Join the Academy Museum for an evening conversation inspired by the exhibition John Waters: Pope of Trash, followed by a cocktail making and perfumery workshop inspired by the films of John Waters with Saskia Wilson-Brown of the Institute of Art and Olfaction and Maite Gomez-Rejon of ArtBites.

Odorama was a ground breaking experience that timed sniffing odors with the projection of film. Saskia and Maite will be adding the sensation of taste to smell, both good and bad. They will bring people closer to the tastes and smells of peach, bread, coffee, church incense, yellow rose, wood, grass, and leather by pulling inspiration from a selection of Waters’s films, such as Polyester (1981), Hairspray (1988), and Serial Mom (1994).

6:30pm | Exhibition Conversation, John Waters: Pope of Trash, Level 4
7pm | Cocktail making workshop, TMT Lobby
7:30pm | Perfume making workshop, TMT Lobby

BIOS:
Maite Gomez-Rejón, founder of ArtBites, explores the nexus of art and culinary history through lectures, tastings, and cooking classes in museums across the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum. She has been a guest on the Today Show, featured in Food & Wine and Hyperallergic and interviewed on Good Food (KCRW) and The Food Programme (BBC). Her writings have appeared in many publications including Eaten Magazine, Gastro Obscura, and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. Maite’s curatorial work includes exhibits on the history of maize and cacao, and on the forgotten legacy on Mexican culinary pioneer Josefina Velázquez de León (currently on view at LA Plaza Cocina de Gloria Molina in Los Angeles). She co-hosts Hungry for History with Eva Longoria on iHeart Radio’s My Cultura Podcast Network. A native of the Texas-Mexico border, Maite holds a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Grand Diplome from The French Culinary Institute in New York City.

Saskia Wilson-Brown is a Cuban,British, andAmerican artist based in Los Angeles. In 2012, Saskia created The Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO), a social art practice devoted to access and experimentation in creative practices with scent. Through the IAO, she has launched projects with institutions such as Pulitzer Foundation, Getty Institute, Hammer Museum, Wallace Collection, and many more. In 2013, she launched an international awards mechanism for independent perfumers called the Art and Olfaction Awards, and in 2018 she started Open Sourcing Smell Culture, an initiative devoted to open principles in perfumery. In 2019 and 2020, she served as a visiting lecturer in the MA Fashion program at the Royal College of Art in London, and in 2020 and 2021, she was as a Ballen Scholar at New Mexico Highlands University. In addition to running the IAO, Saskia produces and hosts a radio show and podcast called Perfume on the Radio, is writing a book to be released in 2025, and is working on her PhD exploring the relations of power in the contemporary perfume industry at University College Dublin's SmartLab.