong Ngo

Franz Kafka always imagined his stories read aloud. Like many writers, he would write stories in a single sitting, allowing the words to almost spill and trip over themselves and the story to unfold of its own dreamy accord. His stories thus became maps of his mental journey and its winding pathway into the outside world of the printed page. While artists often work in isolation, what happens when many people have the same external experience while engaging in a creative process? How might we map their subjective and inter-subjective experiences? In this performative class, pairs of weavers will respond, through their weavings, to stories read aloud, thereby mapping their experiences in the time-based medium of the weaving.

In this first iteration of Reading and Weaving, students will not be instructed in a traditional manner, but will be asked to learn from observation, experimentation, and their imagination. We will be reading and weaving to the chapter from Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia entitled “The Smooth and the Striated.”

Special thanks to Sam Ishii-Gonzales, Assistant Professor of Film Studies, The New School.

Huong is a freelance dreamer. This is her first time teaching Reading & Weaving. She likes clouds, sounds, shapes and shadows.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by Joshua Hart, Helen Miller, Chris Moffett

Movement and drawing both enhance our awareness of the critical relationship between visual and tactile sensitivity.
In this lab, we will study the appearance and sensation of human movement. After a gentle movement lesson, we will alternate roles of artist and model. By rotating roles, you will gain insight into the basis of anatomical structure and function from the inside out. You will also gain a deeper understanding of some of the tenets of life drawing: gesture, contour, mark-making and line quality (movement, touch and the quality of your intention).

Wear comfortable clothing and bring a yoga or
Pilates mat.

Joshua Hart is a sculptor living and working in Brooklyn.  He has been teaching drawing courses since 2001. His approach is grounded in Renaissance techniques while encompassing all modes of drawing and simple acts like making pancakes or turning one’s pockets inside out.

Helen Miller is an artist living and working in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She leads a movement + drawing lab at Harvard, where she is also a Teaching Assistant in Visual and Environmental Studies.

Chris Moffett is a Feldenkrais practitioner of movement education working with artistic sorts doing interesting things. He also works on the aesthetic imagery of education—how we picture education to ourselves—and teaches graduate courses in philosophy of education in the New York area.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by Matthew Noah Smith

Our relationships to God, gods, spirits, and the divine often use certain experiences as touchstones: the world cooperating just so to make a plan work out, the sense that one is experiencing something magical, as in the case of out-of-body experiences, and the sense that some mindless things are actually acting intentionally, as when we see plants moving towards sunlight in terms of the plants acting on an intention to face the sun.  But, what if we can induce experiences like these?  What if, in walking through an art museum on a busy evening, people were not transported by the art, but instead by the opening of an elevator door, or by the flickering of an “Exit” sign?  What if, at the end of a brief walk through the museum, people sat down and discovered that they could feel someone touching a rubber hand as if that rubber hand were their own?  Do we project our own agency into the world and come to think that what isn’t alive is animate?  Do we confuse psychological illusions for evidence of the divine?

This class explores these questions.

Matthew Noah Smith is an associate professor in the department of philosophy and the program in ethics, politics and economics at Yale University.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by Amy Whitaker

This is a class in economics as a creative practice.  We will start with a brainstorming exercise and then look at economics through the lens of two questions: How do I price my work?  What would an investor want to know?  We’ll cover a few basics of cost structure and the time value of money to leave you with a few mental frameworks for thinking about economics in relation to your work.  The ethos of the class is that everyone is an artist—and also a businessperson, and that capitalism is not a value system but a way the world works and something everyone can understand, much the way art is.

I have an MBA from Yale, as well as an MFA in painting from the Slade.  This class began as a series of lunchtime lectures in business theory to fellow painters at the Slade in 2004.  I currently teach economics on faculty at RISD and at California College of the Arts, and am the author of the book Museum Legs, which was chosen as an Authors@Google selection and as the freshman reading book at RISD last year.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by David Kyrejko

Alcoholic beverages have been around longer than man has been standing upright and a mythology equally as old has been built up around it. From primitive alambic pot stills to some of the more exotic equipment and methods being used today, this class will introduce you to how some of your favorite beverages are actually made, from grain to glass.

