VAST would like to thank the following without which this documentary could not have come through.
Written by VAST first international artist in residence, Xochi
A Greeting from Xochitl Rodriguez
My journey from the United States to Bhutan has been a long one. It didn’t just start in my hometown of El Paso Texas. The journey began at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival where I met Asha Kama Wangdi. After some conversation concerning art, Asha invited me to volunteer as VAST’s first artist in residence. The beauty of VAST is that it calls upon a person’s dedication in the most sincere of ways. You must volunteer in every capacity of the word in order to be a part of VAST. Recognizing the infinite value of such a journey, I began to seek outside funding for a one year visiting artist project. After receiving negative responses from 12 possible grant providers, I was fortunate enough to receive the majority of my requested amount from the Ella Lyman Cabot Trust Fund.
The process was grueling and at times very discouraging, but on account of the incredible gifts VAST has to share with the world, I went forth as fearlessly as I could, keeping my eyes on the awesome power of such an incredible opportunity. After receiving word, there were quite a few formalities to be had. You must be invited and granted permission to enter, especially for such a long period of time. So after receiving my incredible news, I left El Paso, Texas on September 17th and arrived in Bhutan on September 27th.
After visiting several places, some expected and some unexpected, I flew among the clouds through the beautiful Himalayas to arrive in Bhutan. My experience thus far has been full of surprises and beautiful adventures. I arrived just in time for Thimphu’s Tshechu where I was fortunate enough to witness some of Bhutan’s most incredible religious traditions first hand. I have visited a traditional Bhutanese home and was lucky to be present for a Puja ceremony. I have climbed up and down a mountain among the clouds during monsoon and I have been a guest at Bhutan’s first ever National Boxing Tournament. The most incredible of all my experiences, however, has been spending time at VAST.
I was invited to volunteer at VAST as a resident sculptress for the purposes of sharing the knowledge and experience I have with contemporary sculpture. I feel honored to have this opportunity to volunteer with VAST. I had my first meeting with the students on Saturday, October 3. It was my greatest pleasure to encounter a group of students who were not only eager to learn, but also enthusiastically engaged in planning the role sculpture might have in VAST’s next big project “YOUNG ZOOM”. It felt incredible to look out at their faces full of excitement for the “strange sculpture” we are planning to create together. It is my hope that I will be able to add to VAST’s incredible group of volunteers and help its student’s develop new tools to express themselves with. In these last couple of weeks I have observed a culture that is steeped in beauty, both external and internal. From my host family’s home in the mountains just outside of Thimphu, I wake up to the clouds and to two tiny children who greet me every morning with smiles and curiosity. As I walk through the town during the day, the children smile at me and the bold ones ask me where I’ve come from or sit beside me to hear the music I’m listening to or to see what I’ve taken a photograph of.
I have seen a world full of color and peaceful sounds. Every place I visit in Thimphu, I can hear children playing and people living. I’ve heard archers’ chants and calls in the distance as they carry out their tournaments. In all this beauty, I understand that I have come to Bhutan at a crucial time in the history of it’s Kingdom’s development. The capitol city is booming with the signs of Bhutan’s curious and unique case of modernization. As I hear children play and people live, as I see the unique and awesome power of Bhutan’s ever beautiful environment I am filled with hope that I may help provide these children with methods by which to express themselves and be heard as Bhutan’s future unfolds.
Children are the most valuable instruments humanity has toward progress and in Bhutan they are the most important promises for a beautiful future. It will be a great honor if I am able to contribute to the nourishment and development of their artistic talents and already incredible social consciences.
Likewise, it will be my greatest honor to learn from them.
Art With A Mission
Art can speak.
Art can listen.
Art can see.
Art can feel.
Art can change.
There are countless non-profit art organizations in the world. While most of them utilize the power art holds for positive and productive social purposes, VAST Bhutan stands apart from the rest. I have had the privilege of witnessing the workings of VAST first hand over the last six weeks. It is always an incredible thing to participate in social services, but VAST’s volunteers have reminded me how true activism through art can benefit a world.
VAST has initiated several special projects alongside the regular classes that are taught by its volunteers- projects that are born out of the core of true humanitarianism. Last year, volunteers came together to develop a rice bank to help the needy. They also built a home for one family in Punakha. While both of these projects were incredible, VAST’s ‘Make a Wish’ project deserves particular recognition. Young volunteers offered their services to help the wish of 28 elderly villagers come true. VAST aimed to help bridge the gap that is forming in Bhutan between the young and the old. The young volunteers accompanied these elders on a pilgrimage to the holy land of Bumthang. Most of the elders had never left their village and as Asha Kama has said, they are at a point in their life where they are taking refuge in their religion. The project was planned and carried out beautifully.
This December, VAST will host its ‘Annual Art Festival-Young Zoom on Garbage’. The project focuses on the garbage and waste problem in Bhutan. The exhibition will include photos, videos and installations as well as interactive booths that will help teach the public about recycling and waste management. I will extend my experience to them so that we can create a giant installation-based exhibition at the Clock Tower. Essentially, the entire Clock Tower will be a piece of art work.
It is projects like these that make VAST a unique non-profit organization. In El Paso, I have worked with non-profit organizations that utilize art to educate young people and improve the quality of life for those people who experience hardships. However, VAST is an organization that remains true to humanitarian causes in the most effective of ways. The volunteers come together and identify the problems Bhutan is facing-the problems that will surely cause serious issues in the Kingdom if they are not remedied-and design projects that trigger a positive reaction at the core of those issues. VAST is truly a little giant-often times short on funds, small in numbers, relatively “unofficial,” but rich in social conscience and an ability to put that social conscious to use with a language that speaks universally.
In the coming months, VAST will travel to Phuentsoling where they will initiate a new branch. VAST will also hold its first public sculpture exhibition. When I arrived I was asked if I worked with wood or metal and the only reply I could muster was that I worked with everything. The youth in Bhutan have access to countless unique materials. The coming sculpture exhibition will utilize the creative fuel that has gathered in Bhutan for centuries-nature, textiles, rich culture, tradition, issues of development and found-objects that are native to the Kingdom. It will be a grand display of the youth’s collective ideas. VAST will also hold its annual winter camp, where the youth will learn about environmental art work. They will learn about conservation and how art can be used in the environment to bring to light the beauty and fragility that lives in nature.
VAST is a beacon of hope in a quickly changing world. Its members have a powerful understanding of the fragile workings of progress in Bhutan and what can be done to move Bhutan gracefully and beautifully through this time in its history using art as their method. Because VAST has an ability to touch the many layers of Bhutan’s society and culture, they are giving Bhutan and providing the rest of the world with an example of the tremendous and beautiful tools with which our future generations can move forward positively. VAST understands the power that is fostered when a young generation is given the power to use visual art as a means to affect change and express themselves.
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This article written by Xochitl Rodriguez appeared in Business Bhutan.