At Carbondale Community High School, there is a wide range of classes to take in the Art Department. There are advanced classes for students who might already be invested into art and fundamental classes for students who are just starting out. Freshmen usually start out in the fundamentals, and as they go forward in high school they also get more freedom in what they want to do with their art in the more advanced art classes.

Annie Shin is currently a senior at CCHS who started her art journey her freshman year. Currently, she is taking art studio with Mrs. Kennedy: 

“I remember starting off. I didn’t expect much, but then like, I fell in love with art even more. I had a lot of fun my freshman year.”

Shin is a student that has been taking art classes since the beginning of high school. Besides her, there are many students that are beginning their art journey here.

One of the students who has recently begun their art journey is Jacob Powers:

“A few weeks in, I kind of started to recognize that it was kind of fun, and it was really calming, too. It was nice to start a project and see it progress over time.”

Students in the Advanced art classes at CCHS are allowed to follow their own schedule and make art of their own choice. However, students that are just starting out their art journey must do assignments assigned by the art teacher, Mrs. Kennedy, that help introduce them to the world of art. 

“We did a small pen and ink project, and then we did a larger one with a larger subject matter. We did a centerpiece made of watercolor, and then did the outside with pen and ink.”

The one who assigns the process is Mrs. Kennedy, who has been working at CCHS for 7 years. She helps the students learn the fundamentals of art in all classes that she teaches, and she also helps students with college and portfolio preparations.

Kennedy describes how students react to new art projects and how they handle learning new techniques: 

“In first level art courses or ceramics courses, students come in with very little knowledge on the elements of principle and design. So, with each project that we do we try to build on that vocabulary and on those skills.”

As the years go on, Mrs. Kennedy continues to show the quality of her teaching with the types of works that are being produced by students at CCHS. However, it’s not just Mrs. Kennedy. The students continue to put on display how hard working they are and show that the art department is helping them on their art journey.