Archives in Action - Food for Thought: Turning Archives Into Art
What do you make of pigeons transmogrified, a drunken loaf or sardines on a raft?! Happily four of Cheshire’s community art groups took up the challenge and were inspired to create over 30 works from our historic recipes that we were delighted to exhibit as ‘Food for Thought’.
Artists from Crosshatch in Winsford, the Little Sutton Art Group, Radiate Arts in Chester and the Studio Art Group based in Nantwich were presented with nine unusual recipes to choose from in January. They were not told what the final dish would have looked like, nor what the historic terminology used in the recipes meant. We don’t know either! It’s only in relatively recent history that recipes have been formatted in the way that we know them today, with ingredient lists, standardised measurements and step-by-step methods. Interpretation and artistic medium were left entirely up to the artists.
The result was a remarkable range of unique works inspired by additional research, presented through the creative lens of each individual artist. The works included paintings, illustration, textiles, sculpture and film; each a distinctive take on historic collections that came together collectively to showcase the vibrancy of creativity in our communities. The artists were rewarded with a special preview event and we were rewarded with their reactions – some artists seeing their work exhibited for the very first time.
‘Food for Thought’ artworks appeared together first in the CASC Gallery (Contemporary Art Space Chester) as part of the Chester Festival of Ideas, coordinated by the University of Chester. The exhibition received over 300 visitors during the four-day festival. Visitors commented that the exhibition was “original, novel, inventive”, “fascinating and informative” and “really fun to see how differently everyone approached the recipes”.
We organised a day of family-friendly activities to encourage younger visitors to join in with a celebration of Cheshire ingredients. A ‘Cheshire Cheese, Please!’ storytime was followed by two workshops based around salt. Visitors joined contemporary artist Iain Davidson, who has used Cheshire Archives salt shipping records to inspire his own works, to create paintings using salt-infused paint. When dried, the paint crystalised to create a sparkling image - and the second workshop used bottles of free-flowing salt to create a temporary, shared work.
Each group’s works are now being exhibited at venues local to the artists who created them. Little Sutton Art Group has just completed a two-week run at Theatre Porto, Crosshatch will be exhibiting their sculptural pieces at Arley Hall from 11th to 13th October, and Studio Art Group will showcase their works at Nantwich Museum in January 2026.
By Hannah Grange-Sales, Community Engagement Officer
