VCUQ recently hosted a Charette consisting of a exchange between the faculty in Doha, Qatar and the faculty in Richmond, Virginia.Professor Kevin Wyllie of Interior Design, Professor Robert Kaputof of Kinetic Imaging, Professor Khaled Hamid of Fashion Design and Professor Jamie Mahoney of Graphic Design from the VCU's US campus worked with students on a three day project.
The Richmond Professors worked with VCUQ faculty in small groups to interact with students, discussing their ideas and giving them feedback, lectures were also given during the three-day workshop.
The project involved giving the students the task of making the visiting Faculty understand Doha in the same way they students do. Students were allowed to do this in the form of a story, words, pictures, images or even a movie. It was not to be a corporate brochure or a tourist poster, simply a poetic insight and a personal view of life in Doha.
At the same time, VCUQ's teaching faculty Muqeem Khan Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, Halim Choueiry Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, Liam Colquhoun Assistant Professor of Interior Design and Kevin Sellars Assistant Professor of Fashion Design were in Richmond carrying out the same project with students in Virginia.
"I am very impressed with the student's intelligence and creativity; they are one of the most impressive groups of students I have worked with in the whole of my academic career. I was also amazed by their ideas and thinking. The girls had a lot to share and were very open with their culture" said Jamie Mahoney Professor of Graphic Design.
"Working in a short time frame is always difficult; however these girls are smart, articulate and ambitious. I have seen many students that I would not hesitate in to hire for my department in Richmond. I have learnt a lot and realized the importance of exchanges like these" added Robert Kaputouf, Kinetic Imaging Professor.
