“A Painting For A Family Dinner” is a broad socially engaged artistic initiative, developed in different cultural contexts and continents. It started in Bat-Yam, Israel in 2008. It was then continued in the Bronx, New York, USA in 2012, Beijing, China in 2013, and Lecce, Italy in 2013.
For “A Painting For A Family Dinner” project, we place a call to local residents for participation through media and social networking sites using the below text:
“Husband and wife artist team is offering a painting in exchange for an invitation to a family dinner. As a result of the current situation, the artists will meet with families for dinners remotely via zoom. ”
When families respond to the call for participation, we visit as many homes as possible. Participation is based on a first-come first-served basis. There are no guidelines for our interactions, and we are open to any discussions that arise. We create a painting for each occasion in advance. Each painting is a still life with fruits and “Thank You for Your Dinner!” written in the middle. At the end of each dinner, all participants are seated on a family couch, with the painting hung above the couch, for a family portrait to be taken by a photographer. The painting stays with the family.