TASI founder Greg Busceme visits Asia to teach, learn techniques
Greg Busceme, in red, poses with students in Beppu, Japan.
Travel stories aren’t always about just a physical journey — they are often about a process. Art Studio founder Greg Busceme’s summer trip to Beppu, Japan, was the product of several processes over many years.
“Lamar drawing instructor Chris Troutman, who has had a relationship with that community through his wife and through him working for years teaching English as a second language in the region, made this come trip come together,” Busceme said.
This trip really begins in 1984, roughly a year after The Studio’s founding, and just like Marty McFly in “Back to the Future” that would soon follow in theaters, Beaumont’s art scene had an opportunity to grow by something that happened in its past.
Clay students work in Beppu University.
In 1984, then-mayor Maury Meyers and a group of local business owners affiliated with the Rotary Club of Beaumont began an exchange of letters and ideas to join the two cities in a mutual relationship of cultural exchange and development.
Both cities had a delegation visit each other’s, and while the relationship started an introduction and connection, the association never took root and faded over time.
“During the Beppu dignitaries’ Beaumont visit back in the ’80s-’90s, one of the places they visited was The Studio when we were in the original Neches-Milam location,” Busceme said. “They visited for a while and had a tour of the place, and we gave them a clay demonstration — that was pretty much it.”
Now fast forward to the present day for the next wrinkle in time with Troutman entering the scenario.
Troutman and his wife, who is from the Beppu area, had previously founded and operated a conversational English school in Kagoshima City. They continue to spend every summer in and around the region visiting family and teaching. It was there they had a chance meeting with someone who knew about the Beaumont-Beppu exchange.
“Chris told me he was teaching something at Beppu University and participating in an exhibition,” Busceme said. “He was introduced to a man at the show, and they began the usual conversation one has, you know, ‘Where are you from?’ ‘What do you teach?’ etc., etc.
“The guy asks Chris if he knew a guy who was an artist in Beaumont, and the group visited his studio, and on and on. Chris came back and told me about the conversation, and I was like, ‘Yeah, that was me.’ Chris continued and went on how this man recounted his experience visiting Beaumont and the art place he saw.”
Troutman told Busceme they wanted to know if he was still making art and if The Studio was still operating.
“Apparently, I made an impression on them after only one day 30-odd years ago, and they wanted to know if I would want to come there to make art,” Busceme said.
The rest is now history. Troutman proposed that Busceme go to Beppu.
“Chris really put this all together,” Busceme said. “He gave me advice and pointers how to organize the trip. He was my adviser, and it took about two years for everything to come together and make this happen.
“I cannot say enough good things about Chris and his generosity at making this come together.”
Greg Busceme and Heather Butler dressed in traditional garb for the local rice festival.
Busceme’s trip — his first trip overseas — was very intensely scheduled, he said. However, he did have former TASI apprentice Heather Butler (neé Eager) accompany him and assist for the first week of the journey, along with Troutman.
“They had a pretty heavy schedule for us,” he said. “They laid down every day what I should be doing, and they revised it as we went along. The biggest challenge was teaching classes and at the same time finding time to make art for the show.
“Heather was going to assist me, but she was only available for the first week. Our hosts wanted us to see all of these different things, so we had to rework the schedule a few times to arrange everything. I don’t think I would have changed a thing.”
One of the most heartfelt and touching things they got to do, Busceme said, was to participate in the local rice planting ceremony.
“The whole community participates in it,” he said. “You can see how important this is to everyone there, and you have everyone, not just the farmers, participating in it. It was very touching to see the whole community doing it.”
Busceme said it was interesting to find that the hotel he stayed in did not have locks on the doors, and the doors and some walls were made out papered panels. Japan is know as one of the safest countries in the world, he said.
“Beppu is a decent-sized city, well over 100,000 people in population,” he said. “I wasn’t ever worried for my safety. I worried about my stuff, but our hosts told us not to worry about anything because theft is very rare.”
The visit stirred a lot of local media attention. The trio were featured on local TV and in the newspaper. The newspaper article featured the group meeting with the deputy mayor and other local city officials in their city hall.
Sensei Nagata and Greg Busceme wait patiently for the kiln. Photos courtesy of Greg Busceme.
Busceme said one thing all involved wanted to accomplish was to rekindle the cultural relationship between the two sister cities.
“Arts and culture have an important quality-of-life factor,” he said. “Areas that have sustainable and vigorous art communities are better places to live — that’s the world over.”
He added that arts and culture have an economic function as well providing jobs and spending in the local community.
“The arts are an important part of our area,” Busceme said. “The arts has had an amazing impact on this area, and this trip is the next step in developing this.
“We hope within the next year or two we’ll have someone from Japan return to Beaumont and have them visit and engage with our community, with some classes and art-making opportunities.”
Next month: Busceme discovers the challenges of teaching in another culture.
Story by Stephan Malick, ISSUE staff writer