Hen Institute

Website: www.HenInstitute.com
Role: Artist, Founder, & Director
Collaborators: SEEK Raleigh
When: October 2020 - Now


Hen Institute is a public art project sponsored by the City of Raleigh and the Raleigh Arts Commission as part of SEEK Raleigh. It is composed of a mobile chicken coop and classroom inhabited by egg laying chickens. Hen Institute invites Raleigh residents to use hens as a curatorial framework to create artistic, community-based, and educational programs. Themes include but are not limited to, sustenance, protection, feminism, immobility, nesting, community, sustainability, home, rural, courage, motherhood, nutrition, and generosity.

Occurring at a variety of locations throughout the city of Raleigh, an assortment of creative and educational performances, exhibits, lectures, and workshops will happen on site at the coop. Community meals created off-side by guest chefs using eggs produced by the hens will compare ideas of creative and educational nourishment to food related nourishment. Raleigh residents are also invited to become Chicken Stewards who will care for the hens and take home the eggs.