Point B

Content Image

RSM: POINT B

ART INSTALLATION

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.

RSM: POINT B

ART INSTALLATION

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.

may 2025 INSTALLATION

Rooted in Resilience: Heritage and Innovation in Agriculture, 2025

Kathy Phan | Ashley Adams | Lian Chao | Jung Kwak | Annabelle Murray | Benh Pham | Andrew Tran | Kelly Zhu | Risa Recio

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.

MAY 2025 INSTALLATION

featured Artists

Kathy Phan

Ashley Adams

Lian Chao

Jung Kwak

Annabelle Murray

Benh Pham

Kelly Zhu

Andrew Tran

Risa Recio

Kathy Phan

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.

Ashley Adams

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 Chao

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.

Jung Kwak

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.

Annabelle Murray

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.

Benh Pham

‘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.

Kelly Zhu

This photographic series documents Miracle Garden, a Central Texas moringa nursery founded in 2003 by Sunny Huang. Moringa, known for its healing and antioxidant properties, has long been a staple in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Central America. Its pods can be used in culinary recipes, while its leaves can be transformed into teas, oils, soaps, powders, and balms.

Miracle Garden has a unique way of bringing together intergenerational knowledge, care for the community, and a deep commitment to resilience. These photos are about more than just the cultivation of the moringa plant—they’re about legacy, survival, and the everyday beauty of community in action.

With a background in documentary photography, Kelly Zhu enjoys focusing on the quiet strength of lived experiences and the many layers of cultural identity. Her work highlights intergenerational relationships and how memory, tradition, and resilience are passed down and transformed. Through her lens, she captures moments that reveal both personal stories and the shared histories that bind communities together.

Andrew Tran

Risa Recio

1875
Sculpted, engraved glass
2″ x 1″ x 3″
2025
Ah Bing was amongst the wave of Chinese immigrants to the US during the second half of the 19th century. He came to work for the Leweling family who owned an orchard of fruit trees in Milwaukie, Oregon. Under Bing’s care, a cross between the Black Republican and Napoleon cherries was developed in 1875 and by the 1890s, what became known as the “Bing cherry” had grown in popularity. In 1882, Congress passed the federal Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States. In the Pacific Northwest, violence and hate against Chinese immigrants grew rampant. After living in the US for 33 years, Bing went to visit his family in China in 1889 and was barred from ever re-entering the U.S. Ah Bing would never get to see his namesake cherries celebrated at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair as the largest cherries in the world. Today, the Bing cherry is America’s most produced variety.
june 2025 INSTALLATION

REQUIEM, 2025 Bee wax, barb wire, charcoal.

Mery Godigna Collet

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.

JUNE 2025 INSTALLATION

featured Artist

Mery Godigna Collet

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.

august 2025 INSTALLATION

Texas Song Bird Song, 2025

Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired Team- Performed by Kailee Martin, written by Eva Van Houten, produced by Lacey Lewis

The Texas Song Bird Song is an inclusive eco-education and music project created in collaboration with elementary students at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI). Rooted in the melodies of birds that call Texas home, the project invited students to explore birding through listening and other sensory experiences. With support from a birding expert, students learned how to identify birds by ear, use mnemonics to mimic bird calls, and explore nature in accessible, inclusive ways—drawing inspiration from organizations like Birdability.

Timed with Texas’s fall bird migration, which peaks from late August through November, the project celebrates the arrival of the birds and the rich soundscape they bring with them. Students selected four bird calls to include in an original song.

The Texas Song Bird Song features student vocals, real bird call recordings, and simple musical storytelling. Performed by Kailee Martin, written by Eva Van Houten, and produced by Lacey Lewis. The song celebrates Texas wildlife, the creative contributions of students, and encourages all of us to listen more closely to the sounds of the world around us.

Click here for inclusive Birding resources.

august 2025 INSTALLATION

Listen

August 2025 INSTALLATION

featured Artist

Meet The Artists

ARTIST & CURATOR: JULIET WHITSETT

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.

May 2025

Kathy Phan & Friends

June 2025

Mery Godigna Collet

July 2025

Nam Joti Kaur Khalsa

August 2025

Eva Van Houten & Texas School For the Blind & Visually Impaired

September 2025

Sharon Roy, Juliet Whitsett & 7th graders at Ann Richards School

October 2025

Nan Blassingame

May 2025

Kathy Phan & Friends

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

June 2025

Mery Godigna Collet

July 2025

Nam Joti Kaur Khalsa

August 2025

Eva Van Houten & Texas School For the Blind & Visually Impaired

September 2025

Sharon Roy, Juliet Whitsett & 7th graders at Ann Richards School

October 2025

Nan Blassingame

Meet The Artists

ARTIST & CURATOR: JULIET WHITSETT

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.

May 2025

Kathy Phan & Friends

June 2025

Mery Godigna Collet

July 2025

Nam Joti Kaur Khalsa

August 2025

Eva Van Houten & Texas School For the Blind & Visually Impaired

September 2025

Sharon Roy, Juliet Whitsett & 7th graders at Ann Richards School

October 2025

Nan Blassingame

May 2025

Kathy Phan & Friends

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

June 2025

Mery Godigna Collet

July 2025

Nam Joti Kaur Khalsa

August 2025

Eva Van Houten & Texas School For the Blind & Visually Impaired

September 2025

Sharon Roy, Juliet Whitsett & 7th graders at Ann Richards School

October 2025

Nan Blassingame