ABSTRACT
The sense of taste has long been used as a convenient metaphor for aesthetic acuity in the fields of art history, connoisseurship, philosophy and other cultural practices. There are several registers at which these recent changes in attitude and policy have occurred. Many contemporary artists create pieces that are designed to stimulate multisensorial experiences involving edible materials. This chapter responds to the increasing number of gastronomic art practices making their way into museum galleries, and explores the changing philosophical terrain first used to block such gastronomic experiences from the museum, and the reasons why taste is being increasingly celebrated as a mode for experiencing artwork. Some museums have gradually broadened the spectrum of the sensory modes permitted in their spaces, as with the Royal Ontario Museum’s and the National Gallery of Canada’s multisensory exhibition components and the British Museum’s touch tour program.
