My name is Lynne Barker. I am an art teacher at the K.P. Stoklosa Middle School, located in the Acre section of Lowell, MA. There is approximately 100,000 residents in Lowell and 33% of them are of Cambodian heritage. Currently, my school consists of about 55% South East Asian students. I have been teaching in Lowell Public Schools since 2007. I quickly became aware of the beautiful people and culture of the Cambodian’s and was very eager to learn more.
I have been fortunate enough to meet and become a student of Master Ceramicist , Yary Livan. He is one of two working survivors of the Khmer Rough Genocide who was educated at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, where he learned the traditional style of Khmer Pottery. His work is by far, the most beautiful that I have ever seen and he does it all in the traditional style from conception to completion, including firing it in a smokeless wood fired kiln that he built along with Proeung Kang, master ceramist and professor at the Secondary School of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh Cambodia.http://community.middlesex.mass.edu/blogs/cambodiankiln/default.aspx
Middlesex Community College was offering a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship Group Project Abroad to Cambodia for Lowell Public School Teachers and Professors at Middlesex. Through an application process, I was one of those lucky fourteen who were chosen. We are going there to study the arts and culture for one full month. Follow along my blog to see some of the most amazing experiences that we will encounter as we travel through the provinces and rural villages of Cambodia.
Lynne's Cambodia 