A perpetual builder of projects that blend science and aesthetics, David Kyrejko runs The City Foundry out of Bushwick, Brooklyn where one of the current projects is the creation of a cutting edge distillery.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by May Anuntarungsun

“Ask yourself, ‘Do I love Earth in this place?’ If you feel rejected by your environment because you think it is too dry, too cold, too urbanized, too reclusive, you have some thinking to do.” - Barbara Hand Clow

For some people Feng Shui is a way to move your ikea couch. For others, it’s a way to work with energy, similar to Chrokee teaching of “Making Home.” In fact, that’s just why we’re here on Earth: to make home! It is the art to house your body that houses your soul. In this course, we will learn:

- How to aligning your space with Body, Mind, and Soul.
- Clearing a space and filling it with intention
- The Bagua
- The Prosperity Corner
- The Elements
- Space Clearing techniques

Please bring:
1. Any rattles, small drums, hand held percussion (you can even make them with rocks in a can) for Space Clearing.
2. A notebook and something to write with for activities.

We will pre-start the class with Aura Cleansing and 3rd Eye Activation.

Let us now be grounded and expanded at the same time on Earth, to be responsive and nurtured by Her, as we are all Children of the Earth.

I began my esoteric studies since I was 6 years old, looking at Vedic astrology and tarot cards. Being raised a Buddhist, through many meditation practices I became aware of subtle energy and metaphysical intelligence. I like hanging out at Temple of GAD. I am committed to alternative healing, using my hands to create gifts, and circulating wealth in human kind.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by Tracy Candido

Look, learn, eat, examine, discuss, repeat.

“Food in Art: An Edible History” is an exercise in viewing artworks that contain images of food, and then eating the food that is contained in these artworks.  In a dining room setting, participants will view a virtual exhibition of works by Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, Karen Finley, Sharon Core and others, eat the food that is represented in these artworks and then explore a working menu that asks them what they see, smell, taste and feel.  Participants will discuss their findings with fellow diners, furthering their journey through a multi-sensorial experience.

Focusing on the intersection of topics such as gastronomy, pedagogy, art history, visual culture, and social networks, “Food In Art: An Edible History” subverts traditional viewing practices and examines new models of art viewing that incorporate taste and smell.   By provoking participants’ senses, this exercise will create a more comprehensive, emotional and personal exploration of the artworks.

Participants can experience “Food in Art: An Edible History” on a rotating basis- the dining room will host multiple seatings over the course of a 2 hour period.  In this time, the exhibition of artworks will be shown on a loop.

Tracy Candido is a Brooklyn-based artist using food as a medium and eating as a social practice to engage the public in group activities. Tracy recognizes food as an anchor for social experiences, a community binder, a fundraising resource, and a point of sensory information in creative, critical and social spaces.  She is a museum educator and has developed and taught educational programs at the Brooklyn Museum, the International Center of Photography and the New York Botanical Gardens.  Current and upcoming projects include the Community Cooking Club, the Pub Discussion Series at the Open Engagement Conference in Portland, OR and the Farm City Chautauqua series at 61 Local in Brooklyn and at the New Museum’s Festival of Ideas for a New City.  Tracy is also a founding editor of 127 Prince, an online journal about socially-engaged art practice, and edits the column, “Instructions For Eating.”  She holds a Masters from New York University in Visual Culture Theory.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by Quinn Accardi

I’m going to teach cartooning and developing cartooning skills for beginners. It will involve doodling, drawing and working on art skills. We will also explore learning to think up good cartooning ideas for those who can draw but don’t know what to use the skill for. The class will be divided into three segments: developing your own cartooning drawing style, character creation for comic books, and political or funny single panel cartoons. Bring a drawing pad or note book.

