‘A Place at the Table’ explores Wisconsin food traditions

Whether it's your mom’s homemade dip, grandma's fish fry, or dad’s Booyah, food is undoubtedly a huge part of Wisconsin culture. But where did these food traditions come from?

The Neville Public Museum has recently opened a new exhibit called “A Place at the Table: Food, Culture, and Community in Northeast Wisconsin”. This exhibit invites people to learn and make connections with the history and culture of food traditions in Wisconsin.

“I think it's a way that everybody can connect with each other in our community. Regardless of the language that you speak or the culture that you're from, everyone eats food and everyone enjoys food and has a memory associated with food. So putting that together is a really good way to have different people be able to make those connections, even with people who are very different from them,” said Education Specialist of the Neville Public Museum Ali Smurawa. The exhibit took three years to make and had 40 community partners which are represented through their shared individual stories, family restaurants and artifacts that helped make the exhibit possible.

“I think what makes our exhibit unique is that we worked really hard on finding individuals in our community that were willing to share their food culture with us so that individuals are able to connect with somebody when they're walking through the exhibit,” said Curator of the Neville Public Museum James Peth.

The exhibit is divided into three sections chronologically, from Pre European Contact, Early European Immigration, and New Arrivals. Each section includes interactive activities, videos, artifacts, stories and more. The Pre European Contact section focuses on the Ho Chunk and Menominee Nations historical background on food and culture such as tools being used at the time, how food was gathered and hunted through the seasons and the stories of their descendents. The Early European Immigration section reveals the influence of early settlers and the foods they brought with them from all over the world like pączki, kringle and stuffed cabbage rolls. The New Arrivals section focuses on the new foods and stories being brought to Northeast Wisconsin more recently.

“All of the different foods that are coming together from all of the different people who now call this area home, really gives it that heart and soul that we have here that makes us different from any other place in the world,” said Smurawa.

“I've seen many people who are visiting and have different backgrounds, but both connect over the fact that maybe they each have a recipe that they both learned standing with their grandma making it at the stove, and then you hear them sharing that story with each other and talking about their memories from the past of how food played a role in that,” said Peth.

“A lot of your culture can continue living on in the foods that you eat and share with people,” added Smurawa.

This exhibit will be open through September of 2027.