A working trip ceramic artist Virginia Scotchie made to Taiwan last summer led to an exchange not only of ideas and techniques but also students.

Scotchie, an associate professor in USC’s Department of Art, spent two and a half weeks teaching graduate students at the Tainan National School for the Arts. This spring, Andrea Moon, one of her students, will travel to the school for two weeks to study while Mei-Yuei, one of the students Scotchie taught in Taiwan, will come to USC to work.

“What I wanted to do was not just go to another country to work. I was really interested in getting some kind of exchange going,” Scotchie said. “Asia has such a strong history of ceramics, and they value ceramics as a high art form. It’s a great opportunity to have this exchange with Taiwan.”

In Taiwan, Moon will live in Mei-Yuei's apartment and work in her studio space, and Mei-Yuei will do the same in Columbia. “It’s going to be just like that TV show Trading Spaces,” Scotchie said. “It’s interesting because Mei-Yuei translated means ‘Beautiful Moon,’ and my student’s name is Andrea Moon. It was like it was destiny.”

Ceramics professor is Ching-Yuan, an internationally known artist, invited Scotchie to conduct the residency program at Tainan, which offers graduate programs in the visual arts and is based on the model of Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. Tainan’s contemporary campus, surrounded by mango orchards, is in southern Taiwan.

“All of my students were very talented, and they were all so interested in the way I make my work and had so many questions about my ideas and concepts,” Scotchie said. “It was a very nice dialogue. I was able to immerse myself in their program.”

During her first weekend there, Scotchie also taught a ceramics workshop that attracted 150 artists from around Taiwan. “It was the first time I’ve ever given a workshop where I had to have an interpreter,” Scotchie said. “I’d say something, and then the interpreter would say something, and then people would start laughing. Then I’d want to know why they were laughing because I hadn’t said anything funny. It was very entertaining.”

Scotchie donated a wall grouping of six pieces she created while at Tainan to the Yinggi Museum of Ceramic Art in Taipei, which is devoted to contemporary and historical ceramics. “They had a tea ceremony for me,” she said. “They are so respectful of teachers. They were very warm, kind people and very generous with their time. It was a really great experience.”

Scotchie had another “great experience” last summer. She attended a reception that celebrated the 40th anniversary of the ART in Embassies Program at the White House, where she; her husband, Peter Lenzo; and their son, Joseph Scotchie Lenzo, and met First Lady Laura Bush. That evening, they heard former Secretary of State Colin Powell speak.

For two years, one of Scotchie’s ceramic sculptures was on display at the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. South Carolinian Robert Royal was ambassador during those two years, and he wanted the embassy’s exhibition to feature artists from his state.

“It was definitely something very special to be asked to participate in the ART in Embassies program,” Scotchie said.

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