It must be summer. I’m starting to sweat when I bend over, and we were visited by the annual termite invasion during the exhibition opening of Travis Walthall, our winner from last year’s TASIMJAE show. Fans were blowing even as a relatively mild evening temperature graced us for this time of year. Along with the fantastic works of Travis, there were other sights to behold.
A few changes that we made since the last exhibition might have been noticed. Studio volunteers, residents and board members descended upon The Studio and altered the lobby/refreshment area into a gallery for resident and intermediate artists. It gives us a chance to showcase our tenants’ work and help them develop customers or an audience. We’ve added a storage room in the drawing space to hide some of our clutter and to make the small closet our janitorial room.
The darkroom now has a revolving light door to allow movement without disturbing the process. My tool room, ever the eyesore, has a wall to define its space and contain the havoc within to offer a cleaner look to the gallery.
Through these changes, and more to come, we want to bring a sense of order and efficiency without losing our unique, and somewhat quirky, nature — it is The Studio, after all.
I find these changes somewhat cumbersome as I try to go though doors that are no longer there, but even more refreshing as I see the ease of movement and the order it allows for our future growth. No matter what changes go on in the facility, and there will be more, the heart of The Studio will always be one of openness, inclusion and community.
As you might know The Studio does not have a requirement for access to spaces, save for a few formalities, such as artists need to have a place to live, be able to pay rent on the space and be dedicated enough to use the space to advance their skills as an artist. We are not as concerned about your creative development as you are now, as much as where you will be a year or two or three from now. As I tell young people, “Art is a long-term program.” Like in theater and music, you get better through perseverance. The longer you practice your art the better you become. Easy to say but accomplishing it? Not so much.
With that being said I would like to mention the new tenants to The Studio family. Monica Garcia and Angelica Lowe are very recent additions to The Studio. Rachel Wright, Chris Presley, Jodi Hebert and Bill Kujawski arrived some months ago, and Betty Smith is using intermediate access to The Studio.
I have to say that we have a strong contingent of young people coming into The Studio and more getting involved. It bodes well for this organization and the places where we live, not just in a personal sense, but also economically, environmentally and politically.
We joke that no one willingly comes to Southeast Texas but that they generally end up here for one reason or another. In saying this I realize that once here, many people choose to stay. There are many reasons, but one of them is our strong and open arts community.
For visitors looking in, they see a community of artists serious about their work, dedicated to a life with art and determined to improve what they have previously done. This speaks of a unique quality in a community as small as this, according to them, but to me it is a natural way that people spend their time.
I hope we continue to enlighten and nurture this region to focus on strong economic indicators such as the arts and culture — besides cooking, it’s what separates us from the animals.
Greg Busceme is TASI director and founder