In the golden hour glow of the atrium at La Sierra University's Zapara School of Business, more than 16,000 cardboard spoons hang suspended from a net, each one cut from a thin, mac-and-cheese-style box. Each spoon represents a child facing food insecurity in our community.
This installation, by Rebecca Waring-Crane, titled "Article 24," a reference to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child's assertion that all children should have access to adequate healthy food, has transformed the business school's atrium during the university's recent homecoming weekend.
From Cardboard to Cause
The evolution of this installation has been a community effort. Volunteers, including this reporter, participated in cutting thousands of spoons from would-be discarded boxes over several months.
Art should make an impact on the space it occupies. Art is never merely background or passive. If it were, there would be no preference in our minds toward art over blank walls. Some art, like Article 24, seeks to create an impact that extends far beyond its physical location.
During the reception, Professor of Art and Brandstater Gallery Director Tim Musso introduced the installation by describing the synergy between the space, the objects, and the message of the piece; creating something far beyond the sum of its parts.
Beyond the Installation
For artist Rebecca Waring-Crane, the installation itself was never the end goal. When asked during the reception if she felt sadness or relief at the completion of the project, she explained that she felt neither — there's still so much work to be done in addressing food insecurity in the community.
Food insecurity has been a consistent theme throughout Waring-Crane's artistic work, and she indicated that this issue will continue to inspire her future efforts. The Article 24 installation represents one chapter in her ongoing commitment to using art as a vehicle for social awareness and change.
The collaborative project, involving artist Rebecca Waring-Crane, project engineer Keith Helbley, and many community volunteers, transforms statistics into a visual experience, creating an immediate emotional connection to the issue of childhood food insecurity — a tangible reminder that hunger is not a faraway problem but is here, among us. Perhaps having the issue quite literally "hanging over our heads" acknowledges our shared responsibility to act.
An Invitation to Experience, then Act
The Article 24 installation will remain on display at La Sierra University's Zapara School of Business for several more weeks. Attendees are encouraged to experience this powerful artwork firsthand, to stand beneath the canopy of cardboard spoons and consider what each one represents.
But as Waring-Crane noted, viewing the art is just the beginning. The purpose of Article 24 extends beyond the installation — it's to bring attention to food-insecure children in our community.
More information: Article 24 is open to the public weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Zapara School of Business, La Sierra University (4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside, CA 92505), and will remain on display through the end of the school year. Learn more about the project at rebeccawaringcrane.com.
