Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Breckner.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jennifer. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My background is in art history and nonprofit management. In 2002 I moved from Youngstown, Ohio, to Chicago to attend graduate school for nonprofit management at The School of the Art Institute. After graduation I stayed, working with artist groups such as Temporary Services and Incubate on grassroots projects like Sunday Soup (with Incubate) which brought the creative community together for fellowship and a homemade meal while we raised funds for small creative grants. In addition, I worked for the Architecture & Design Society in the Department of Architecture and Design at The Art Institute of Chicago serving as point person for communications, programming, event production, and board and strategic development. My tenure there lasted over a decade and I had the privilege of working with an incredible array of international architects including David Adjaye, Toyo Ito, Jeanne Gang and Richard Rodgers, and iconic designers such as Hella Jongerius, Konstantin Grcic and Gaetano Pesce. Architecture and design were not areas that I concentrated on in school so I gained an incredible education while working there.
My two biggest passions have always been art and food yet they were always separate areas. I struggled with how to connect them. I grew up in a working-class family filled with wonderful cooks making meals cobbled out of Polish, Irish, German, Italian and American traditions—essentially poor people’s food—and I wanted people to see that work as cultural too. An art history class on the Italian Futurists introduced me to artistic projects that took the form of life: restaurants, cookbooks and manifestos about food. So, in 2010 I went back to school to get my second master’s degree, this time in art history and focused my research on modern and contemporary artists who used the meal as their work. I graduated in 2013.
It was then that I started to have moments of realization that I wanted to push past the rigid obstacles and privilege that even the most esoteric of arts organization were immersed in to engage culture in a broader way to include food and beverage. When I worked at the museum I always needed to have a second job to make ends meet. One of those was as Events Ambassador for Brooklyn Brewery in Chicago. I was part of the inaugural group of ambassadors, hired in 2014, and I have worked for them ever since. In addition, I am an active volunteer. In researching the Italian Futurists I stumbled upon Slow Food, a nonprofit global grassroots “good food” organization founded in Italy in 1988. There is a local Chicago chapter that I served on. Currently I am Chair of the Ark of Taste Midwest Committee, a biodiversity initiative focused on saving endangered foods and serve as one of three International Councilors for the U.S. advising Slow Food International on issues like global communications and fundraising. Last year I joined the Green City Market (GCM) Junior Board to be closer to the farmers and producers who make our food.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Oh my goodness it has not been an easy road. When I was 19 I knew that I wanted to work in a gallery or museum and worked very hard to do that. I thought I would retire from the arts but the more I worked at the museum the more that I realized that it wasn’t fulfilling and didn’t actually pay the bills. Also I was working so much that I had issues with stress. I had to make a very hard decision that I could continue on a path that made sense in a job that was familiar but was making me sick or I could take a leap and leave to find out what could be next.
This is the point where I am supposed to tell you that it all worked out, that I am #blessed to “have it all” but that’s not what happened. When I decided to leave the museum it knocked the wind right out of me for I had to start at step one and go back to asking myself basic questions like, “What kind of work makes me happy and engaged? What type of colleagues do I want to have?” I spent the first few months watching Ted Talks and doing yoga and meditation and just lived day-to-day. I took odd jobs and went on SNAP for a few months. I cried and then cried again and watched all of those people who I am somehow connected to on LinkedIn but who are strangers to me get great jobs while I had to mourn the fact that I had left the arts which had been my dream for so long.