I’m 10 years old. I love drawing and trading. I co-manage a small comic business and sell them once a week in TriBeCa. I am the illustrator and my partner is the writer. I play guitar and was once in a band that never ever even got together. I’ve been in the comic business for 2 years and I also like drawing political cartoons and single panel cartoons.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by Cathy Mooses & Anne Callahan

In this class we’ll make some books, Large and Small.
You will learn the very basics of bookbinding: paper grain, accordion fold, a pamphlet stitch and a square knot.
We’ll make a Small Book individually, then a Large Book collectively. The basic techniques taught in this workshop can be used for complex ideas and implemented in elaborate structures.
(For those who are interested in construction details, we will quickly make a pamphlet and demonstrate a few tricks of the trade for the Small Book. Afterwards as a group, we will make the Large Book from prepared materials, by attaching pamphlets onto an enormous accordion fold. All materials will be provided.)

Cathy Mooses is an artist that lives in Brooklyn. She has organized projects for dozens of NYC based artists to live, teach and make art in Latin America. She also teaches book binding techniques for Art of the Book course at The Cooper Union. Anne Callahan is a book designer in Manhattan. She runs Graphic Union, a not-profitable organization that preserves and interprets the history of publishing. She also works with periodicals in the Fashion Institute of Technology Library.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by Christopher Robbins

Christopher Robbins (and Aaron Krach, Juliet Orbach, Julie Novello, Meg Welch, and Nicky Befus of his SUNY Purchase College ‘Art For Social Change’ course) will explore some of the techniques he has encountered creating action- and collaboration- based works over the past ten years.

This workshop will focus on PRA techniques—also known as Participatory Rapid Appraisal / Participatory Learning & Action / Action Research—ways of exploring a community from the varied perspectives of the people in that community, without having to rely on the “Official” perspectives put forth by those who already have a voice.

Techniques we will cover include community mapping, transect walks, and other techniques for getting a foothold in new communities.

NOTE: This class will occur outside (in the courtyard). Please dress appropriately for outdoor weather conditions.

Christopher Robbins works on the uneasy cusp of art and community development, using a carefully twisted work-process to craft awkwardly intimate social collaborations. He built his own hut out of mud and sticks and lived in it while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin, West Africa, spoke at a United Nations conference about his cross-cultural digital arts and education work in the South Pacific, and has lived and worked in London, Tokyo, West Africa, the Fiji Islands, and former Yugoslavia.

The SUNY Purchase College ‘Art for Social Change’ course is a new type of course - bringing Fine Art, Sociology, Humanities and Technology students together for an intense, hands-on program that produces actual social actions. Aaron Krach, Juliet Orbach, Julie Novello, Meg Welch, and Nicky Befus are currently working out of an empty storefront in Portchester, NY.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by Dena Shottenkirk

A hands-on examination of the philosophical implications of plumbing as seen through the lenses of Kant’s noumenal/phenomenal distinction and Kierkegaard’s leap of faith.  Special attention paid to sweating techniques as well as the problems for a philosophy of art that begins with the distinction between the world that is seen and the world that is unseen.

Currently: full-time faculty in the Philosophy Department of Brooklyn College; artist; author.
Formerly: art critic; plumber.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by Yuka Otani

This workshop focuses on exploring creative possibilities of sugar glass (a.k.a. hard candy) through the lenses of art and science. We will be looking at “sweet” artworks, designs, and performances for inspiration, getting into a hands-on practice of sugar glass. Some of the basic candy manipulating techniques will be demonstrated, such as blowing, thread making, and casting.  Please bring comfortable work clothes.

Yuka Otani is a multi-media artist who is currently based at New York City and Tokyo.  She received a masters degree from Rhode Island School of Design in 2008, and a bachelors degree from Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan in 2000. Her sculptures and installations incorporate transparent and fluid materials such as glass, water, melted sugar, light to invoke a shift in a viewer’s perception of physical and cognitive spaces. The vulnerable materials change their appearance over time, thereby simultaneously emphasizing both presence and absence. Otani’s work is recently exhibited at venues including 3rd Ward, Urban Glass, CRG Gallery, Elga Wimmer Gallery, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and Wight Gallery at UCLA.
She is currently participating in the Open Studios Program at Museum of Arts and Design.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by Jeffery Warren & Public Laboratory

This workshop will show you how to use everyday materials to build a spectrometer, a device that expands our vision by revealing the unique spectral signatures of chemicals present in the surfaces around us.

