Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Mala Meal in Hudson



Mala Meal bowl with mala and crystals

We will be presenting the Mala Meal Project at the monthly artists' potluck dinner in Hudson, NY Oct 16th at 6PM. These monthly pot;lucks are a wonderful opportunity for artists to meet, share a meal and their work. The Mala Meal will provide a unique structure for the dinner this month.

Mala Meal - Earth and Religion Conference, 2005
hand washing







The Mala Meal Project is a ceremonial meal, symbolic and ephemeral. It occurs occasionally when the opportunity arises. This will be the 8th (or so) iteration of the meal.











A mala is Hindi for rosary.
mala
The Mala Meal uses bowls, handmade in davistudio specifically for this event, as a metaphor for the beads in a mala. The meal itself is a metaphor for the prayers. Prayers are said on a mala and the beads help the supplicant keep track of those prayers. Traditionally there are 108 beads in mala. We say a symbolic prayer before the meal, an interfaith offering that suggests the desired universality of the event. The Mala Meal Project seeks to embody all that is good and right with the world, to help us focus our attention on that which is working. Peace, helping the hungry and poor are a couple of themes that have focused our meals in the past. This event is offered as a blessing for the community of artists forming in Hudson and the surrounding environs. 

Our monthly potlucks occur the third Friday of the month and are held at the 1st Presbyterian Church at 4th and Warren. All artists and their friends are welcome. Please bring something to share- food and/or art. 

A group of artists have been meeting monthly since January in the basement of a Presbyterian church in Hudson, NY. We bring food for potluck contributions and share work – some in the form of images projected on a screen, some in the form of musical performance, some poetry. Artwork of any kind is welcome and we are growing a sense of trust and community that will hopefully continue to establish a nurturing environment for artists in the Hudson Valley.

I have the privilege to have been invited to share my Mala Meal Project with the group. It is a ceremonial meal that seeks to integrate spirituality with aesthetic experience, interfaith inclusion and a deeply local vibe.

Other artists that will be presenting work include Jan Harrison, Stuart Framery, Arnie Zimmerman, Claudia McNulty, and Patricia Tinajero.




Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Mala Meal Success!


Preparing for Mala Meal
Mala Meal in action
We met our funding goal on Kickstarter and the Mala Meal Project took place on the SUNY New Paltz campus in association with the Dorsky Museum of Art on Saturday, August 25th!  Representatives of different faiths offered blessings, and a delicious, locally grown organic meal was enjoyed by all, in ceramic bowls produced by davistudio and painted by members of our community here in Chatham, NY.  Thank you to all those who participated!  If you missed the Mala Meal Project this go round, have no fear; we will be orchestrating other opportunities to share an interfaith, communal meal in the future, and we hope for many meals yet in the spirit of the Mala Meal Project!

-Tatiana Klacsmann

Friday, August 24, 2012

You are invited!




Come join us for the Mala Meal tomorrow! It will be a fantastic event with great food and great people. We hope to see all of you there!

LOCATION:
State University of New York at New Paltz
1 Hawk Drive, New Paltz, NY 12561
845.257.3844
PARKING:All students, faculty, staff, and visitors who wish to park on the SUNY New Paltz campus must have a valid parking hangtag or visitor permit.
* 24-hour visitor parking permits are available at the Welcome Center located in the Haggerty Administration Building lobby and from the Parking Office located in Haggerty Administration Building 35. Park and pay machines are also located on Hawk Dr. at the West entrance, in the Elting Main parking lot number 5, and in Lot 28 across from the Hopfer Admissions and Alumni Center.
Permits are not needed on weekends.
Visitors to the museum are encouraged to enter the campus from either of the following two roads:
1. Southside Loop (off Route 32 South/S. Manheim Blvd.)
From Rt. 299/Main St. go .6 mile south on Rt. 32 to Southside Loop. Turn right. At the second stop sign 'T' intersection, turn right and pass the Athletic & Wellness Center. Park in the Elting Main Parking Lot number 5.
2. Hawk Drive (off Route 208/S. Chestnut St.)
From Route 299/Main St., go .7 mile south on Rt. 208. Turn left onto Hawk Drive. At the stop sign 'T' intersection, turn left. Continue past the Athletic & Wellness Center. Park in Elting Main Parking Lot number 5.
Follow signs to the McKenna Theater and enter the museum from the west side of the McKenna Theater building.
Please allow extra time for parking when visiting the museum.
Please visit the Parking Web site for more details on visitor parking on our campus.
ADMISSION: $5 Suggested donation
ACCESSIBILITY: All galleries and restrooms are wheelchair accessible.

