The 16th Annual Texas Bamboo Festival was held on Saturday and Sunday, August 23-24, 2008 at Zilker Botanical Garden, Austin, Texas. Hours are Saturday 10 am - 6 pm and Sunday 10 am - 5 pm. Admission - free. Parking fee $3.
Guest speaker, Robin McBride Scott, will do a free presentation on Saturday at 12:30pm and also on Sunday at 2:30pm. The festival will include a live plant auction on Saturday afternoon, a dinner by reservation on Saturday evening and two full days of bamboo activities with bamboo plants and crafts for sale and show. **********************************************************
Presentations - Saturday, August 23, 2008
10:30 am: A Video Presentation about the works of Japanese Artist Tanaka Kyokusho - produced by David Douglas Stewart- Tanaka Kyokusho, is a bamboo artist and a bamboo basket maker. The video is about his work and shows how he makes the fine slivers of bamboo that he uses in his baskets.
12:30 pm: "Rivercane Mats and Basketry - Arundinaria Gigantea - Native American Bamboo" - Presentation by Robin McBride Scott, an award winning artist of Cherokee ancestry, who works in Traditional Woodland materials and native American Bamboo. She is the first place recipient of the American Bamboo Society Arts and Craft Award for 2007 for her work with basketry and canebrake (Arundinaria gigantea) bamboo. Robin is a consultant, presenter, and teacher of performing and visual Native arts. She is a 2008 recipient of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Visiting Artist Fellowship.
2 pm: "Landscaping with Running Bamboo" - using running bamboo - in the landscape and elsewhere - and not to be afraid of it - Presentation by Steve Muzos, President of the Texas Bamboo Society
3 pm: Live Bamboo Plant and Bamboo Object Auction
4 pm: "Light Requirements of Bamboo" - Presentation by Harry Simmons - Harry studied Tropical Horticulture at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Thailand. His thesis focused on evaluating horticultural quality and light requirements of 7 genera and 20 species of bamboo.
5 pm: Annual Meeting of the Texas Bamboo Society
6:15 pm: Dinner Catered by the Bamboo Garden Chinese Restaurant
Presentations - Sunday, August 24, 2008
10:30 am: A Video Presentation about the works of Japanese Artist Tanaka Kyokusho - produced by David Stewart- Tanaka Kyokusho, is a bamboo artist and a bamboo basket maker. The video is about his work and shows how he makes the fine slivers of bamboo that he uses in his baskets.
12:30 - Clumping Bamboo - Learn about the sympodial (or subtropical clumping) species. Presentation by John Nelson - John, a nurseryman has been growing bamboo for 18 years and has specific experience working with clumping bamboo.
2:30 - "Rivercane Mats and Basketry - Arundinaria Gigantea - Native American Bamboo" - Presentation by Robin McBride Scott, an award winning artist of Cherokee ancestry, who works in Traditional Woodland materials and native American Bamboo. She is the first place recipient of the American Bamboo Society Arts and Craft Award for 2007 for her work with basketry and canebrake (Arundinaria gigantea) bamboo. Robin is a consultant, presenter, and teacher of performing and visual Native arts. She is a 2008 recipient of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Visiting Artist Fellowship.
Sale of bamboo plants and crafts continues on Sunday afternoon.
The 16th Annual Texas Bamboo Festival is the annual fund raiser for the Texas Bamboo Society Chapter of the American Bamboo Society, a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization. Proceeds are used to provide research, information, education, assistance to public bamboo gardens, support for bamboo artists, and to bring new varieties to the multi-state region represented by the Texas Bamboo Society.
The 16th Annual Texas Bamboo Festival is sponsored by the Texas Bamboo Society **********************************************************