Our low-cost, DIY version of sophisticated spectrometry equipment normally used in chemistry or astronomy is being employed by community groups around the Gowanus Canal to document environmental contamination, specifically PAHs - polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons which are visible in the ultraviolet spectrum.

Participants will construct their own spectrometer and examine a variety of materials—we’ll bring some but feel free to bring your own (food, plants, etc). We will also experiment with shapes and designs to improve the spectrometer for various scenarios. Other Public Laboratory community members and DIY tools will be there for unstructured fun.

Bring a camera and a cardboard tube!

NOTE: This class will occur outside (in the courtyard). Please dress appropriately for outdoor weather conditions.

Using inexpensive DIY techniques, we seek to change how people see the world in environmental, social, and political terms. Using a participatory research model, we are activists, educators, technologists, and community organizers interested in new ways to promote action, intervention, and awareness.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by Nancy Austin

Between 1848 and 1852, the first three design schools in America were opened by women for women in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. More cities founded design schools for both men and women in the years and decades that followed. This Trade School class starts with a talk about what this transformative design school movement meant for First Wave women, and for the next generation of women like Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875-1942) who became a sculptor and later founded the Whitney Museum. We will then transition into a group discussion of how this history might inform the education of today’s artists and designers. For example, how can we best mentor one another towards subjective, creative, and economic freedom?

Nancy Austin is a scholar, artist, and public history activist based in Newport, Rhode Island. She has taught art and design history at RISD, Yale, and WPI and published frequently on the education of the artist and designer in America. This winter she was a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome writing on American cultural institutions founded in the 1890s.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by Anna Naomi Larson

Sit all day?  Feeling sluggish?  Give your brain and body a break without even getting out of your chair!  We’ll work on adaptations for Pilates exercises that can fit in your cubicle.  You’ll be given homework for sitting, standing, and lying down that will make your whole being happy.  Anna’s a certified Pilates instructor so you won’t get hurt. 

Pilates is a non-impact system of exercise that focuses on strengthening deep muscles of the abdomen and spine.  Pilates exercises help create lean, strong, but flexible muscles.  Gaining this strength in the core can aid in injury prevention, spinal health, improve posture, and reduce stress and tension.  Pilates can be differentiated for people of all ages and abilities.  Let’s adapt it fit your office chair or subway bench! 

Wear what you wear to work so we can see our limitations or, if you prefer, just wear something comfortable to move in.

I love to find ways to bring exercise and being good to your body into the regular routine without extra equipment, memberships, or using undue amounts of time.  Bike to work! Take the stairs! Games in the park!  Pilates on the Subway!  At this point my Pilates training is used mostly to lead “body breaks” in my classroom as a 3rd grade teacher in East Harlem.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by Mary Walling Blackburn

I fly on my stomach, hands in front of me. I am near the river; the river is to the side. I land real early in the morning. In the dark. - 29°26’55"N 104°11’15"W

The deep militarization of the US/Mexico border manifests in the nocturnal dreams of those residing alongside the Rio Grande—markedly in the pesadillas (“little heavy ones”) of the residents of Redford, Texas ( 29°26’55"N 104°11’15"W). It was agreed, at collection, that I would disseminate the dreams, replete with symbolic and actual flights, beautiful dead men and murderers masquerading as animals—within the greater US interior. Here, they have been turned into song, sung from one body to another.

When you wait in line for the museum, someone will approach you. They will discreetly lean close and sing into your ear. You will learn the song. The singer will teach it to you. It is one of the dreams collected at the border.  You will sing your version to the person behind you and in front of you in line.

Additional Information:

In 1997, Esequiel Hernandez, 18 years old and an American resident of Redford, was shot to death by the US marines while herding goats within the village’s perimeter.

In 2006, US Congress passed Public Law 367, the Secure Fence Act which authorized the “systematic surveillance of the international land and maritime borders of the United States through more effective use of personnel and technology, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, ground-based sensors, satellites, radar coverage, and cameras and physical infrastructure enhancements to prevent unlawful entry by aliens into the United States.”

