August 6th – Civic Street Open Day
On August 6th, we hosted our fourth Open Day. The theme was ‘food’, which consisted of a food market with lots of local produce, a kimchi-making workshop, a cooking library, a poetry and fortune cookie performance, food-inspired illustrations – just to mention a few! It was one of our busiest (and tastiest) days filled with lots of conversations, sharing, and having fun.
Yard Market
In the market we were thrilled to have:
Chops & Chonks
Glasgow Food Policy Partnership
Old Basin Tavern (a new community land space located at Glasgow canal, close neighbours to Civic Street. The space is for gardeners, artists, creatives and connecting communities.)
In the canteen, the foodie fun continued with a kimchi-making workshop with the mastermind behind Gomo Kimchi, Eddie Kim. Eddie explains ‘at its foundation, kimchi is an act of preservation. However, kimchi isn’t just a preservation of food anymore, but also of culture, diaspora, place and identity.’ The workshop explored the basics of kimchi making, as well as discussing how foods follow us through life, how they change and help shape who we are. Each participant left with a jar of kimchi to take home and enjoy – with some letting us know they couldn’t wait!
After the workshop, we geared up our appetites for lunch by Sean Hussain of Good Stuff, by listening to a live performance by Sean Wai Keung’s poetry. Sean read extracts from his book Sikfan Glaschu (including a poem about Civic House’s canteen!), alongside a fortune-cookie transactional art performance.
We hosted a Reading Room too, showcasing items to buy from Oxfam Books around the themes of growing, cooking, and eating. This was also a space where people could come and read, chat, and relax without pressure – and were able to take in Valeria Gascón-Grajales beautiful hand-drawn illustrations that were specifically designed for the Open Day (alongside a carefully crafted playlist Valeria curated). In the Recipe Room we designed a collaborative recipe-share where you could pick-up and leave a recipe to share and enjoy with others. This featured recipes from previous workshop hosts at Civic House such as Sean Hussain and Donna Borokinni from Glasgow Community Food Network.
At the canteen’s entrance we had hand-picked wild flowers from Civic House’s lower garden with all donations going to North Glasgow Baby Food Bank. Just inside, we had Gabby and Sally from Dish the Dirt showcasing mushroom truffles, handmade ceramic crockery, soil samples and earthly education! Dish the Dirt uses experience design techniques and gastrophysic science for the senses around food. They offers a different way to connect people to the systemic problems of the food system and soil degradation.
We will be wrapping up our successful summer programme of Open Days with our final event on the 3rd September. Remember to have your say via our digital public consultation or fill out a paper survey on the open day!
