Janet Zweig and Thyrza Goodeve made Art for Dinner

“I decided to invite an art critic to Art for Dinner. Incidentally, our dogs are best friends.

We followed the instructions very carefully but with whimsy. It became a structure from which we could improvise. We were surprised to find that it gave meaning to our meal, and the evening became an event.

Some of the instructions led us to interesting conversations. For example, the instruction “tell a joke” led me to tell the joke: “How many performance artists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?… I don’t know, I left early.” This led into a good conversation about performance art and feminism.

It did truly feel like a shared social space, knowing that other people in other places were echoing our movements, but differently. Mostly, it was incredibly fun, and the biscuits were delicious.”

- Janet Zweig

Watch and listen to Janet and Thryza cook dinner.

Michael Price and Joanne Wang made Art for Dinner

“We didn’t have flour so we didn’t make the biscuits, but everything else turned out pretty good.”

- Michael Price

Claire Cushman, Julia Keller, Rachel Katz, Lara Southern, Noa Appleton, Sophie Savryn AND Mary MacGill made Art for Dinner

“My meal was made by myself (Claire) and my friend Julia Keller. She brought her puppy Bailey along and Bailey really enjoyed the lentils. Our meal was different because we didn’t have a good number of ingredients – carrots, onions, garlic, etc. So we improvised a lot.

The sweet potato and lentil became a delicious mush. I was in charge of lentils and the brussel sprouts, while Julia mastered the biscuits.

My roommates ate all the brussels sprouts before dinner, and Julia came over at seven and had section at eight, consequently didn’t get to eat with the rest of us. But she left Bailey at my house and we saved her some food for after section.”

- Claire Cushman

Michaela Seigo, Bianca Aboubakare, and Evan Pulvers made Art for Dinner

“I happened upon this happening when I came home there was a dinner and that was awesome because the food was delicious and the script was flawlessly accurate as to what a real dinner was like.”

- Evan Pulvers

“The brussel sprouts were black, and that’s how we knew it was working.”

- Michaela Seigo

Reina Shibata and Aaron Davis made Art for Dinner

There was certainly a fair amount of interpreting/improvising that went on.  When we couldn’t follow the first instruction (no aprons!), and didn’t have any Nina Simone to play either, that set the tone for some rule-breaking.  Wonderful recipes, we will be using more lentils etc. in our cooking from now on.”

- Reina Shibata

Emily Viggiano, Norian Caporale-Berkowitz, and Frieda Kay made Art for Dinner

“Our soup speaks Italian – or at least I hope so because that is how Norian spoke nicely to it.  Norian and I live on the same floor, but through an entire semester never managed to cook together or to practice Italian.

This dinner, created with intention, artfulness, and love, was a perfect remedy. Our broccoletti di Bruxelles were beautiful, our biscuits moist and fluffy.

Sam Dean and Dan Ton made Art for Dinner

“We didn’t follow the directions to a T, but mostly stuck to the music suggestions and recipes themselves, with some spice improv.

What was interesting is that while Dan and I cook sometimes, it’s usually more breakfasty stuff, the complicated food typically falling on one of [our roomate's] plates (pun intended). Dan and I also haven’t spent a lot of time together, one-on-one, in a while, so it was a nice change of pace to be forced into a meal preparation with just the two of us, when we probably would have made sandwiches and eaten in our rooms, left to our own devices.

We just trapped a mouse (Victor) that we’ve had scurrying around our kitchen for a few days, and he’s living in a bucket right now, near the radiator, and he liked the biscuits, too.”

- Sam Dean