Stored Potential: Transport(ation)

Part 2 of a large-scale installation re-purposing a grain elevator no longer used for its original purpose.

In 2010, 13 banners about Land Use, Agriculture and Food were selected from hundreds of submitted entries and hung on a grain elevator near downtown Omaha. The installation was celebrated with a 500-guest onsite Harvest Dinner at an 800-foot long table rivaling the length of the elevator, prepared by 10 local chefs, dozens of culinary students, over 40 local food producers, and countless volunteers.

In May 2012, the remaining 13 silos will be covered with banners about Transport(ation), a topic to further the conversation. While transportation infrastructures have considered the movement of people and goods from one location to another, transport can include networks linking people, goods, ideas, information, economic growth, urban development, cultures, resources, and technology.

On June 3, 2012, another epic food celebration—Elevate—will occupy the 36th Street bridge over I-80 in direct view of the entire bannered elevator as a merging of both topics: Land Use, Agriculture, and Food and Transport(ation). The event will occur within the I-80 corridor that clipped and decommissioned the elevator, made two neighborhoods from one, and produced a massive flow of people and goods through the city—changing our movement, economy, and physical landscape. Selected artists and designers will collaborate with foodies of all types (chefs, farmers, gardeners, etc.) to design and construct Elevation Stations, conceived to facilitate conversation, new collaborations, expressions of our landscape, and a one-of-a-kind dining experience. Each Station will serve a 30-minute small dinner course and accommodate a group of approximately 25 people at a time. Six groups will attend each Station during the afternoon.

Sincere thank you to continued project sponsorship from the Peter Kiewit Foundation and to the Omaha Venture Group for making possible the competition phase of the project.

Action Dates

July 6, 2011: Submission deadline
July 9, 2011: Jury deliberation & selection

April 16, 2012 noon: tickets go on sale on Emerging Terrain website

May 2012: Banner installation
June 3, 2012: Elevate