Chicago Studio Artists Share Skills with CPS Students

Chicago Studio Collaborates with Vaughn Occupational School

This past spring, the Chicago Studio had the pleasure of collaborating with students and teachers at Vaughn Occupational School, thanks to an initiative organized by Lead Teacher Dara Bayliss and former studio volunteer and teaching intern.

Chicago Studio educators Mike Marino and Christina Zion led a series of three art lessons for a group of 16 high school students. The lessons focused on fundamental art concepts such as line, shape, and pattern. Each session included an introduction to these building blocks and hands-on projects to practice the techniques.

Lesson Highlights:

1. Blind Contour Drawing: Students started with Blind Contour Drawing, creating portraits of their peers without looking at their paper. Despite the challenge, the exercise was met with laughter and enjoyment as students shared their unique results.
2. Shapes and Collage: In the second lesson, students reviewed basic shapes, practiced drawing them, and then applied their knowledge to create collages using triangles, squares, and circles.
3. Pattern and Tessellations: The third lesson expanded on line and shape to explore patterns. Students learned about contemporary art and studied sculptures by Yayoi Kusama. They then created tessellations inspired by M.C. Escher.

Teaching Artist Christina Zion expressed her enthusiasm about the experience: “It felt pretty good. It made me happy to teach them all about art. I showed them how to do it, and then they did it on their own!”

Christina shared that fun was a significant motivator for her teaching endeavors. Her first experience with the Teaching Artist Residency Program was at Esperanza Community Services, where she planned and taught art lessons to adults.

“One of my favorite lessons at Esperanza was the blind contour drawing,” she recalled. “I felt less confident at first, but it got easier.”

Teaching high school students provided Christina with a new opportunity to share her art knowledge. Reflecting on the experience, she noted, “The students were all pretty happy! They were showing off their drawings at the end of the class. I was glad they could come to the studio. Even though I didn’t get to know them well, it was still pretty fun.”

We look forward to continuing our partnership with Vaughn students and educators and are excited for the next curriculum planning for the fall.