Hi! We are Ruthie and Bruce Buescher, artists-in-residence at the Harrison Center for January and February. We have been traveling around the U.S. for the last few months participating in different residency programs, and are really excited to be at the Harrison Center for a bit!

Ruthie, originally from Pittsburgh and possessing the true resourcefulness of a middle child, has a background in english and theater. Specifically, she creates pieces of devised theater (a type of theater in which the ensemble collectively creates the play). However, she’s been wearing more of a playwriting hat during the last few months as she has been writing and revising a script about female mystics. In between working on scripts and plays, she has also been expanding a young adult fiction series.

As part of the Harrison Center Residency, Ruthie is creating a piece of devised theater around the Greatriarchs and some of their stories from the Monon 16 neighborhood! This will be performed at the March First Friday.

Bruce, a sojourner from the land of Texas, is an architect by training. While working at a firm in Boston for several years he was gradually establishing a painting practice on the side in addition to working on original music (sometimes for Ruthie’s plays!). His current focus is on geometric abstraction, which often garners comments like “Looks like that took a long time heh heh” or “Oh you use tape? That’s cheating. I can draw a straight line without tape”. Yet he presses on with singular artistic vision into ever more minimal and my-kid-could-do-that territory.

In addition to using tape, Bruce is creating a video installation for the Polk Sanitary Milk Co. Stable building, a relic from the industrial past of the Monon 16 neighborhood. The video seeks to draw attention to the history of the place, since the building was built in 1888.

We are living every millennial’s dream of nomading around the country without purpose or aim between artist residencies. Just kidding! There’s much purpose, much aim! After living in a cloud of constant busyness and stress in Boston for four years, we were ready to explore our artistic pursuits more fully and we have been loving every moment of this adventure. However, we can’t travel around forever, and are currently on the hunt for a city in which to settle, not expecting to return permanently to Boston. Indianapolis seems to be in the running! So everyone be nice to us!

Learn more about (and support) Bruce & Ruthie’s journey here.

Meet Bruce & Ruthie-or as we call them, Bruthie!