UTICA, N.Y. — Manson's Food and Arts Unite event in downtown Utica was packed.
Food and Art Unite was designed to showcase Utica's diversity through food, music, and art.
The highlight of Sunday afternoon's gathering at the Manson Museum was the food.
A total of 16 vendors offered a variety of cuisines, including Italian, Ecuadorian, Jamaican, Mexican, and Middle Eastern cuisine.
Island Breeze Flavor Restaurant Bar and Grill, a Jamaican restaurant located at 517 Mandeville Street in Utica, had a huge success at the event and sold out of its offerings.
Sandra, Karloid and Devin Gowe of Island Breeze were serving up jerk chicken and their signature Rasta pasta.
“We are one,” Sandra Gowe said of the event. “Today, it's important that we all come together from different ethnic backgrounds and celebrate different cultures. … We all share that.”
She added that the food that was being served was gone within 15 minutes.
“It was pretty amazing,” she said of the food being sold out. “It was very exciting.”
Katherine Laub, Manson's director of marketing and communications, said the event celebrated Utica.
“This is a time to celebrate all the different cultures and people who have immigrated to this region from all over the world,” she said. “It also complements the current exhibition at Manson, Between Worlds: Stories of Artists and Migration.”
“The food is a celebration of that,” Laube said of Sunday afternoon’s event at Manson.
“It's a great time to be able to celebrate Utica's diverse people. It's a great opportunity to show that Manson truly is a community space that invites all kinds of people to our doors,” she said.
92.7 The Drive and 98.3 El Zorro Latino Radio are co-hosting the event with the museum. WKTV is also a sponsor of this event.
Mindy Burstein, owner and general manager of 92.7 The Drive and El Zorro, said, “At El Zorro, we bring all the different ethnicities together because we all live here and are so local to this area. I realized that we can do that, and we can all come together through food.”
“When we approached Manson and partnered with them, they had a great exhibit about immigration and art,” Burstein continued. “And people are united by food and art. And people are united by all different cultures. The different people we meet, this is one of the missions of our radio station: to bring people together. .”
The Utica Royalties performed a dance routine at 1:30 p.m. The Utica organization is “dedicated to nurturing the talent and potential of youth and giving them the skills and knowledge they need to succeed and thrive.” ” states the website.
Food and Art Unite was held on March 10th from noon to 3pm.
Check out the article below for a complete list of dining and entertainment options.
At the Manson Museum of Art in downtown Utica, food and art come together for a vibrant, multicultural celebration.
“Between Worlds: Stories of Artists and Migration” is on display at the Munson Museum on Genesee Street until May 5.