In 2008, I collected these dreams.

My mother sang songs to me that her grandmother had sung to her; when my mother had her thyroid removed from her throat she worried that she would no longer be able to speak or sing. But her voice remained. I just began to sing to other people this year. I wrote a thesis on murder ballads and how they informed gender roles in the southern united States. I used to live very close to the Texas/Mexico border.

In exchange for:

• An object of your own creation: food, art, music, writing, craft, etc.

Taught by Jonathan J. Yegge

An introduction to wine appreciation with a focus on the categories of Organic, Biodynamic and Natural wines. We will also cover the essentials of professional wine tasting.

Please BRING an Organic, Biodynamic or Natural wine from your local wine store, and a reliable wine glass. That’s the barter!

The instructor, Jonathan J. Yegge, has produced Natural wines with Edmunds St. John and Audubon Cellars in Berkeley, California, and has been a wine buyer for a number of boutique wine stores. Currently, Jonathan teaches the history of wine and religion in the Philosophy and Religious Studies department at St. Francis College, Brooklyn.

In exchange for:

• Biodynamic Wine
• Organic Wine
• Natural Wine
• Wine Glasses

Taught by Leda Meredith

Learn how to safely preserve foods by canning, freezing, fermenting, dehydrating, and other methods. The harvest season is just about to begin, and with these techniques you’ll be able to “put up” each local crop as it comes into its peak of flavor and nutrition, and be able to eat a varied local foods diet year-round.

Author of The Locavore’s Handbook: The Busy Person’s Guide to Eating Local on a Budget. Instructor at the New York Botanical Garden and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden specializing in edible and medicinal plants.

In exchange for:

• canning jars and lids, especially small sizes (1/2 pint and 4 oz.)
• teach me how to use FTP on my web sites
• a Feldenkrais or Alexander technique session
• a massage
• gardening assistance (no experience necessary-will train!)
• clothes for yoga class (second hand fine)

Taught by Serena Norr

The class will discuss how to make a soup - starting with a basic vegetable broth. We will then make some traditional soups for the winter such as a ribollita or a butternut squash soup. As an interactive approach all students will be involved in the chopping and preparation of the soups. There will also be a discussion of the origins of each soup.

I run a soup website called Seriously Soupy where I test out a new soup recipe every week and write about it. Since I have created the site, I have tried over 100 soups - including some new creations and my version of classic recipes. I have also taught about soups at the Brooklyn Cookery. Additionally, I work as a Managing Editor and freelance.

In exchange for:

• design help
• logo
• business card ideas
• website redesign, SEO help, PR help, marketing help, content help, ideas, videos
• white beans, can of chunky tomato sauce, kale, bread, olive oil, fresh rosemary and basil

Taught by Pamela

New York City Fair Trade Coalition will screen “The Dark Side of Chocolate” (http://www.thedarksideofchocolate.org/).  After we will discuss the importance of fair trade purchases, sample fair trade chocolates and raffle off a fair trade Equal Exchange basket with coffee/chocolate.

NYC Fair Trade Coalition is an all volunteer grassroots organization educating consumers on fair trade and promoting fair trade businesses in NYC.

In exchange for:

• Email address for NYCFTC listserv
• Follow us on Facebook
• Like us on Twitter
• Donate your talents as an NYCFTC volunteer

Taught by Tracy Candido

Get ready to tease your tastebuds and stimulate your senses!

Food in Art: An Edible History will lead participants on a guided tour of a virtual exhibition of artworks and films that are about, and contain images of, food. At each artwork or film clip, we will be eating the food that we see in each image. 

Artworks include those by Andy Warhol, Gordon Matta-Clark, Future Farmers, Janine Antoni, Jennifer Rubell, Agnes Denes, and also Frida Kahlo’s fruit paintings, Renoir’s luncheon scenes, Dutch “kitchen and market” paintings, 18th century kitchen table paintings, and others.  Films include clips from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, My Cousin Vinny, Big Night, Safe, Hairspray and Eat Drink Man Woman.

