by TASI Executive Director, Greg Busceme, Sr.
As Summer approaches we excitedly begin to pull together the Gumbo Clayfest, our annual artist collective that puts clay at the forefront of everything art. If you’ve never immersed yourself in an art form, it can be an awesome experience! Our immersion is a real and tangible thing you feel, smell, see – but not so much taste, kind of yucky. Before your eyes will be some the best and most experienced ceramic artists living today! Several have been coming to Beaumont over a 20-year span. That should tell you something about how strongly these artists feel about the significance of TAS’s mission and the wonderful community that supports us.
Sooner than the Gumbo Clayfest we have a chance for you to experience many art forms by many people. May 25th will mark the initiation of a program we call “Look What I Can Do!” a festival of artists showing their techniques and methods that are the skills to create one-of-a-kind art and craft. Work will be for sale, but entry is free. Once you see the complexity of the processes you will better appreciate what it takes to build and create beautifully crafted objects of art. This is a peek at what we want: to focus on putting more hands-on materials, printmaking, clay work, painting, sculpture, drawing, etc. I feel this is a path to take only for yourself, to express what you want to say and how you want to say it, through your hands, your minds, and your true self.
We will continue to push, prod, inspire, and cajole you to find what your hands heart and mind want to express. These events and events at all the arts organizations in our community have something for you.
