Hearin Foundation funds four visiting instructors for MUW's Culinary Arts Intitute

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- Students of Mississippi University for Women’s Culinary Arts Institute will benefit from the knowledge and expertise of four visiting instructors due to a $20,000 grant funded by the Robert M. Hearin Support Foundation.

The $20,000 in one-time funding will sponsor two instructors for the food art minor and two instructors for the culinary entrepreneurship minor. In addition, funds will be used to underwrite a public exhibit of food-related photography by one of the lecturers.

Offering one of this country’s few four-year bachelor of science degrees in culinary arts, the Culinary Arts Institute requires degree-seeking students to complete the standard university core curriculum, a 49-credit hour major in food courses and an emphasis minor in one of four areas -- food journalism, food art, wellness and nutrition and culinary entrepreneurship.

“Bringing talented, well-known, working professionals to MUW allows us to offer students additional training and experiences which will help them succeed in their careers,” said Chef Sarah Labensky, director of the MUW Culinary Arts Institute.

Labensky also stressed that the Hearin Foundation’s grant “will allow everyone to see and enjoy outstanding culinary photography during the public exhibit next March.”

Photographer Eric Futran of Chicago will teach a new elective course in food photography. In addition, his photographs will be exhibited in the Fine Arts Gallery and Shattuck Hall where the Culinary Arts Institute is housed.

With more than 20 years experience in photographing food and chefs, Futran’s commercial clients include food manufacturers and distributors, equipment manufacturers, food service contractors, fast food chains and white tablecloth restaurant groups. He also shoots for a wide variety of trade and consumer magazines and teaches a similar course for culinary students at Kendall College in Evanston, Ill.

Delores Custer, who taught food styling for the food art minor in 1999 and 2001, will return to The W to teach the intensive week-long course, the same course she teaches periodically at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

Well known in the industry as the “grande dame” of food stylists, Custer lives in New York City and works for such clients as Cool Whip, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” and others.

Karen Karp of New York, a consultant who worked on curriculum development and program marketing for the Culinary Arts Institute, will teach two of the courses for the entrepreneurship minor -- introduction to culinary entrepreneurship and service design and management -- this fall.

An additional instructor will be hired to teach two courses for the culinary entrepreneurship curriculum during the spring 2003 semester.

The Hearin Foundation, which is a Mississippi charitable trust with a goal of supporting programs at any of Mississippi’s four-year institutions that will help prepare students who will in turn help improve Mississippi’s economy, also awarded MUW a grant in 1998 to develop a culinary entrepreneurship program within the Culinary Arts Institute.

“This is the second grant The W’s Culinary Arts Institute has received from the Hearin Foundation,” said Mary Margaret Roberts, MUW’s director of development. “We are very grateful for the Hearin trustees’ continued support of culinary arts and other programs at The W. The Hearin Foundation has made a tremendous impact at The W by enriching the opportunities available for our students.”

For more information about the MUW Culinary Arts Institute, please call (662) 241-7472.

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