Imagine not only looking at Warhol’s Campbell Soup painting but also tasting the saltyness of the tomato soup, feeling the hot soup slosh around in your mouth and on your tongue.  Instead of only seeing Charlie Buckets on his journey through his chocolate adventure, participants will be able to experience the film with their tastebuds!

The Food in Art class will provoke participants’ senses to create a more comprehensive, emotional and personal exploration of the artworks and films.  This class will subvert traditional viewing practices that normally confine the viewer to experiencing art from a primarily visual perspective and will examine new models of art viewing that incorporate taste and smell.

Tracy Candido is a Brooklyn-based artist using food as a medium and eating as a social practice to engage the public in group activities. Tracy recognizes food as an anchor for social experiences, as a community binder, as a fundraising resource, and as a point of sensory information in creative, critical and social spaces.  She is a museum educator and has developed and taught educational programs at the Brooklyn Museum, the International Center of Photography and the New York Botanical Gardens.  Her current project is the Community Cooking Club, and upcoming projects include the Pub Discussion Series at the Open Engagement Conference in Portland, OR and the Farm City Chautauqua series at 61 Local in Brooklyn.  Tracy is also a founding editor of 127 Prince, an online journal about socially-engaged art practice, and edits the column, “Instructions For Eating.”  She holds a Masters from New York University in Visual Culture Theory.

In exchange for:

• Mixing bowls
• Mixing spoons
• Kitchen knives
• Pantry spices
• Kitchen tools (Vegetable peeler, Lemon zester, Whisk, Spatulas, etc.)
• Pots and Pans (Cookie Sheets, Saute Pans, Stock Pots)
• Gluten-free flour

Taught by Severine von Tscharner Fleming

Greenhorn (n):
1. a novice or beginner
2. a new entrant into agriculture
3. a young farmer

Founder and director of the non-profit organization The Greenhorns, Severine von Tscharner Fleming will give an introductory overview of many issues surrounding new + beginning farmers. Learn more about the Greenhorns organization, receive help interpreting other institutions in the agricultural arena, and discuss how to organize and support farmers in your community and across the country.

This will be:
- A briefing for newbie/aspiring farmers on what to expect, how to prepare, how to contextualize their first season farming, and which resources to tap into.
- It is also for those who wish to plug into the beginning farmer scene via non-farming trades or crafts.
- Info for those who want to WOOF, volunteer occasionally on a farm, and get a taste of the agricultural scene.
- Connections for those who might like to partner with farmers, help form farm businesses, or rent or sell land to farmers.

Severine von Tscharner Fleming is a farmer, activist, and organizer based in the Hudson Valley of NY. Over the past two years she has produced + directed a documentary film about the young farmers who are reclaiming, restoring, retrofitting, and respecting our land and our country. That film grew into a small nonprofit organization that currently produces events and media for and about the young farming community. The Greenhorns mission is to “recruit, promote, and support” the growing tribe of new agrarians. To that end, Greenhorns runs a weekly radio show on Heritage Radio Network, a popular blog, a wiki-based resource guide for beginning farmers, a GIS-based mapping project, and dozens of mixers + educational events for young farmers all around the country. Severine attended Pomona College and University of California at Berkeley where she graduated with a B.S. in Conservation/AgroEcology. She is a proud co-founder of the National Young Farmers Coalition.

In exchange for:

• video/film color correction
• seamstresses
• letter press artists or technicians
• carpentry
• bike mechanics
• farm tool engineering or building
• website development and skills
• artist collaborators for Seed Circus events
• tent designer for Seed Circus events
• a xerox machine that works!
• enthusiastic ideas for collaboration
• your agreement to write a letter to one of your elected officials about supporting young and beginning farmers
• interest in organizing or hosting a fundraiser

Taught by Yuka Otani

This workshop focuses on exploring creative possibilities of sugar glass (a.k.a. hard candy) through the lenses of art and science. We will be looking at “sweet” artworks, designs, and performances for inspiration, getting into a hands-on practice of sugar glass. Some of the basic candy manipulating techniques will be demonstrated, such as blowing, thread making, and casting.  Please bring comfortable work clothes.

