The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has commissioned a photographic portrait of food pioneer Alice Waters, founder of the Chez Panisse Restaurant and Cafe, the Edible Schoolyard and champion of the Slow Food movement. The portrait was created by Dave Woody, the first-place winner of the museum’s 2009 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. It will be unveiled Aug. 26 at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive as a part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the restaurant’s founding.
This presentation is the first for the Portrait Gallery that will take place outside of the museum; the portrait will be installed in Washington, D.C., during a presentation at the Portrait Gallery in late January 2012.
“I am delighted to present this newly created portrait by Dave Woody taken in Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard,” said Martin E. Sullivan, director of the museum. “In this compelling photograph, he captures Alice Waters’ commitment to local, organic food. The Portrait Gallery recognizes Waters for changing the way the nation thinks about how people are connected to food and the environment.”
As part of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition the National Portrait Gallery commissions the winning artist to create a work that depicts a living subject for its collection. This competition is made possible by Virginia Outwin Boochever, whose gift fosters the acquisition of contemporary portraiture for the Portrait Gallery.
A call for entries for the next Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition will run from Sept. 1 through Oct. 30. More information can be found at portraitcompetition.si.edu.
Alice Waters
Alice Waters, chef, author and proprietor of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., is a pioneer of a culinary philosophy based on using only the freshest organic products, served only in season. Over the course of 40 years, Chez Panisse has developed a network of local suppliers whose dedication to sustainable agriculture assures the restaurant a steady supply of pure, fresh ingredients.
Waters’ commitment to education led to the creation of The Edible Schoolyard, a one-acre garden and an adjacent kitchen classroom at Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. The Edible Schoolyard, started in 1996, is a model public education program that gives the nearly 1,000 students the knowledge and values they need to build a humane and sustainable future by actively involving them in all aspects of the food cycle. The success of The Edible Schoolyard led to the School Lunch Initiative, which has as its national agenda the integration of a nutritious daily lunch and gardening experience into the academic curriculum of all the public schools in the United States.
Dave Woody
Born in Fort Collins, Colo., Dave Woody received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography from Colorado State University in 1996. He earned his Master of Fine Arts in studio art from the University of Texas at Austin in 2007. Woody received multiple awards and honors while studying at the University of Texas.
Woody has taught photography at the University of Texas at Austin and Colorado State University; he has exhibited widely throughout the country and internationally.
National Portrait Gallery
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery tells the history of America through the individuals who have shaped its culture. Through the visual arts, performing arts and new media, the Portrait Gallery portrays poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists whose lives tell the American story.
The National Portrait Gallery is part of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture at Eighth and F streets N.W., Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Information: (202) 633-1000; (202) 633-5285 (TTY). Website: npg.si.edu.
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Note to editors: Images of the work will be embargoed until Aug. 26. At that time the image and required caption and credit information will be available at http://newsdesk.si.edu/photos/.
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