We have community; it’s on the table

Saturday, June 24, 2000 | 8:26 a.m.

Table talk

The first of two community-created tables will be unveiled on the patio of the Lied Discovery Children's Museum, 833 Las Vegas Blvd. North, at 3 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 382-3445.

In baggy jeans, a faded T-shirt and colorful bracelets, 17-year-old Daria Porter painted a pair of Uno cards on a small green tile Tuesday at the Cambridge Community Center.

Representing the game Porter plays with her mom, brother and sister, the tile will be permanently affixed to the rind of a giant mock watermelon slice, then placed in the patio at the Lied Discovery Children's Museum.

Called "The Seeds of Life," the watermelon will serve as a table that includes 500 tiles from community members. Clay totems bearing the likeness of fruit will stand up from the table. The table's chairs will be halved fruit.

The effort is part of a national initiative to incorporate the arts with communities across America.

Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the national project, titled "Artists & Communities: America Creates for the Millennium," places an artist with a community in each state to work on projects that address culture, diversity, family values, health and community.

Projects range from murals, installations, dance, video and theatre productions. Artists were selected based on their backgrounds in community-based art projects.

Since May, Sasha Bergmann Lichtenstein, an artist in residence from Hartford, Conn., has been meeting with Las Vegas families and community groups to help them express their stories colorfully on tiles.

The local project, "Table Talk: What We Learn at our Kitchen Tables," will include 1,000 abstract stories from Las Vegans that will be pondered by visitors snacking on bag lunches at the museum.

The watermelon table will be placed next to a pizza table with pizza slice stools on the museum's patio. Called "A Slice of Life," the pizza table will be unveiled Sunday.

More than 500 tiles, telling stories from traditional black-eyed peas on New Year's Day to tea among friends, have been affixed to the pizza.

"It's really about family," Bergmann Lichtenstein said. "The eating part is just a catalyst. Families do different things. That's what I want to learn."

An advisory board for the project introduced Lichtenstein into the different communities.

"We are reaching out to every aspect of the community," she said. "There's all sorts of different groups in this town."

Although Las Vegas is known more for its transiency and newcomers than its communities, Lichtenstein said the lack of community is a myth.

"I've heard there's no community here," she said. "What I'm finding is there is tremendous community here.

"I really look forward to the seniors. They just have so much wisdom. So many stories. They can put a lot into a piece."

Lichtenstein's past projects include large-scale sculptures reflecting Jewish traditions to women with eating disorders. Her works have been featured in the collections of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University and Rhode Island School of Design.

When she heard of the Lied Museum's project she said she knew it was a perfect fit for her work. "I work with communities. That's what I do."

The project is one of 12 selected to receive national publicity.

"It gives families of Las Vegas a voice," said Emily Newberry, spokeswoman for the museum. "It touches on some of our dear-to-heart projects."

Porter, working diligently on her Uno tile, was one of nearly 20 members of the group Teens Against Prejudice (TAP) who painted tiles for the watermelon table.

A high school student who works swing-shift at a local hotel, Porter says family dinners are out of the question, but her family does get together to play UNO every other day.

Across the table, David Southerland, from Community College High School, is recreating a traditional family recipe: a three-layer caramel birthday cake. Learning the recipe is an unspoken rite-of-passage among the women in his family, and no matter how many people are present "everyone gets a piece of the cake."

"I think it's neat that a little kid is going to be eating his lunch on my tile and wonder what the story is," Southerland said.

Like Southerland's story, the stories on most of the tiles are abstract and will remain a mystery to some.

With other tiles, the stories are more clear. One pizza tile reads "My momma's fried chicken" and "caring, goodness, love, kindness." The tile features three little yellow chickens on the top and three little fried chickens in a pan underneath.

Another one reads "Slabs of meat" and has a picture of a television and a plate of food.

Each table takes five to six weeks to complete -- three weeks of community workshops and two weeks of building the table. The project will be featured in a cookbook that features stories, pictures and recipes.

Participants are asked ahead of time to bring a family recipe. Taking it a step further, Lichtenstein asks them to draw the essence of what they've learned at their kitchen table.

"I have no artistic ability at all -- none," said Ashlie Randolph, a teen from TAP. "But I think I can get my message across."

Being the only vegetarian in her family and being one since age 4, Randolph's message reflects diversity.

"Even though we all like different things, we can intermingle our likes and dislikes and sit down together as one family."