Cēsis, Latvia • March 2024
In 2024, Jeffrey Allen Price traveled to Cēsis, Latvia, to participate in a series of interconnected exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and cultural programs organized in collaboration with Latvian partners. The visit marked one of the most significant international presentations of the Think Potato Institute to date, demonstrating the potato’s capacity to connect art, education, agriculture, cinema, history, and gastronomy.
At the Cēsis History and Art Museum, Price served as a keynote speaker for the United By Potato Power conference. The conference title was inspired by the long-running Potato Power slogan and artwork developed through the Think Potato Institute. On March 1, 2024, he presented A Brief History of Potatoes in Art and Culture, an illustrated lecture tracing the potato’s remarkable journey through art, folklore, advertising, photography, popular culture, and visual history. Price led a Potato Stamp Workshop for All Ages, introducing participants to one of the most accessible and enduring forms of potato-based artmaking.
A second series of programs took place at the Global Center for Latvian Art in Cēsis, where Price presented Global Potato Cinema, an exhibition featuring more than 80 potato-themed movie posters from the collection of the Think Potato Institute. Drawn from nearly three decades of research into potatoes in film, television, and popular culture, the exhibition showcased original posters and rare reproductions from around the world, spanning comedy, drama, documentary, animation, and experimental cinema.
The exhibition also included a screening of Price’s short film This Is How I Say Potato, featuring people saying, singing, and screaming the word “potato” in more than sixty languages and dialects, along with an accompanying poster documenting participants and the many linguistic variations of the word ‘potato’ featured in the project.
As part of the exhibition programming, Price presented Potatoism: A Global History of Potato Art, a lecture tracing the potato’s visual journey from its origins in the ancient Andes to contemporary art. The presentation highlighted major artists, artworks, and movements that have contributed to the development of potato art across cultures and time periods.
Another highlight of the Latvia visit was Potato for Gourmets, a special four-course potato-themed dining event held at H.E. Vanadziņš Ziemeļu Restorāns and co-curated by Price and the restaurant team led by chef Edgars Rubenis. Inspired in part by the historic potato dinners organized by Antoine-Augustin Parmentier in eighteenth-century France, the event explored the potato through contemporary haute cuisine, storytelling, and cultural interpretation. Featuring multiple local potato varieties and presentations by both the chef and Price, the dinner demonstrated how the potato can serve as a bridge between agriculture, history, art, and gastronomy.
The Latvia programs represented one of the most comprehensive international presentations of the Think Potato Institute to date, bringing together exhibitions, lectures, workshops, screenings, and culinary experiences under a shared exploration of the potato’s cultural significance. The events marked a major milestone in the international development of Potato Humanities and POTATOISM.
Related Coverage
2024 — RETV (Latvia) — Potatoes for Gourmets
Feature on the Potatoism concept at a Michelin-star restaurant in Latvia.
2024 — MainPotRe during Vidzeme Innovation Week 2024— Interreg Baltic Sea Region
2024 — Potato in Art, Art in Potato — AREI (Latvia)
Related Documentation:
→ Institute Chronicle: From Parmentier to Latvia: Potato for Gourmets on RETV
→ Institute Chronicle: Parmentier Would Have Approved
Explore Further:
→ Kartupelis Gardēdim (Potato for Gourmets) (2024)
→ Global Potato Cinema (Exhibition)
→ A Brief History of Potatoes in Art and Culture (Lecture)
→ Potato Stamp Workshop for All Ages (Workshop)
→ This Is How I Say Potato (Film)
→ Potatoism: A Global History of Potato Art (Lecture)