Camp North End is hosting a dinner series called Next Plate in the event space off of The Boileryard. Kristen Wile/UP

Camp North End, a massive campus that seeks to foster innovation and unity, is launching a dinner series called “Next Plate.” The dinners, which will take place on Wednesday nights for four weeks beginning on March 13, bring together two chefs who will cook a joint menu in collaboration with a local arts group. Tickets are $60, and are limited to 40 guests.

“Food is an area I’m trying to do a lot of things around this year, and I thought it would be interesting to invite chefs from different backgrounds or different culinary traditions to partner together and create a unique menu,” Varian Shrum, Camp North End’s Community Manager, says.

To make the event stand out even more, she had the idea of bringing artists in to pair with the chefs.

“We thought about the idea of food as art,” she explains, “and why not combine all different kinds of artists, meaning chefs and musicians, or chefs and visual artists, chefs and film producers, chefs and opera?”

The first event will take place on March 13, and tickets are already nearly sold out. The chefs for that event are both under the FS Food Group umbrella: Shai Fargian of Yafo Kitchen and the newly-named executive chef at Mama Ricotta’s, Paul Cruz. They will be paired with painter Debora Koo. Her art will explore food and human interactions, while the menu served that night will be a fusion of Italian and Mediterranean and Israeli flavors.

The following event, on March 20, brings together the Charlotte Symphony, mixologist Bob Peters, and pastry chef Laney Jahkel-Parrish. They’re discussing an ’80s-themed event, where the symphony will play music from the 1980s and the drinks and desserts will be brightly colored.

Bruce Moffett (owner of Barrington’s, Stagioni, Good Food on Montford, and upcoming N.C. Red) and Alyssa Wilen (Chef Alyssa’s Kitchen) are cooking a family-style Italian meal on March 27 to performances by the opera with each course. The final dinner this spring will be a collaboration between Greg Collier (The Yolk) and Hector Gonzalez (Project 658). Their menu will take influence from both of their backgrounds, combining cuisines of the South and African Diaspora and Mexico. JoeDance Film Festival will screen two films that reflect each chef’s cultural identity at this final dinner of the season, which takes place on April 3. With the exception of the cocktail and dessert dinner, wine will be available for purchase.

Shrum hopes to continue to the dinner series with another run in the fall. If you want to attend before then, hurry up and get your tickets soon, because these will go fast. We’ll see you there. —Kristen Wile