The Really Small Museum is a (really small!) exhibition concept founded in 2021 to spark inspiration, conversation, and connection. Just as the Earth and its ecosystems thrive on diversity, this POINT B Museum embraces the idea that to move from Point A to Point B in climate resilience, we must elevate and listen to diverse voices.
From May–October 2025, this installation will showcase six artists/ groups whose work explores their relationship with our environment. Curated and coordinated by artist Juliet Whitsett, in partnership with The Trail Conservancy, the RSM: POINT B highlights a range of perspectives, inspiring dialogue and action for a more sustainable future.
This project is supported in part by the City of Austin Economic Development Department.
The Really Small Museum is a (really small!) exhibition concept founded in 2021 to spark inspiration, conversation, and connection. Just as the Earth and its ecosystems thrive on diversity, this POINT B Museum embraces the idea that to move from Point A to Point B in climate resilience, we must elevate and listen to diverse voices.
From May–October 2025, this installation will showcase six artists/ groups whose work explores their relationship with our environment. Curated and coordinated by artist Juliet Whitsett, in partnership with The Trail Conservancy, the RSM: POINT B highlights a range of perspectives, inspiring dialogue and action for a more sustainable future.
This project is supported in part by the City of Austin Economic Development Department.
This exhibition invites viewers to see the growing and preserving of heritage foods as a form of cultural continuity and climate resilience, contributing to a more sustainable and inclusive future.
In celebration of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, this inaugural show at Point B brings together nine Austin-based artists of Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese descent. The exhibition explores the deep connections between AANHPI communities and food.
Each artist offers a unique perspective on how immigrants and their descendants cultivate culturally significant crops, blending ancestral knowledge with innovation to sustain traditions in Central Texas. Beyond nourishment, food is a profound link to heritage, memory, and identity. The resilience of Asian American farmers reflects the resilience of the diaspora—persisting, adapting, and thriving despite displacement, climate change, and shifting landscapes.
Khổ Qua is a watercolor painting of Vietnamese bitter melon soup—a dish my mom made often, even if I didn’t love the taste. In Vietnamese, khổ qua means “to overcome hardship,” and over time, it’s come to represent the strength of Vietnamese Americans after the Fall of Saigon and the resilience of AANHPI communities in the face of anti-Asian hate during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. You don’t completely get over the bitterness; you navigate it together, held by your community.
I’m Kathy Phan, a Vietnamese American illustrator in Austin, Texas, creating watercolor art inspired by food, culture, and all the feelings that come with them. My work celebrates the flavors and stories that shape who we are: bitter, sweet, and everything in between.
The Methley plum, a Texas-grown hybrid of Japanese and American varieties, flourishes in the overlap of cultures—just like Ashley Adams. With a Japanese grandmother and an American grandfather, she’s shaped by both sides of her family’s story. In her work, she repurposes secondhand textiles, giving new life to what’s been passed down or left behind. Each piece reflects a respect for history and a drive to make something lasting from what already exists.
Lian is a Taiwanese-American artist exploring her cultural roots through art and everyday rituals. Rice, a staple of her upbringing, connects her to home, family, and heritage. This sculptural piece expresses Lian’s connection with the food of her culture.
While Texas grows some rice in an area called the Texas Rice Belt, the increasing availability of Asian rice varieties helps bridge the gap between identity and place, bringing a sense of home closer.
Perilla leaves are highly valued in Asia, but they are often regarded as a weed in the West. These leaves have a distinctive flavor and are versatile enough to be used in many different ways within Asian cuisine. Their adaptability serves as a metaphor for the resilience and resourcefulness of the people.
The creative process of clay serves as a profound teacher in patience, quietness, and letting go. Just as the unique characteristics of wood grain tell a story, I explore texture and marbling techniques to create a distinct tactile language in clay. Creating from the earth is inspirational, each transformation unfolds to reveal the final form.
This piece explores the duality of my childhood relationship with food—comfort and bitterness—through imagery of vegetables my parents grew in our backyard. Bitter melon, once my least favorite, now symbolizes the emotional resilience I’ve developed as a first-generation Filipino American. Eggplant, a favorite, represents moments of warmth and joy I continue to savor and hold onto.
‘Feels Familiar’ transforms a ginger root into sterling silver, honoring its deep roots in Asian culture and cooking. The piece explores how everyday ingredients carry comfort, connection, and a sense of home. By shaping the ginger in metal, I connect my identity as both an Asian American and a metalsmith. It stands as a small monument to the ways I stay grounded—to my culture and my craft.
By assembling and tensioning objects and raw materials, color and light, my work opens as much as they conceal physical and mental spaces. Searching for vertiginous discrepancies between vocabularies of shapes, I explore the gap between intimate and social, the existential and the everyday, the environment and degradation. I explore the connecting threads between life and death and the strong bio-chemical, socio-cultural and psycho-emotional connection to the environment and, subsequently, our own fragility.
“REQUIEM”, as Mozart’s Requiem, consists in 5 roses. It is also built with 5 elements: Bee wax, barbed wire, charcoal, graphite, and waxed paper. The intention of “REQUIEM” is to create awareness towards global warming and how much fossil fuels contribute to environmental degradation, climate change, and isolation.
Mery Godigna Collet, born in Caracas Venezuela, 1959, has participated in 34 solo and 40 group exhibitions in Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, New York, Miami, New Mexico and Texas.
As her thinking on the visual arts evolved, her ideas and attitude on how to approach art has changed. Her interest in ecological matters has grown and the "concept" has become the "nuclei" of her work. The concept and the technique run parallel though morphogenesis principles, as the artist acts as an “activator” producing a cause in the unconventional materials she uses. The final “consequence” allows her to reach her goal: Portraying the subject with the subject. In her works, she shows a tendency to minimalism where the only statement is a call to reflection.
Juliet Whitsett (she/her) is an Austin, TX-based Artist and Arts & Environmental Educator with a Master’s Degree in Community-Based Arts Education from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.S. in Art Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her artistic practice focuses on the colors, lives, and forms of endangered and threatened species, community arts installations, and art-science partnerships.
Rooted in Resilience: Heritage and Innovation in Agriculture
In celebration of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, this inaugural show at Point B brings together nine Austin-based artists of Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese descent. The exhibition explores the deep connections between AANHPI communities and food.
Artists: Kathy Phan | Ashley Adams | Lian Chao | Jung Kwak | Annabelle Murray | Benh Pham | Andrew Tran | Kelly Zhu | Risa Recio
Juliet Whitsett (she/her) is an Austin, TX-based Artist and Arts & Environmental Educator with a Master’s Degree in Community-Based Arts Education from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.S. in Art Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her artistic practice focuses on the colors, lives, and forms of endangered and threatened species, community arts installations, and art-science partnerships.
Rooted in Resilience: Heritage and Innovation in Agriculture
In celebration of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, this inaugural show at Point B brings together nine Austin-based artists of Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese descent. The exhibition explores the deep connections between AANHPI communities and food.
Artists: Kathy Phan | Ashley Adams | Lian Chao | Jung Kwak | Annabelle Murray | Benh Pham | Andrew Tran | Kelly Zhu | Risa Recio
Location: 1920 E Riverside Drive, Suite A-120 PMB 223 Austin, TX 78741
Phone: 1-855-44-TRAIL
The Trail Conservancy is a non-profit, tax-exempt charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Tax ID: 87-0699956.
Join us for the 20th Annual Maudie’s Moonlight Margarita 5K Fun Run on Thursday, June 8, 2023.
Purchase your tickets now and save! Prices increase on May 8.