Starting a Conversation

Inspiration: 

Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher coined the phrase ‘first we eat, then we do everything else’ and this is where the name of our project comes from.  Mary was an American food writer long before blogs, TV chefs and celebrity recipe books.  She published 27 books between 1937 and 1992 with her most well-known ‘How to cook a Wolf’ published at the height of WWII food shortages with pages offering housewives advice on how to achieve a balanced diet, stretch ingredients, eat during blackouts, deal with sleeplessness and sorrow, and care for pets during wartime.   

We love Mary’s story as it is about more than food – it is about how food builds community and not just through times of plenty.  Her work mixes the everyday with the magical which is what good public art can do too.   

A sense of community: 

On our visits to Milton Keynes we noticed how much community means to people and that people want to build a diverse, thriving, inspirational place.  Once again Milton Keynes seems to be bucking the trend, prepared to try something different and to take a risk, its desire to deliver for its community outweighing the pressure to be like everywhere else.  

In these somewhat uncertain times it can be hard to connect and reconnect with the people around us.  Sharing food can help this but also just reaching out in a way that suits us can start to ease us back into our communal lives.  With this in mind we have designed a range of ways for the residents of Fairfields and Whitehouse to have a say in the new public art furniture commissions – we have already heard some brilliant ideas but we need to hear more and we would love to hear from you.  We will ask questions like what do you like about where you live? what would you like more of? and who is Lady Margery and why does she need a Gorse anyway?! 

Join the conversation: 

If you prefer to type, audio-record or video-record your responses (on any device) at a time that suits you then please visit our online questionnaire.  There you will be able to leave your views in a format that suits you.  We also love talking either on zoom or face-to-face and we have scheduled some sessions in April and May and would love to see you there: 

Friday 8th April – Half-hour zoom chats flexible times  

Friday 29th April – Half-hour lunches in Lily’s Café from 12-4pm 

Monday 16th May – Half-hour zoom chats flexible times 

Friday 27th May – Half hour lunches in Lily’s Café from 12-4pm

We will also be popping up at both primary schools to talk to children, teachers and parents. 

Make contact: 

Please email emily@quietdownthere.co.uk if you would like to book or if you want more information.   Mary Fisher said her earliest memory of taste was ‘the grayish-pink fuzz my grandmother skimmed from a spitting kettle of strawberry jam’ so in tribute to her, if we can’t buy you lunch, then we will say thanks for your time with your choice of locally made Jam MK delivered to your door.