Culture Crops: Ohio’s Hidden Gardens and Secret Food Histories

Culture Crops is an exploration of the universal connections between people and their food. The project and resulting exhibition feature work by Cincinnati-based fine arts photographer Tina Gutierrez, a series of powerful photographic portraits that celebrate Ohio’s food-growing communities, personal stories, and unique history.

Culture Crops includes stories of Indigenous, immigrant, and local community and family farmers, as well as the history of the food they produce. The resulting series of photographic portraits and video interviews by Cincinnati artist and filmmaker Asa Featherstone, IV, shares the stories of these present-day Ohioans, their experiences of growing up, and the history of their foraging, gardening, and farming traditions. Local food movement chronologist Professor Alan Wight (University of Cincinnati) has worked closely with the project team and RCCAM staff to develop written content for the exhibition, providing cultural and historical context for the crops and culture represented.

Related programs include a panel discussion with Culture Crops creative team members Gutierrez, Featherstone, and Wight on Saturday, Feb. 21, and a community-focused program of related short presentations, gallery talks, art activities, and a cooking demonstration on Saturday, April 25, in celebration of Earth Day. In partnership with the Oxford Community Arts Center (OCAC), a community photography project is in development with a call for photographs of locally sourced, grown, or cooked food for a photo mural at RCCAM and a special exhibition at the OCAC in May 2026. There will also be gardening classes and other celebrations of locally grown and sourced foods for all ages in partnership with OCAC. With the support of students in Miami University’s Art Education program, led by Professor Stephanie Danker, inspired by the photographs of Gutierrez, lesson plans are in development that can be used in a range of educational settings.

This project raises awareness of the importance of local food production and the many people and communities who grow food in Southwest Ohio and beyond. We encourage community members to grow their own food, from the smallest window box to a kitchen and backyard or community garden. We plan to do this through encouraging learning about food history, including where food comes from, what came to our region and when, what was created here, and how that food history is rooted in our everyday culinary and communal practices.

The Culture Crops Project is funded in part through an America 250 Buckeye Grant from the Ohio 250 Commission, with additional support from the Greater Oxford Community Foundation for related programming, and is supported by RCCAM at Miami University, among other sponsors. The exhibition is available for venues in Ohio and beyond, with its first traveling venue at Northern Kentucky University Galleries in October 2026 as part of the FotoFocus Biennial.

For a preview of Culture Crops, see this webinar hosted by Miami University Alumni Association. For further information about this exhibition, press kit, and related programs, please email your request to artmuseum@MiamiOH.edu.