Farmwork Exhibition Available
Additional venues are being sought for the traveling exhibition, Coming Up
on the Season: Migrant Farmwork in the Northeast, developed by the Cornell
Migrant Program. The 2000 square foot exhibition explores the historic and
contemporary nature of migrant farmwork in the northeast by examining work
and workers in western New York, the Hudson Valley, southern New Jersey,
eastern Massachusetts and northern Maine.
Based on five years of fieldwork and documentation, the exhibit, developed
by the Cornell University Migrant Program, explores the world behind the
supermarket shelves. Behind those shelves is a vast world invisible to
most of us. Even in our mechanized world, having fresh, unblemished produce
still means that someone has to pick it, or bunch it, or wash it, or pack
it. The Northeast still grows much of the nationšs food, and in no other
region do migrants make up such a large part of the work force that produces
it.
Excerpts from oral histories with workers and growers combined with
contemporary photography by Drew Harty provide compelling views of the world
of farmworkers today. Historic photographs, including taken by
photographers for the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and 1940s,
help visitors understand the historical forces that have shaped farmwork.
The project team collected artifacts rarely seen in museum exhibitions
including tools such as broccoli knives, blueberry rakes, apple buckets, and
a short-handled hoe. Also in the exhibition are paintings by students in a
Migrant Education Program and "Row Harvest," a large scale painting by
former migrant worker Juan Cavasos.
The exhibit is fully bi-lingual in English and Spanish, and includes a
section about home, where photographs and objects from Mexico help explore
the homes that workers leave behind and their aspirations for their families
and communities.
Interactive sections explore weight, pay, and the trip north--among other
ideas. A family gallery guide engages family audiences in an exploration of
food, family and community while a special section explores growing up as a
child in a migrant family. The exhibition ends with a video wall entitled
"Voices of the Harvest" where growers and workers share their viewpoints.
Companion curriculum materials, meeting New York State Standards, are
available for elementary, middle and high school levels.
The exhibition has already traveled to the Long Island Museum, the National
Heritage Museum, the New Jersey Historical Society and the Tompkins County
(NY) Museum. At these locations, visitors shared comments such as:
"All Americans should be required to see the migrant farmworkers exhibit.
It brought tears to my eyes!"
"It makes one think differently about food."
"A wonderful, easily understood exhibit--consciousness raising--should be
seen by all."
The exhibition has a modest ($5000 for three months, $7500 for six months)
rental fee plus shipping and is available beginning in January, 2005.
Support for this exhibition has been provided by the National Endowment for
the Humanities, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Rockefeller
Foundation, Newman's Own and Pioneer Media Technology.
For more information, contact:
Linda Norris
Exhibition Director
Riverhill
607-829-3501
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