Unleash your senses as you experience the tastes, smells, sounds and visuals of the Dominican Republic. Join us as we travel south and partner up with Melanie Lino, Head Owner and Baker of Made by Lino and the co-owner of Lit Coffee Roastery and Bakeshop. Melanie will share a Pan de Batata recipe, a sweet potato cake paired with a coffee drink, inspired by her visits to the Dominican Republic as a child and an homage to the traditional crops that are essential to historical and contemporary Dominican cuisine.


 

 

Taste of Art weaves culture and history together by pairing cuisine and recipes from the local SouthSide Bethlehem community with works of art from LUAG’s permanent collection. Through interactive lectures, DIY- at-home tastings, storytelling, and discussion, individuals of all ages and backgrounds will experience the intersection of art, cultural heritage, and cuisine, and as a result, will strengthen their cultural understanding, well-being, and connection to their community. Interactive lectures and cooking demos are offered in partnership with Maite Gomez-Rejon of ArtBites.

Maite Gomez-Rejón is the founder of ArtBites. She has dedicated her career to exploring the nexus of art and culinary history through lectures, cooking classes, and tastings presented in museums across the country and through videos on her YouTube channel – ArtBites: Cooking Art History. Maite has a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Grande Diplome from the French Culinary Institute in New York City. She has been a guest on the Today Show, featured in Food & Wine magazine, and interviewed on KCRW's Good Food and NPR's Splendid Table. She is also a contributor to Life & Thyme, Eaten Magazine, Gastro Obscura, and other publications. Her essay, “Mexico's Early Cookbooks,” appears in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. For more info visit www.artbites.net.

Melanie Lino was born & raised in Allentown PA, spending parts of her childhood with family in the Dominican Republic during the summer months. She is a small business owner and activist in the Lehigh Valley. You can find her making food for her community at  @madebylino / @lit610, and also planning programs and meetups for Afros in Nature, a collective aiming to connect Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) with nature.

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, American Rescue Plan for Museums and Libraries.

This event was held on March 31, 2022.



 

 

 

Thumbnail image: Mari Carmen Orizondo Díaz; Nagua. "El Norte Lleno De Promesas", from the portfolio "Relatos", 2013 (Printed 2014); Digital Print, Edition: 1/6; Gift of Mari Carmen Orizondo Díaz; LUF 2015 1190 B