Patch Blog: Changing Los Angeles--Art and Soup in Highland Park

Cathi Milligan, NELAart, and Anthony Deptula will be hosting the first Art Soup L.A. on January 21, 2012, at our soon-to-be opened French bistro Ba at 5100 York Boulevard. More Soup events will follow each month at different locations.

Filmmaker Anthony Deptula brought this brilliant idea to NELAart, inspired by the micro-grant soup events he found spreading across Detroit. This meal-based micro-grant network provides localized art funding, building community, fueling camaraderie with a bowl of soup.

Peer-funding with a spoon

Here’s how it works. $10 buys soup and a vote. The soup is offered by , and the diners see presentations of works in progress by artists. The presentations might include videos, trailers, animation, slide shows, puppets, opera, staged readings, singing, dancing, pie charts, puppets, or fireworks. No Power Points, that’s a promise. After the presentations, the soup-eating audience of judges votes on their favorite, and the winner pockets the grant. The amount of the grant depends on the number of soup eaters. Winners are expected to provide an update of their progress at a subsequent Soup LA.

The call for proposals is for art projects of any kind, at any stage of development.  For details and submission criteria email: artsoupla@gmail.com

Fifty cities around the world are doing this in different forms. The birth of ideas is often hard to pinpoint, there is some evidence that the Institute for Community Understanding Between Art and The Everyday is the nest for this fledgling movement. It has grown, and takes different forms depending on the wishes of the community. In addition to arts, some emphasize the food--ocally grown and sustainable. Some have rotating guest chefs. Some emphasize the communal joys of eating together. Some are more focused on the networking possibilities. Other groups offer funding to political or ecological projects. My favorite one of these involves hydro-carbon-eating oyster mushrooms. InCUBATE calls it “an open platform to discuss ongoing projects with new audiences, meet new collaborators, and share ways of working.” 

Get involved as an audience member who has had no choices before. On Saturday January 21, 2012, have some great soup, and become a patron of the arts, with live crowd funding. If you are looking for a micro-grant to help your art project move ahead, let Cathi and Anthony know. Email artsoupla@gmail.com. You will have an entertaining evening, meet your neighbors, and go home happy, warmed, filled and fulfilled.