Dine at the Kitchen Table
Nashua, NH, is a city which prides itself on its public art displays which include wall murals, sculptures, sidewalk pianos on city streets in summer and special art installations.
A recent art project entitled Comeback Kitchen Table consists of a series of public artworks that explores the changing role of the kitchen table. Once it was the center of family gatherings; however, in many homes today it's rarely used for dining because of increasing demands on family life (work, school). In some homes it's simply a depository for items of daily life: books, magazines, keys, phones.
The project was spearheaded by artist Jerry Beck, founder of the defunct Revolving Museum which was based in Lowell, MA. Beck worked with a diverse Nashua community of artists, educators and others to produce 10 unique and diverse kitchen table artworks. The completed projects were placed in under-used public spaces in downtown Nashua.
The Comeback Kitchen Table project included an essay and photo competition sponsored by the Nashua Public Library. The goal was to address stresses of family lifestyle. Many U.S. families rarely sit at the kitchen table to share a meal and talk about daily life and only eat together during holidays or special occasions. Some said the kitchen table was their “Thanksgiving Table."
Research has shown that society is moving away from family-gathered table meals and eating in front of electronic devices with no connection to others, conversation or even an appreciation of taste, smells, and rituals associated with eating. Studies have shown that children who did not regularly eat with their parents were significantly more likely to be truant, also those who did not eat dinner with their parents at least twice weekly were more likely to be overweight.
The focus of this project was to create an understanding that sharing meals together is important and to support communication between family and neighbors.
Grenville and I cook and dine at home regularly, but we rarely eat at the table in our dining area. And, living in an apartment, there's no room in the galley kitchen for a table.
Instead, our "dining table for two" is positioned in front of the living room window and our view overlooks the Nashua River and downtown Nashua.
How about you and your family members — Do you share meals at a table together?
13 comments:
Great and interesting project, eating together as a family is really important. Thanks for sharing!
I love all those tables, the green one and the really colorful one are my favorites.
now you tell me this. when raising my children my husband and I both worked opposite shifts to have the other as a sitter. we rarely ate at the table together except Sundays and holidays. Bob and I have never eaten at our table except when our kids came over. we eat at the breakfast bar. no one has eaten at our table since 2006.. might I say this all may be true because my 2 boys were ultimate truants
A good post. It's true that too many do not eat together. I love those chairs made from small branches.
Wonderful project and your photos are very entertaining. We most always eat our meals at the table in our kitchen, unless we have company and we will go into the dining room.
What a great project. We have always eaten together as a family, taking it in turns to tell each other about our day. We used to call it "table talk". Now there is only my husband and I we still eat the table and enjoy chatting to each other.
We always ate at the oak kitchen table. Four of us at one time and then the two of us. With the new house the dinning room table, sits 6 or more, is now right next to the kitchen, no wall, so we at the big table every time in front of a sliding glass door. As the summer gets to be longer, we have to pull the drapes to keep the brightness of the sun light from glaring in to the house.
i love kitchen tables. Mine is no longer in the kitchen but resides in what I would like to call the dining room - only it is more like an office than a dining room. I have what is known as a farmhouse tables, made of solid oak and I love it. It resides where it is because I refuse to chuck it out.
Sue and I eat in our chairs and usually catch a tv program. When we eat with Sha and the kids, we sit around the table.
Very colourful!
I live alone, but do eat at the table.
We have always eaten at the table together. It's kinda sad that many young families with children don't all eat together and enjoy conversation along with their meal. It's also a good time to teach the kids manners. Love that green table!
Amazing artwork on those tables! My family always had dinner together.
WoW! What an enjoyable post!
We eat at the dining room table - the kitchen table is often the dumping ground for mail, lunch boxes, keys, stuff I must remember to take with me tomorrow, and the stuff I forgot to take with me yesterday. sigh.
The good and bad of sitting in the dining room is we can see the TV and often watch the news while eating.
But even when I eat alone, I sit at the table. Guess that's the way I was raised. And I was never truant! LOL!
We don't always share breakfast together here, but we almost always do lunch and supper together for whomever is here on any given day. The table project is a neat idea.
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