Meal Ticket

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  PAM Meal Ticket Cookbook

  Lexa Walsh

  Created by Lexa Walsh and the staff of Portland Art Museum

  Meal Ticket was a monthly silo-busting luncheon with the staff of the Museum. The luncheon provided a level playing field for staff of every department, in a boardroom usually saved for Trustees and upper management, in an organization that normally has a strict hierarchy. Anyone was welcome to a home cooked meal, replete with seating charts and wine glasses. Guests were seated to encourage cross- departmental exchange, for example seating someone from security across from someone from accounting, someone from education across from someone from events. We employed a recipe exchange as a conversation starter. The meals resulted in not only temporary lunchtime utopias, but also access to personal stories that would otherwise have been unlikely to approach. The recipes are not only for food but also for experiences and they, too, are telling. The resulting cookbook is both a play on the tradition of community cookbooks and a gesture to generate relationships and conversation. As a collection, the recipes reveal our cultural references, upbringings, similarities, and differences. Recipes come with stories, about place, family, and culture. I hope to ignite curiosity and consideration for our Portland Art Museum community through the cookbook, available in the gift shop.