Seed Journeys Session 4
From Mohntaschen to Hamantaschen:
A Poppy Seed Journey Exploring German Jewish Culture
Saturday, August 10, 2024
10:30am – 3:30pm (Drop-in-at-will)
Slate Valley Museum
17 Water Street, Granville, New York
Tel. 518-642-1417
Event is FREE with museum admission:
$5 Adults; $3 Seniors; Free for Quarry Workers & Children under 12
A Jewish poppy-filled cookie is the inspiration behind the fourth monthly Seed Journeys session at the Slate Valley Museum – “From Mohntaschen to Hamantaschen: A Poppy Seed Journey Exploring German Jewish Culture.”
Artist-in-residence Serena Kovalosky will share stories of the culinary and cultural roots of hamataschen, a poppy-filled pastry of the German Jewish immigrants who came to the Slate Valley in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as referenced in the museum’s immigration exhibit, “The Dream and the Reality.”
Participants will enjoy a taste of Kovalosky’s homemade hamantaschen while stringing dried poppies on beading wire. The strands that they create will become part of a community art installation, entitled “Seed Journeys,” that will explore historical links of certain fruits and vegetables with Slate Valley immigrants from the 1840s to the present.
The conversation and activity will be offered throughout the day. Drop in anytime from 10:30am – 3:30pm and stay as long as you want. BYO lunch to enjoy on the museum grounds if you wish. Tea & coffee will be available throughout the day.
The Slate Valley is renowned for its variety of colored slate quarried in the region. Participants will be invited to string tiny glass seed beads in the colors of Slate Valley slate as an additional component to the installation.
Young children and those who wish to work on a smaller project with larger beads will have the option to create Friendship Bracelets in the Slate Valley slate colors.
The “Seed Journeys” installation is part of Serena Kovalosky’s artist residency project, “Moving Mountains: The Mustard Seed Project” at the Slate Valley Museum. The meticulous, six-month journey of placing tiny mustard seeds from around the world, one by one, on the branches of a foraged mustard “tree” is a contemplative exercise that explores the symbolism of the mustard seed for restoring faith in our ability as individuals and communities to achieve humanity’s dream of peaceful coexistence, one small step (seed) at a time.
Kovalosky’s mustard “tree” sculpture and the community-created “Seed Journeys” installation will be exhibited at the museum’s Slate Valley Holiday Festival on December 6 and throughout the month of December. The 2024 theme is “Peace on Earth.”
Serena Kovalosky is a 2024 recipient of a Community Arts, Individual Artist grant for “Moving Mountains: The Mustard Seed Project.” This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, administered by the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council.
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Serena Kovalosky 