Let me start with a big thank you to Olivia Busceme for chairing this year’s big fundraiser and to all the people who contributed to the success of the 2018 Beaux Arts Ball: Bacchanal. The weather was perfect, the decorations were beautiful, the food scrumptious, our auction was, as always, a high quality display of art and generous contributions. The wine flowed, the Ladies Who Lunch pulled out all the stops for the floor show, and John Fulbright made photos worthy of Caravaggio paintings.
Of course, it would have been all for naught had the participants, those who love The Studio, those who came for the first time and those who never miss a ball, not made it what it was — a true celebration of the arts, of creativity and of the free spirit to be someone else for a night. Because of your sense of delight and desire to support The Studio we netted nearly $7,000 for our efforts. What will we do next year? What historic period of art will we challenge our members to emulate? It’s not too soon to start thinking about it and forming a committee to pull this together.
We have other events coming, too, and those require bodies to put together the event and work to make them a success. Things don’t happen without someone making it happen — be that person.
We are very excited to announce the beginning of children’s classes later in March. We are gathering materials, organizing schedules and employing able instructors to offer a series of classes focused on the basics of illustration, drawing and painting. Through the assistance of studio board member Joana Hyatt, of Lamar arts education department, and her students, we have an opportunity to offer year round classes for children and young people in our community. More classes in other disciplines will be available as the program progresses.
We hope to incorporate a variety of institutions to participate in the program as an addendum to their schedule of activities. Boys Haven, Girls Haven and Buckner School are three institution we hope to cooperate with in the coming year. We also hope that charter schools and home school programs find a way to make use of this opportunity.
As we all know, the arts are the most underrated part of the educational system. As misdirected state institutions and local school districts try desperately to raise their dismal academic numbers though useless and disruptive testing, they overlook the arts that are proven to offer students real strength in brain functions that are conducive to the ability to learn and excel.
Public and private school arts education continuously get cuts on funding and personnel while schools continue to preserve those archaic and manly activities that build “character” and brain damage but no learning skills. Sports are great, but they do not belong in an academic environment. With that in mind, you understand the urgency of this initiative. The Art Studio can supplement the art educational needs of this community through the efforts of young, talented instructors under the guidance of seasoned educators. This is not only a “fun” activity, but also an assurance that our children have a chance to reach their full potential in their personal and academic life.
Murals are going up in downtown in an effort by The Art Studio and the Beaumont Convention and Visitors Bureau. This program is funded through the Hotel Occupancy Tax collected to promote tourism in Beaumont. Started in April of last year, it is an effort to upgrade downtown with murals to attract tourism. Other projects are underway as well. Switch boxes for intersection lights are being dressed up all over town and mural work is even happening at the Beaumont Civic Center. Each project is separately funded through different entities.
This a small phase of a concerted effort to promote downtown revitalization by encouraging artists to occupy the area and develop interesting spaces to draw people downtown. I am happy to be a part of anything to help downtown as The Studio was the first arts organization to establish a location here.
What was most important to our efforts in developing The Studio in those early years was funding from the Southeast Texas Arts Council. SETAC was a critical source of funding because of its accessibility, availability of funds and the support in grant writing and applications. Barbara David (Knight) and David Hitt were directors when we were around our second year of existence and things were getting tough. We heard of SETAC and took a chance to see if we could get funding. Luckily, and through grant mentoring from David and Barbara, we were able to receive $5,000. The next year the same and the same the next….
In our history at The Art Studio, there were one maybe two times we did not receive funds from SETAC. Those monies were drawn from each major city in Jefferson, Orange and Hardin counties, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and through HOT funds for developing tourism through a strong arts community.
Without SETAC there would be no Art Studio. SETAC historically helped expand programs for the many visual and performing arts organizations in the area. SETAC has had a profound effect on the viability of these groups including Young Audiences, Hispanic Community for Progress, the Beaumont Fire Department Band, Beaumont Community Players and as many as 30 other organizations.
I bring this little known history to you because a lot of those dollars have dried up by funding cuts by the cities (in good and bad times) and restrictions in funding put on by the state through the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Now there is a concerted push by our city leaders to have more artists and art groups downtown.
Since a large part of the redevelopment plan of downtown Beaumont depends on the art and cultural community, shouldn’t there be a outpouring of funds to assist those groups and individuals to create the theaters, music venues, studios and galleries? The onus seems, suddenly, to be on the shoulders of the artists and arts organizations of this city.
Along with this amazing revelation of art as an revitalization tool, where will the support come from?
At the same time that so much is riding on the local creative community, there is a concerted effort to minimize the effectiveness of SETAC, the one foundation that is specifically for the support of arts organizations in this community. Instead of funneling money from SETAC to other entities that have little to do with the growth of cultural activities, put the money in the able hands of a strong institution like SETAC who has offered nothing but support to the fledgling and established arts organizations for decades. SETAC has suffered too long from leaders being fed erronious information from the misguided. If the city wants galleries, theaters and living spaces downtown, there need to be funds available to local groups, individuals and organizations whether for profit or non profit, very much like the funds provided to redo streets, sidewalks and entertainment complexes through block grants.
It is time to reopen venues for visual art, music and theaters with the same enthusiasm that has moved downtown thus far. For example, Crockett Street has many venues that are underutilized and could serve many artists and groups. As it was funded in part by block grants, it should be in full use or given up. There are a wealth of spaces sitting fallow that could come to life with the right people and the right money. This was the problem when The Studio was looking for space in the early ’90s, and it is the problem now.
If we are serious about a cultural district in Beaumont, then let’s be serious about the young people and groups that have put their lives, labor and hearts in a city we all love and make Beaumont the best place to call our home.
Greg Busceme, TASI director