Opens May 22, 2024
Millets are a diverse group of small-seeded grains. The UN declared 2023 the Year of Millets, which highlights the important role of millet as a food crop for climate-ready agriculture and high nutritional value to communities around the world. In many regions, millet was among the most ancient and critically-relied-upon crops to meet food security needs, with varieties developed in multiple cultures on each continent. Millet has a high degree of environmental tolerance to difficult conditions, such as drought, cold, salinity, and low-fertility soils, and has the ability to be stored for decades. Millet therefore has high potential to contribute to a solution for the climate emergency. However, millet cultivation is declining globally, and there is an urgent need to revitalize it and preserve ancient seeds.
Collaborating with Indigenous and local millet farmers in Zimbabwe, Kenya, India, Japan, and Canada, we established the Growing Millet Together project, which seeks to document and present different cultivation practices and agricultural knowledge through photos, videos, and stories. This initiative aims to encourage and inspire marginalized millet farmers to share their voices across boundaries and promote millet to people who may not yet understand its importance. This exhibition, the Magic of Millets, is an outcome of the first year of the project and we are happy to share this with you.