Greg Busceme, Sr.
Executive Director
of The Art Studio, Inc.
I have gabbed about my 2019 trip to Beppu City, Japan ad nauseum. So grab a barf bag because here we go again! I have a strong connection to Beppu and the wonderful people who hosted Chris Troutman and me. We spent the first few days touring the sites and traveling into the mountains to find an 11th century carving of buddha on the side of a mountain, share in the ritual planting of rice from 800 years ago, and visit the many “Hells” or hot springs that are numerous in this geothermal community. Did I mention they have a volcano? We are working on a project to get Beppu artists, educators, and city reps to come to SE Texas to return the favor of a visit and to build a cultural exchange between us.
I hope to give them the sights of swamps and bayous, alligators and the Texas coast, looking for fossils along the beach, and wandering into the Big Thicket. Beppu is a vertical city; there was uphill and downhill, nothing flat except the shoreline. So a trip here will expose them to a world opposite to what they are used to. Also, they work in a material which is both humble and significant. The bamboo tree is as revered in Japan as the mighty oak is to us.
The artist or artists would be expected to make a presentation, offer a workshop to students, and create a body of work for exhibition at TASI. Like my visit, I covered my food and housing, but both were very reasonable and wonderfully Japanese complete with futon and hot bath! We are looking at the Japan Foundation that assures me that anyone from Japan will get a ticket to the states. We would like to have them here in 2023 and Troutman is already working on their side to get this going! Having international and domestic visiting artists is a facet that we will be pursuing in the future, and I hope you will find it wonderful too.
New subject. Sustainable gardens. That term and TASI don’t seem to go together but soon that may change. We have been working with the team from Econautics: Sustainability Institute to offer a better way to feed our community through hydroponic gardening, raised beds, beehives and other pollinators, water preservation, and while we’re at it, Studio beautification. Sounds weird? It does to me too and that is why I like it so much. You will hear more about this project as it progresses, but the main goal is to provide real food to people who, currently, do not have easy access to healthy veggies and create a way for them to eat better and more sustainably.
The cockles of my heart have been warmed beyond anything you can imagine by using a simple word. Locally we come to the events and enjoy the smart and friendly crowd but for many people who have moved away, the existence of this organization is almost as important as visiting your childhood home. To many folks who come to visit, TASI is one of those places where young people experienced their formative years. These are people who may have been gone for 10 or even 20 years and still come to the Studio, they look around and look at me and say, “It still feels like home,” or as one young man simply said, “normal”. What we do now affects so many people in so many ways. TASI is common ground for generations of young, and now, not so young people. This is not an accident. We worked hard to include all ages and all expressions of creativity. Provide an open door that anyone will feel comfortable entering. We give them a reason to be. If my heart was a steak, it would be well done.