Professor Soo-Young Chin is obviously not afraid of logistical challenges. Her project was a collaboration between the University of Southern California, the Korean American Museum, the University of California at Irvine, and Foshay School (a public middle school). It merged two college-level courses whose 75 students participated in a community service project bringing multicultural arts education to 280 inner city middle school kids.

The college students, who were mostly Euro American and Asian American, explored the importance of place in ethnic identity, especially in relation to "international cities" like LA, where ethnicity may serve as an organizing principle. They studied the Latino, African American, and Asian American populations in LA, and how different art mediums from street life to museum displays related to those people.

Then they began work with middle-school kids, giving the children prepared tours of a gallery exhibit, planning and teaching art projects, installing an exhibition of the middle school kids' work at their school, and celebrating their art at the opening of the show. The children were 70% Latino and 30% African American. Their school district lacks the funds for arts education.

The middle school kids' comments? "It made me think more about the future," "I learned how to communicate with Asian people." "I learned a lot about my culture," and "I thought it was okay for all races to just...all be together."

The college students also gave high marks to the course, which allowed them to develop their understanding of ethnicity and place, practice teaching and communications skills, and to connect children to some of the cultural resources in their communities.

"I learned how to communicate with Asian people."
-Soo-Young Chin