Yuka Otani is a multi-media artist who is currently based at New York City and Tokyo.  She received a masters degree from Rhode Island School of Design in 2008, and a bachelors degree from Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan in 2000. Her sculptures and installations incorporate transparent and fluid materials such as glass, water, melted sugar, light to invoke a shift in a viewer’s perception of physical and cognitive spaces. The vulnerable materials change their appearance over time, thereby simultaneously emphasizing both presence and absence.

In exchange for:

• light corn syrup
• organic fruits or vegetables
• good food/snacks to share with the class
• proofread / edit my writing(about 1-2page)
• give me feedback about my new art project
• suggestions for good gallery/museum exhibits to go
• handmade soap
• bring very cool images or videos of "bubbles"
• help photographing to document this workshop

Taught by Stephen Switzer

Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is cheap, easy, effective and safe.  You will learn how to make tinctures, syrups and salves. Bring a few small (<3oz) jars and some alcohol (100 proof or greater) to make your own tincture to take home.

Stephen Switzer is a gardener, herbalist and apothecary coordinator at Thirdroot Community Health Center, a center for affordable yoga, acupuncture, massage and herbal studies in Brooklyn.

In exchange for:

• marketing ideas for yoga/acupuncture center
• high proof alcohol connections or ideas how to make
• gardening space in Brooklyn
• graphic design
• a sample of your favorite tea

Taught by Ta'nia Doe

After the loss of both my beloved dad and grandmother to heart disease, and to my surprise, being diagnosed with high blood pressure, obesity, pre-diabetic, raised cholesterol, and a prime candidate for a heart attack, I decided to take heart health into my own hands.

Heart disease is generally thought of as a man’s disease. In reality, heart disease is the number one cause of death in women. It kills more women in America than all forms of cancers combined. It has become the silent killer of women, and the Love Her Heart wellness team is here to make some noise about it.This class is about raising awareness of heart disease through the sharing of my personal experience and student participation. We will discuss the importance of learning your numbers, which includes blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, body fat, and address the importance of nutrition, exercise and stress reduction.

I am currently shooting a documentary-series that is chronicling my transformation from where I am now (weight & numbers) to a heart healthy person. As a student of this class you will be a part of my project and help to bring greater awareness to this growing epidemic. The class will be video taped, and your consent will be needed for participation.

After losing both her beloved dad & grandmother to heart disease, and being diagnosed with high blood pressure, obesity, pre-diabetic, raised cholesterol, and a candidate for a heart attack, Ta’nia Doe, founder of Love Her Heart, decided to take heart health into her own hands.

While researching for her own health issues, Ta’nia discovered that not only does a woman die every 23 seconds from heart disease in America, but 60% of them are African-American women. Having experienced weight lost surgery failure, and feeling as if she had nowhere else to turn, she became determined to not only face her own obstacles, but to encourage and teach other women how to stand up to their number one killer—Heart Disease.

In exchange for:

• web design consultation
• Any PR & Marketing contributions
• Grant writing & proposal assistance
• Sponsors/investors referals
• Acting lessons
• volunteers-PA for 1 or 2 days of shooting
• Heart healthy recipes or sample dishes...yumm!
• Fresh fruit or water to share with class
• Information about healthy resturants around the city
• Tips you use to help stay on a healthy track

Taught by Charles Knapp

Give a brief history of cheeses from Spain and Italy. Bring 3 cheeses from each country. In addition to a short demo open conversation up. Samples are free and consultation about cooking ideas and party preparations after class and are part of the discussion..

I am a 48 year old cheesemonger at Fairways Market Red Hook.I have been a cheesemonger at Fairways for 4 years with a stint at Murrays,and also a short stint at Amerivents and Restaurant Associates. My life long passion for food began when we lived in Europe. My father was in the Air Force.We ate and traveled throughout Europe. I’m a Buddhist by practice.I have a 9 year old son who is Guatemalan adopted. He is in 3rd grade at BNS. I was born in San Antonio,Texas.

In exchange for:

• Starbucks gift card
• Trader joes gift card
• Hat
• Running shoes