There was lots of soul searching in order to move on. I slowly set a plan for what I want to do: write and tell stories, travel, educate people and produce events focused on good food and craft beer. I’ve done all of those things, though not necessarily all paid. With my nonprofit background I thought I would start my own company and took on a couple of clients but then I realized that I’m not in a financial position to do so. I also really like working with others so now I’m currently seeking a full-time job in communications and/or education in either a craft brewery, good food organization (for-profit or non-profit) or a cultural foundation either here in Chicago or elsewhere. Finding a new job is one of the toughest things I’ve ever done. At times it’s demoralizing and confusing. I have so much to offer an organization or company and it’s frustrating to get that rejection email because I am raring to go. I get through it by remembering that all it takes is one right connection and that I’m too talented to not be given a chance to shine. Also, I’m lucky to be a person mesmerized by life, who likes adventures and learning and experiencing new things. I’m weathering this storm. Something will happen soon. I’m pretty lucky that I’m resilient. I wake up every day ready to embrace the day and have a delicious adventure.
Brooklyn Brewery (Chicago) – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I work for Brooklyn Brewery here in the Chicago market with the best team a gal could ask for. I love my job. I get to be that person in a Binny’s Beverage Depot, Whole Foods or local bar who asks, “Would you like to try some beer?” and then I get to have a conversation. As I’ve learned more I’ve pushed to be able to lead education classes too–my art history background helps me here. This is something that I am super passionate about. Americans are ready to take their knowledge about craft food and beverage deeper and I am the gal to lead them on that journey.
Brooklyn is a legacy brewery founded in 1988 in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. They’ve always been aligned with and have supported artists so the job is a natural fit for me. Our portfolio consists of beers that are an American take on traditional styles that pair well with food like our dry hopped amber lager called Brooklyn Lager which was the first beer we produced. It just won a gold medal in the Amber Lager category at the World Beer Cup, thirty years after it was first made! We are all so proud of that. Yet we also make fresh new products like our Bel Air Sour that speaks to how we remain relevant in today’s craft beer community. It’s bright and tart but balanced and a great introduction to the category of sours, which are becoming quite popular. Some of my favorite beer that the brewery creates are the absolutely stunning big bottles like Serpent, a golden ale aged on cider lees in bourbon barrels or Cloaking Device, a red wine barrel-aged brett porter that just gets better as you drink it. These bottles are small batch, one-off beers where the brewers get to experiment and be creative. I always tell consumers that if you care about the “craft” aspect of craft beer you’ll pay the extra money to buy these bottles for this is where new ideas come from.
Working for Brooklyn Brewery has been a master class in craft beer. Garrett Oliver, our brewmaster, is a pioneer in the field. He’s the first beer professional to win a James Beard Award in the category of beer, wine and spirits, and a prolific author and editor of the Oxford Companion to Beer. He’s also one of the co-founders of Slow Food USA connecting my interests. I have learned so much about craft beer through this brand and I am grateful for that. The only bad thing about this job is that it is part-time. I’d love to work for the company forever if I could. There just hasn’t been a fit yet.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
The idea of what constitutes success has evolved dramatically for me from external markers that were considered relatively standard when I was young—having a high-profile job, being married, owning a home, having lots of money—to more internal ones—cultivating good relationships, doing excellent work that speaks to who I am and my strengths, trying to act at all times with integrity and kindness, being content, and supporting others through my actions and my work. I’ve pushed myself to speak up and take risks, to think about what I’d like to accomplish and then to find ways to do that. I realized that part of my unhappiness in my former job was that I was helping people do things that I wanted to do but was too shy about pursuing. I make it a priority now to push through uncertainty and go after things that I want whether that is leading a beer and food pairing and hop education class at the National Restaurant Association Show for Bellavita this year or moderating a panel on biodiversity for Slow Food USA’s international conference Slow Food Nations. I’m proud that I’m a go-getter, passionate, intelligent, a great storyteller–whether through long form writing or social media–and a creative thinker who is skilled at new idea/project generation while having the experience and tenacity to set a plan in place and achieve it. I’m ready to get going on my next exciting professional adventure.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.jenniferbreckner.com
- Email: jenniferbreckner@gmail.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/jenniferbreckner/ + http://instagram.com/midwestarkoftaste/
Image Credit:
Audrey Peiper, Slow Food International, Rachel Brown Kulp/Slow Food Chicago
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