I don't know what I would like to be yet, but Project EATS helped me to realize that I love to work with people and be close to the community.
-- Project EATS Youth Fellow, Summer 2014
LINDA GOODE BRYANT is an artist and founder of Project EATS, a “living installation” of neighborhood-based farms that uses art, urban agriculture, partnerships, and social enterprise to sustainably produce and equitably distribute fresh and nutritious food in communities across New York City. Her decades of art-based activism began with her founding of Just Above Midtown gallery (JAM) which was a self-described laboratory for African-American and artists of color from 1974–1986. JAM’s explicit purpose was to be “in but not of the art world” offering early—and often unique—opportunities to artists to experiment and create freely, away from art market pressures. After closing JAM, Linda dedicated herself to filmmaking, directing the Peabody award-winning documentary Flag Wars (2003), an intimate portrait of a community in flux that explores the tensions between preservation and gentrification. Over her nearly 50-year career, Linda has and continues to advocate for a connection to “our innate ability to use what we have to create what we need”. With Project EATS, Linda has operated 20 farms on nearly 5 acres of land across New York and has recently launched a plant-based prepared food line to further increase the accessibility and consumption of fresh and healthy food across the city. Just as JAM came about through a determination to create a needed space for artists, Linda’s current practice through Project EATS embraces new kinds of collaboration and creativity toward a better future.