For the 23rd Year, New York City’s architecture and engineering design firms pooled their skills and creativity for the food charity event, Canstruction. Using more than 100,000 cans of food, thirty teams set about to create thirty sculptures. The teams spent months planning their works-of-art, and it all came together in one evening, November 4th. The thirty teams are looking to Place in categories that include Best Use of Labels, Best meal, Structural Ingenuity, Most Cans, and the Juror’s Favorite. Winners will be chosen by a team made up of professionals from architecture, design and the culinary fields, with the winners being announced on November 9.
The Canstruction International Competition is an idea conceived by the Society for Design Administration (SDA). The organization, which runs throughout cities in North America and countries around the world, is made up of architects, engineers and students who are mentored by these design professionals. New York is one of more than 150 cities taking part in this year’s Canstruction International Competition, and to date, has donated more than twenty-five million pounds of food to local hunger programs since it was founded in 1992.
We were there when the exhibit opened yesterday and met Jennifer Greene, a Founding Committee Member of Canstruction NYC, who was welcoming all who were donating to the food bin set up by Canstruction NYC. While admission to the installation is free, visitors are encouraged to donate high-quality, non-perishable foods such as tuna, beans and canned vegetables. Below are a few of the sculptures set up at the main entrance to Brookfield Place, off Vesey Street and on their upper level.
Tony the Turtle Knocks Out Hunger is made up of over 3,000 cans
These sculptures are located on the upper level of Brookfield Place
Each sculpture has signage giving you the number of can’s used to create the piece, the name of the team, the name of the piece, along with this particular sculpture’s mission statement. Above, CANdidates will feed about 813 New Yorker’s when the installation is taken down and the cans are donated to City Harvest.
The exhibit will be on view through November 16, at which time the installation will be disassembled and the cans distributed by City Harvest to nearly 500 soup kitchens and food pantries across NYC – in time for Thanksgiving. The events surrounding this installation include Tastings by chefs from The Institute of Culinary Education, scheduled to demonstrate on November 6 and 12. Canstruction is sponsored by Arts Brookfield and is located at Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey Street.
ArtsBrookfield receiving canned goods for their big orange food bin, at the left of the photo
Click here for a recap of 2014 and 2013. Get in touch with the author at AFineLyne.
