Slideluck Potshow
A Multimedia Potluck for the Creative Class
By Susan Schaul
What is Slideluck Potshow? A typo? A new restaurant or gourmet dish? A slang expression from the street? Slideluck Potshow (SLPS) is a mash-up, a reconfiguration of the words slideshow and potluck. As a 501c3, this non-profit organization is dedicated to building and strengthening community through food and art. SLPS operates multimedia slideshows combined with potluck dinners in about forty cities around the world and is coming to Cle on Thu 5/3.
They deliberately mix things up, just like the event name, by bringing together a diverse collection of visual artists, fashion designers, photographers, potters, painters and all creative types along with business people, lawyers, teachers and entrepreneurs to mingle, share homemade food dishes and show slides of their artwork.
“We are famous,” says founder and professional photographer Casey Kelbaugh. “We recently made the Guinness Book of World Records hosting the largest potluck dinner with over 1,000 attendees who feasted on 479 dishes. And we were recently named as one of the NewYork100 most innovative, rule-breaking, model-changing ideas to come out of the Big Apple,” he boasted.
Slideluck Potshow is making its debut in Cleveland on Thu 5/3 from 6:30-10pm at the smArtspace at 78th Street Studios, 1305 W. 80th St. in Gordon Square. Admission cost is $5 bringing food to share or $11 at the door.
SLPS started 10 years ago in Seattle in Kelbaugh’s garage and has steadily grown ever since. “We want to bring people together, not just a one-timer but repeatedly,” he explained. “Art and food and people mingling and building bridges… [it’s] a great platform for creative expression and community connection.”
The eclectic nature somehow makes it more effective, where a well-known artist may be presenting slides along with an emerging artist, and a chef may be presenting alongside a culinary neophyte. “Even though this concept has felt new everywhere we went, somehow people come together, become engaged, and make it fun,” he said.
Cities including London, São Paolo, Milan, Los Angeles, Barcelona, Chicago, Mexico City, Copenhagen, Toronto, Rome, Washington DC, San Francisco, Madrid, Stockholm, Berlin, Baltimore, Paris, and New Orleans have all hosted Slideluck Potshows, and now it’s Cleveland’s turn. Kelbaugh said they have talked about coming to Cleveland for five years and now the time is right.
SLPS explains the open submissions procedure this way: Artists are encouraged to submit their artwork. Presentations are a maximum of 5 minutes each but most are much shorter, and they recommend between 15-40 images. SLPS supports all types of media that can be presented within this framework, be it painting, sculpture or installation art. Multimedia pieces are accepted, but no short films.
Selections will be made and artists notified at least two weeks in advance of the event. Any work that you submit to SLPS is added to their database. If you are not accepted for this show, they will consider your work for other upcoming Slideluck Potshows. They started promoting the Cleveland event in early March and are collecting artwork slides. The deadline for open submissions has been extended to Wed 4/25. Hillary Lyon is the Cleveland SLPS director. If artists miss this round of submissions, they are invited to stay tuned to the next Cleveland event.
Slideuck Potshow makes it Cleveland debut on Thu 5/3 at 6:30pm @ smArtspace at 78th Street Studios, 1305 W. 80th St. in Gordon Square. The deadline for open submissions is Wed 4/25. For more information, visit http://SlideluckPotshow.com or visit their Facebook page.
From Cool Cleveland contributor Susan Schaul, who says the act of writing is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. The challenge lies in getting the pieces to fit together and make sense.
Cleveland, OH 44102
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