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By Sarah Peters KernanMuseums have increasingly been highlighting food, culinary,and dining history in their exhibition schedules. The upcoming months prove tobe very exciting for those of us interested in such topics, as museumsinternationally have planned a wonderful array of exhibits. If your conference,research, or personal travel plans take you to any of the cities below, considerstopping by an exhibit. Be sure to check the websites for full exhibit descriptions,as well as visitor information such as hours, fees, and directions. We alsowelcome readers to share your trips to any museums and exhibits of interest tothe Recipes Project community on Twitteror Facebook!Current ExhibitionsFeeding History: The Politics of FoodBritish Museum (London, UK), through 27 May 2019 Wooden model group of a butcher’s shop, Deir el-Bersha, Egypt, Middle Kingdom period. (London, British Museum)The exhibition “Feeding History” atthe British Museum focuses on five objects, exploring the relationship betweenfood, power, and control. The display juxtaposes ancient and contemporaryobjects to explore issues surrounding food production and control of foodresources. The focus of the display is a contemporary sculpture, Anti Social Wild West Weaving (c. 2000), by Native American artist Pat Courtney Gold. Her workrepresents the barbed-wire fences used on the North American prairies, simultaneouslyallowing settlers to claim the land for ranching and farming and restrictingNative Americans from accessing their ancestral land. The four ancient objectsinclude an Egyptian wooden plough handle (1550–1069 BC), an Egyptian model ofbutchers preparing meat (c. 1850 BC), a gilded silver vase with a grapeharvesting scene (possibly from Iran, 500–700), and a Ming dynasty porcelainserving dish decorated with grapes (1403–1424). Through this combination ofworks, the exhibition explores the origins of farming and the inequalitybetween the wealthy landowning minority and the impoverished working majority. Furthermore,the exhibition stresses that feeding the world is closely connected to issuesof power, politics, and economics.Feasting and Fasting: The Great Kitchen at Durham CathedralDurham Cathedral (Durham, UK), through 1 June 2019 Durham Cathedral’s museum experience, Open Treasure,currently features an exhibition, “Feasting and Fasting,” exploring the historyof the Cathedral’s fourteenth-century Great Kitchen. The octagonal kitchen,completed in 1370, was active for over 570 years. It was the site of foodpreparations for everyone who lived and worked at the Cathedral; daily mealsand grand feasts alike were prepared here. Visitors can learn about the foodconsumed by Benedictine monks of Durham Priory and discover whatwas eaten at the Cathedral’s lavish banquets. The highlightsof “Feasting and Fasting” are the recipe collections on display, including the The Art of Cookery by John Thacker, cookto the Dean and Chapter from 1739–1758. After exploring the exhibit, visitorscan continue through the museum into the Great Kitchen, which now houses theAnglo-Saxon Treasures of St. Cuthbert. Feast of Fools: Bruegel RediscoveredGaasbeek Castle (Lennik, Belgium), through 28 July 2019Feast of Fools: Bruegel RediscoveredNestled in the idyllic Belgiancountryside, Gaasbeek Castle is home to a museum, park, and gardens. The MuseumGarden alone may be of interest to Recipes Project readers: it contains manytraditional and rare fruit and vegetable varietals, featuring espaliered fruits.The museum inside Gaasbeek Castle, however, is currently hosting an exhibitionrooted in the work of Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel. In “Feast of Fools,”visitors experience a series of contemporary and modern inspiredby Bruegel. Among many other works, the exhibition presents a virtual realityinstallation by the Berlin-based theatre company, Rimini Protokoll, focusedon the contemporary food industry titled “Feast of Food.” In his works, Bruegeldepicted the farmers who fed local consumers. In the twenty-first century,Bruegel’s farmers have been replaced by high-tech agro-industries and mostconsumers now ignore the origins of their food. Rimini Protokoll helps visitorsexplore what farming and food production look like today. Through virtualreality, visitors are immersed in modern sites of food production, includingRungis, the biggest food market in the world, located near Paris, a giganticslaughterhouse in Bavaria, and plantations in Almería.Future ExhibitionsFOOD: Bigger than the PlateVictoria and Albert Museum (London, UK), 19 May–20 October 2019FOOD: Bigger than the Plate is poisedto be a significant exhibition at the V&#38;A on a variety of food topics(including food history). It will feature over seventy contemporaryprojects, new commissions and creative collaborations by artists, designers, chefs,farmers, scientists and local communities. The exhibition will explore how individuals,communities and organizations are re-inventing how we experience food. FOODleads visitors through the food cycle, from “Compost” to “Farming” to “Trading”to “Eating.” Visitors will even experience several installations physicallygrowing in the gallery space. These projects will sit alongside thirty objectsfrom the V&#38;A collections, including early food advertisements,illustrations, and ceramics, providing historical context to the contemporaryexhibits. The V&#38;A has also released information about anumber of early events related to the exhibit, including a Curators’Talk and a Food Stylingand Photography Workshop. Readers can receive an early bird offer of 40%off individual advance tickets using promo code FOOD40 at check out. Note thatthis offer is available for a limited time only and please review the termsand conditions.Last Supper in PompeiiAshmolean Museum of Art and Archeology (Oxford, UK), 25 July 2019–12 January 2020The Ashmolean Museum at theUniversity of Oxford has scheduled an exhibition delving into a story of thefoods loved and consumed by the people of the ancient Roman town of Pompeii. Thissouthern Italian resort town was located between vineyards, orchards, and theBay of Naples; its people produced wine, olive oil, and garum (a fish sauce)for consumers around the Mediterranean. When Mount Vesuvius erupted in thefirst century, people in Pompeii were eating, drinking, and producing food,like any other day. Much evidence has been preserved about the food in thistown, such as mosaics in villas and the remains found in kitchen drains. Theexhibition will feature many objects on loan from Naples and Pompeii which havenever left Italy. The items range from the luxury furnishings of Roman diningrooms to the carbonized food that was on the table when the volcano erupted. Accompanyingthe exhibition is the forthcoming publication of Last Supper in Pompeii (AshmoleanMuseum, 2019) by Paul Roberts, the SacklerKeeper of Antiquities at the Ashmolean. Included in the book is new researchbased on the excavation of drains and rubbish pits and the excavation of aRoman vineyard between Vesuvius and Pompeii. Café Europe: Food TiesMuseum of European Cultures (Berlin, Germany), 1 August–1 September 2019The Museum of European Cultures, one of the Berlin State Museums, hosts a permanent exhibition “Cultural Contacts: Living in Europe” which examines discussions on social movements and boundaries. Tied to the permanent exhibition, “Café Europe: Food Ties,” is a temporary exhibition with accompanying special events exploring trans-regional and international influences on the culinary arts. As mobility has continued to increase across Europe, so too has culinary migration. Diets have both assimilated many influences and changed significantly in recent decades. Be sure to check the website as “Café Europe” approaches for more information about cooperating partners and scheduled special events. If you’d like to feature a museum exhibition orcollection on the Around the Table, please email Sarah Kernan.