Visit an open air, functioning cricket farm, housed inside a former street vendor’s hotdog cart… only at Open Source!

As urban farming becomes increasingly technology-driven, and good food becomes increasingly expensive and rarefied, Jude Tallichet and Adam Chad Brody of Party Crickets are committed to focusing on farming design and practice that is down to earth and accessible. Over the course of the installation, visitors will be able to learn cricket-based recipes, as well as how to build their own cricket farm at home. Tallichet and Brody will also play live outdoor concerts along with the cricket’s chirps (hopefully drowning out the adjacent Prospect Expressway!).

https://open-source-gallery.org/cricket-farm/

In conjunction with Home Sweet Home: Is a Home a Sanctuary? on view in the Cynthia C. Wainwright Gallery, Children’s Museum of the Arts (CMA) presents Love Crickets, Save the Planet, a live cricket farm installation in the Bridge. 

This site-specific installation invites visitors to explore the question “what is a home?” by considering how we might invite bugs into our homes as friends instead of foes. Artists Jude Tallichet and Adam Chad Brody believe that it is vital to expose young people to the idea that bugs not pests — rather, they are an essential part of our ecosystem and food systems. Love Crickets, Save the Planet will showcase functioning cricket farms, original animations that explore cooking with crickets, kinesthetic cricket dancing with larger-than-life cricket projections, and participatory cricket concerts. This installation will give visitors the chance to observe these insects at a level of intimacy that few will have enjoyed before. Visitors will be able to view crickets up close, examine various cricket habitats and feeding systems, learn about the benefits of utilizing crickets as an alternative source of nutrition, and even dance with larger-than-life cricket projections. This installation is invested in a culturally situated approach to ecological revolution whereby crickets become kin, housemates, collaborators, and entertainment, in addition to being a food source.