Food Update No. 2


Today is an exciting day, we have lots of progress ongoing for the food of the Mala Meal! Yesterday we picked up produce from Little Seed Gardens and The Farm at Miller's Crossing. Little Seed Gardens is a 97 acre family run farm located in Chatham, NY and is owned by Willy Denner and Claudia Kenney. They own a CSA and together with their two children they tend vegetables, and cover crops and pasture. The farm at Miller's Crossing, located in the Hudson Valley of New York, is owned by Chris Kashen and Katie Smith. They also own a CSA and grow organic vegetables, plants and flowers as well as raise a small beef herd. Both farms graciously donated ingredients for tomorrow's Mala Meal that are being worked into preparation today.


The menu is shaping up to be coleslaw courtesy of Sarah Bassin, who will also be performing the gong ceremony during the Mala Meal, and a wheat berry salad courtesy of our friend Chef Robin McKay. In addition to this we are also preparing beet salad, zucchini salad, roasted fingerling potatoes and roasted kabucha squash, all made from local ingredients! Phillip Patterson is also working on baking bread made from Wild Hive Farm grain, sourced in Columbia County. And on Wednesday we received 108 brownies from Greyston Bakery, located in Yonkers, NY. Everything is coming together beautifully, it should be a fantastic event tomorrow! Hope to see you there!


Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Food Update No. 1


Only $400 to go with less than 72 hours left! We have almost reached our goal and now we're going for the final push. If you know anyone else you could recommend who might be interested in supporting our project or if you were considering increasing your donation, now is the time to do so! Thank you so much for all your help!
On another note, we have a few updates about the dinner! As part of Mala Meal, we will be using 25 lb. of locally grown whole rye flour as the main ingredient for bread that will be baked by our friend Phillip Patterson. Wild Hive Farm will be our source, a great farm from the Hudson Valley who buy their grains and produce exclusively from local and regional farmers.
Wild Hive Farm is a grain grower and grinder in Clinton Corners, NY. One of the points of the Mala Meal Project is to source food locally as much as possible. When we first did Mala Meal 10 years ago, there was not any grain available locally. The only grain was the rye or wheat farmers used to overwinter their crops but those were turned under for fertilizer, never harvested. In ten short years we have a thriving business that is focused on grain. We are using their wheat flour to bake bread for the participants in this year’s Mala Meal. It is fresh, local and comes form the fertile soil in the Hudson River Valley. A testament to the continuing journey toward sustainability that so many of us are on.

We have also received our napkins in the mail! As the Mala Meal is eaten with one's hands, the napkins are an important part of the experience. They are beautiful, handmade, and 100% organic cotton. Michelle, owner of the shop gnomeclothes on Etsy, put together 108 napkins for us so that we would have them in time for the dinner. She then proceeded to donate back 10% of the costs into our Kickstarter fund. A very warm thank you to Michelle!


Friday, August 17, 2012

Our final glazing session!

With Mala Meal quickly approaching in only a week from tomorrow, this coming weekend will be our last bowl glazing session! If you're in Upstate NY either Saturday or Sunday come get involved and join us from 1 to 5PM at davistudio to glaze a few bowls! Call us to confirm or if you have any questions at 518.392.7308.






Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Finished Bowls

Finished Mala Meal bowls from the August 4 & 5th glazing sessions after they've come out of the kiln. They're looking beautiful!