JWU permanently closing Culinary Arts Museum

A DINER RECONSTRUCTION is one of many exhibits at Johnson & Wales University's Culinary Arts Museum. Opting for more online viewing, JWU announced the museum will close to the public as of Feb. 27. / COURTESY JOHNSON & WALES UNIVERSITY
A DINER RECONSTRUCTION is one of many exhibits at Johnson & Wales University's Culinary Arts Museum. Opting for more online viewing, JWU announced the museum will close to the public as of Feb. 27. / COURTESY JOHNSON & WALES UNIVERSITY

PROVIDENCE – Opting for more online viewing, Johnson & Wales University announced Thursday that its Culinary Arts Museum will close to the public as of Feb. 27.

Located at JWU’s Harborside Campus in a former restaurant-supply-company warehouse, the museum has a diner reconstructed inside, along with permanent and rotating exhibits of techniques, methods, recipes, iconic foods and personalities from the history of food in America and around the world.

According to a statement from JWU spokesman Ryan J. Crowley, public attendance at the museum is highest during the summer months, but the institution’s focus has always been primarily on educating JWU students.

“Our curriculum has moved toward more collaborative learning, so we need spaces on campuses where our students can come together to work in teams,” he said. “We have been encouraging our students to come to the museum as a place to meet and study. For now, the museum space will remain as is.”

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The digitization process has been evolving since the university drafted a strategic plan for the museum in 2012 that categorized the space as a teaching facility. In particular, in 2014 the Teaching Lab was added as a space for collaboration and study.

Home to more than 200,000 pieces, more than 30,000 of which are cookbooks, moving forward the public will be able to access the museum’s collections online.

Menus and guest lists from historic restaurants, occasions and gatherings can be found, including presidential inaugurations, state dinners, elegant events down to everyday bills of fare. The history of food in travel was chronicled with exhibits and collections from early fast-food franchises. Signage, souvenirs and menus from roadside landmarks as well as those from historic airline and cruise ship travel. For most of its existence, the museum and its collection was under the curatorship of noted culinary historian Richard S. Gutman.

In 2012, the university announced a plan that at the time would “chart a path for the future” of the museum. It was closed for a time, while the collection was organized and chronicled, and reopened in late 2014.

Gutman told Providence Business News that the closing comes as a “tremendous disappointment.” He called the museum a “phenomenal resource” and a “window into the [JWU] school of Culinary Arts. Gutman left the university last summer and is now involved with the restoration project for the famed Silver Top Diner.

After Feb. 27, the museum will be grouped amongst the university’s libraries and remain a meeting place for JWU students, faculty and staff.

With reports from PBN contributing writer Bruce Newbury.

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