FMAAA Soup supper sets stage for Spoonfest

FORT MADISON - The FMAAA Art Center will be hosting the Southeastern Iowa Spoonfest again on June 8th and 9th in Central Park from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
Unlike last year, the arts organization did not receive the grant funding from the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs and National Endowment for the Arts that helped to pay for much of last year's event. To close the budget gap the Art Center is leveraging on their ability for members to make bowls to hold the spoon carving festival -- specifically handmade pottery and wooden bowls - that can then be filled with soup.
The Soup Supper will be held on Friday, April 26 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the former Shug's Tiny Town storefront located at 820 Avenue G, just across the street from the FMAAA Art Center. Soup ($4), cornbread ($1), and cookies or brownies ($1) will be for sale along with bottles of water/soda for nominal fees. However, visitors who would like to select a pottery or wooden bowl for their soup can do so for an additional $25.

"The Spoonfest is meant to bring attention to historic hand craft, in this case wood carving techniques passed down generationally, and to shine some light on the resurgence that wood carving is experiencing right now.

But pottery is also an historic hand craft. As we were trying to figure out how to pay for the Spoonfest, we were sitting in the pottery studio at the Art Center. It just clicked. Let's sell bowls of soup in handmade bowls!" said Lori Illner-Greene, FMAAA Art Center Director.

Greene believes it is important to try to continue this fledgling event.
"It is a brand-new festival for the area. Spoonfests, or spoon gatherings, are held all over and attract hundreds of visitors. We have several carving groups in Iowa that travel distances to other states to attend these carving events. Besides, it makes sense to hold a historical hand craft festival in an historic town."
The FMAAA Art Center is trying to raise $3,500 to help close the funding gap to hold this festival. The City of Fort Madison has waived the fee to use Central Park and is listed as a co-sponsor of the event.
Members of the art center went to work this spring making the pottery bowls, along with some local wood carvers producing some wood bowls and spoons to have available for the event. Greene even reached out to Linda Ross of Chestnut Hill Pottery, a longtime supporter of the FMAAA, to see if she had some bowls on hand so there would be a good selection to choose from during the Soup Supper.
Aside from the bowls, the planning committee decided that cornbread and honey would go nicely with soup and asked local beekeeper, Neal Dodd, if he would share some honey for the event. Delighted with the idea, and also a wood carver who took a class during last year's Spoonfest, he brought a few bottles right down.

The FMAAA chose to have the event on Friday, April 26 to coincide with the conclusion of the Plein Air painting event that it is hosting at the Art Center until 9 p.m that evening.
"There just aren't many options for dinner downtown right now. It seemed reasonable to try to do both events because people participating in the plein air event, or coming to view the exhibit, would probably like to eat. And having the Soup Supper to coincide with more foot traffic downtown will hopefully make it more successful," Illner-Greene said.
"Right after the Soup Supper, the FMHS Jazz Band will be on hand to play from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. for anyone who wants to attend."
The FMAAA Spring Plein Air event has been going on for several weeks with artists fanning out in a 30-mile radius of Fort Madison to capture scenery by painting on site in "plein air" and will conclude at 3 p.m.
Judging will commence shortly after with winners announced by 6 p.m. That Plein Air exhibition will be available for viewing until 9 p.m. that evening, and during regular business hours of Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. through May 11.
The FMHS Jazz students have agreed to play as part of the FMAAA's ongoing performance series called FINALE that is usually held at the Art Center each month near the end of the art exhibition. This month's exhibit is the annual High School Art exhibition, sponsored by Empowering Families, and is on display until April 30th.