SOUTHWEST CITY JOURNAL
Art from Afar "Students teleconference with Illinois artist Aunia Kahn"
By Shawn Clubb

A small troupe of eighth-graders bustled out of their art classroom and down the hall.They returned bearing collages they had made and they wore smiles because they would be showing the art to Aunia Kahn, an artist who lives in the Metro East.

Kahn had seen their art before, but not in person. The eighth-grade students at St. Raphael the Archangel School, 6000 Jamieson Ave., have been teleconferencing with Kahn as part of a lesson in art and technology. Kahn has been talking to them and critiquing their work via Webcam from her home in Shiloh, IL. She made her first face-to-face visit to the class on Dec. 4.

Mary Caulley, the art teacher at St. Raphael, and Dolores Guittar, the technology coordinator, developed the project when Caulley decided she wanted her students to get more insight into the creative process. They envisioned an artist would communicate with the students through a blog, but the opportunity to work with Kahn via Webcam developed.

"We wanted to show we can connect art and technology," Caulley said. Kahn first talked to the students about the various forms art can take and then worked with them on the collage project. Between her first and second web visit with them, the students completed their collages. On her second web visit, they showed her their work and she gave them feedback.

"The kids were more attentive to what was going on," Caulley said. "When we did the collages they would stand in front of the camera, talk to her, explain why they would write the words, why they put certain symbols on it." On her visit to the classroom, Kahn showed the students work she had done that included collages, a pin and paintings.

Ryan Garside, 13, said he enjoyed being able to work with Kahn both online and in-person. He preferred the in-person visit, because the students got to see her work and didn't have the limitations of the view offered by a computer screen. Kahn said the students seemed to lighten up once she started working with them through the web and they realized she wasn't talking to them as a parent or a teacher.

"They're in eighth grade. They're just coming into themselves. They try to mirror and they need good role models," Kahn said.

Kahn also encouraged the students to keep art journals, where they would develop concepts for art. She showed them her journal to explain what she meant.Caulley said the students took to the idea and have begun using their sketchpads as art journals. She said the project has opened them up to different ideas of art.

"Sometime kids can pigeonhole art. They think it's just painting and drawing. Part of the lesson was to show creativity can come in many forms," Caulley said.