When you go to a fine arts center, you expect good taste.
Like Dip Dogs.
A tasteful portion of Appalachia’s cultural heritage will be on the table when Johnson City’s Nelson Fine Art Center offers a look at beans, ice cream, goat cheese and, yes, Dip Dogs.
“Lens on the Larder: The Foodways of Appalachia in Focus” brings together photographs by Larry Smith and oral histories collected by Fred Sauceman, both of East Tennessee State University, to document the “foodways of Appalachia” — from the traditional to the not-so-traditional.
The exhibit is on the Nelson menu from July 11-26.
Photographs by Larry Smith and oral histories collected by Fred Sauceman, both of East Tennessee State University, document traditional and emerging foodways of Appalachia — lard-fortified bowls of soup beans, the first appearance of bottomland strawberries in late April, hand-cranked homemade ice cream at midsummer, and the making of artisanal goat cheese on a Western North Carolina farm.
The more than 70 photographs and accompanying stories also includes sides of:
• An annual springtime memorial to the King of Hawaii in Tennessee;
• Seaver’s Bakery, a local fried-pie business dating to 1949;
• The art of barbecuing fresh ham in a Tennessee hollow at The Ridgewood;
• Flag Pond Ruritan’s annual Ramp Festival;
• Johnson City’s own energy drink, Dr. Enuf; and
• The red-dyed Dip Dog of Smyth County, Va.
An opening reception for the “Lens on the Larder” exhibit will be held from 7 to p.m. on Friday, July 11, at the center, 324 E. Main St., Johnson City. During the reception, documentary films about Ridgewood Barbecue and Sunburst Trout will be shown, and food samples from those two businesses will be available.
For more information, call 926-2931 or the ETSU Office of University Relations at 439-4317.