Wall Street Crab Feast

On Saturday afternoon, June 17, 2000, at the height of the world stock market boom, artist Peter Walsh held a crab feast at the rooftop space of the artists’ collective 16 Beaver Group, located just two blocks from the New York Stock Exchange in the heart of Manhattan’s Financial District.

Called Wall Street Crab Feast: A Participatory Performance Trafficking in Vernacular Culture, the event brought the marginalized culture of his hometown Baltimore into the midst of the global economy’s command center. A traditional backyard crab feast is as much a social space for community and family discussion as it is a meal. Artists from around the world - including Finland, Japan, Italy, Germany and Ireland - were invited to take part in the free event.

The crabs themselves were harvested off Gibson Island in the Chesapeake Bay and purchased at a roadside stand in front of Mercy High School on Northern Parkway in Baltimore City. They were then transported 200 miles by car to the 16 Beaver rooftop.

See www.peterwalshprojects.us/CrabFeastPages/CrabFeastIndex.html for details.