welcome to a.D.D@MaCAd
The Art & Design Department @ Macmillan Academy
Art and Design includes drawing, painting, 3 dimensional work, graphic design, print making, textile work and critical studies. You will be encouraged to develop your own visual ideas and to try out different techniques in a variety of materials. The best coursework will be selected for exhibition.
Visits are arranged to galleries and places of artistic interest.
GCSE Art and Design will suit anyone who likes doing practical work, likes bringing form to their ideas and who would like to further develop their drawing skills. It is an exciting course because it depends on the interests of the students involved.
The 'A' Level Art and Design course lasts two years and is taught by two Art and Design specialists who are responsible for different parts of the course.
Student Gallery
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Review of the Year 2007
In the last year or so, from January 2007 to the present, Add@Macad (Art & Design Department at Macmillan Academy) has initiated many creative ventures, as follows:
January 2007
An exhibition of the wide variety of Arts and Crafts by our talented staff from all departments entertained our students when it was opened in the Art corridor gallery. They were surprised upon seeing, for instance, figure paintings by a PE teacher from when she took Art many years before.Our first ever visit to the Oriental Museum in Durham City with Year 10 GCSE students, inspired them to produce work with the Oriental and Middle Eastern overtones.
February 2007
Sixth Formers visited two galleries; The Baltic at Gateshead to get to grips with difficult Contemporary Art and then across the river to Newcastle Laing Art gallery to see contrasting antique Art. This visit inspired their A level work and essay writing.
March 2007
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art inspired our exam students with its opening exhibition, “Draw” which contrasted 10 living artists’ works with 10, 20th century dead ones.
April 2007
Over 100 students performed to very high standards in GCSE Art Craft and Design, AS Textiles, Photography and Fine Art. The eye catching variety of responses to exam questions were displayed along with coursework in June. The students received a 92% A* to C success rate.
July 2007
Year 10 worked with our Science department at the same time as they were developing their Eco Garden and growing food for participation in DOTT07, and produced a sculpture with Tree sculptor David Gross which is now sited in the Eco Garden.
Year 9 completed their SATs last June and we dissolved their timetable so that they could opt for Cultural and Vocational subjects not available on their regular timetable. Mr Lightfoot offered “Regeneration, a Tale of Two Cities”, in which they took part in National Architecture week and answered the question, “If you put a contemporary Art gallery on a river, will regeneration follow?” Their exhibition in our Art department concluded “Yes” after they compared Middlesbrough Mima and Middlehaven with Gateshead’s Baltic gallery and Gateshead Quays.
Lowrys famous “view of St Hildas” was part of Mimas second exhibition “works from the Permanent Collection”. Students went over the border to stand on the spot where he set up his easel. One girl realised she had lived in that street before it was bulldozed!!
September 2007
Year 11 set up their own market stall in Centre Square Middlesbrough, to show off their “Dangerous plant designs” which had been inspired by a visit to the Duchess of Northumberland’s Poisons Garden. The general public were impressed by this vocational venture which was part of Middlesbrough Borough Councils “Art and Food” event. Over 100 market stalls with a wide variety of applied arts took part.
Our new Year 10 Artists visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield to be inspired by the three-dimensional works of Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Andy Goldsworthy, Elizabeth Frink and many more. Their recently completed sculptures have taken the form of proposals for local roundabouts.
Year 12 and 13 Textile students visited a unique Harrogate show in which they were inspired by marvellous textile works and took the opportunity to buy exotic materials from the various marked stalls.
Year 12 had a day off timetable and 15 students opted for Art and Design Vocational day in which they questioned one of Mimas Architects, Dave Wallis from Jujoc about their rationale for the building. Their resulting drawings will form part of the coming Bauhaus exhibition set in Mima’s education space.
October 2007
Ian Hinley, a Year 12 Fine Art student made a speech at the conference of North East Art Educators in Mimas lecture theatre documenting our Academies links with the gallery so far.
November 2007
Year 7 completed an integrated project with Art, Music and Technology in which they combined musical composition skills, with electronic circuitry and experimental print-making to produce a card that plays music and lights up when you open it. We called this initiative, “Celebration upon arriving at Secondary School”.
December 2007
Mima – Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Arts 3rd temporary exhibition opened and Year 12 Fine Artists made simple perspective drawings in the gallery and used them to create an installation in the education space. The resulting works form part of this internationally renowned show, only the 2nd of its kind in Britain. Well done Year 12, we look forward to the development of your architecture unit and like your work done with simple black tape in the corridor space in the Art and Design department.
Future Events
January 2008
Year 10 visit the Oriental Museum in Durham City to gather information on the art of the far east as part of their 2nd unit in which they are expected to respond to works created by non western cultures and find meanings in carvings, banners and prints.
Year 12 – continuing with their Art and the build environment unit will visit Durham Cathedral to make studies in this great 8th wonder of the world. They are expected to express their feelings of awe at being in such a majestic masterpiece of medieval art by making drawings and photographsFebruary 2008
Half term – 28 students from Years 8 to 13 will be participating in an Art and Cultual visit to Amsterdam in which they will visit the Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Rijks museums to sample some of the worlds most well known art, whilst taking in the very different culture of the Dutch people. Students will climb the stairs to where Ann Frank once hid from the Nazi’s and cruise along the canals seeing some of the most magnificent architecture in Northern Europe, Dutch food, etchings, tulips, trams and bicycles will be just a few of the things they will be sampling.
We look forward to hosting Miss Georgina Peak for her 2nd and final teaching practice here in the department during the Spring and Summer terms. Students will benefit from her skills and innovative ways of delivering our Art and Design Programmes of Study. Welcome Georgina.
Department Staff
| Name | Position |
|---|---|
| Mr I Lightfoot | Head of Department |
| Mrs A Charlton | Teacher of Art |
| Mrs C Weldon | P/T Teacher of Art |
| Mrs J Ward | Second in Department |
| Mrs C Ellington | P/T Academy Displays |
| Mrs. E. Spencer | Classroom Assistant |