Staff

There are three full-time art teachers as well as an artist in residence, a technician and a part time potter. All the staff bring a wide range of expertise to the school and have strong links with the art and design world, exhibiting their own work, inviting guests into the school and visiting studios and galleries. In recent years there have been artists in residence whose specialities have been in painting, photography and textiles.

Facilities

The department has specialist facilities for sculpture, print making pottery and photography.

In addition we have a resource/lecture room with slide and digital projection facilities where pupils can go for reference books, internet use, scanning and photocopying or use the computers to develop their work.

A-Level Students

A Level students have their own dedicated studio space and are encouraged to develop their own personal styles in a variety of different mediums.

Life Drawing

Life drawing classes are run on two evenings of the week with pupils from other schools and adults joining in as well.

Art Activities

Held after school on most days, these allow pupils to continue projects and paintings that they are doing in lesson time.

The Pottery room is also available after school, for wheel throwing and sculpting.

Art Expeditions

Workshops in specialist areas are organised and trips both abroad and within the UK are an important part of the course.

In addition there are several weekend activities throughout the year including animation and photography.

Yearly theme

2007/8

So what did we leave behind us last year? The theme of ‘Traces’ certainly left its mark on the department, whether it lies in the memories of trips to Skye, Blair House, Washington and New York, or in the more physical evidence of the impressive scale and range of artwork that has been produced. The Richard Long exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art at the start of the year certainly got many off on the right path, raising questions about our journeys on this planet and about those who may have travelled them before. The Andy Warhol exhibition also provided a great stimulus, from the ‘Time Capsule’ boxes to the silk-screen prints that exploit the marks of mass production. Leena Namarri from the Edinburgh Printmakers’ Workshop kindly ran some excellent weekend workshops in the department so that pupils could understand and enjoy using this medium to express their ideas.

Charlotte Watters was a particularly hard working artistin- residence, whose work was well suited to the theme. Her poetic sculptures enjoyed juxtaposing and highlighting the minutiae around us that many take for granted. Her presence on the A-level Skye and Blair House trips was invaluable, allowing the pupils to appreciate how much they had failed to observe on apparently simple walks. Charlotte put on several exhibitions during the year, including one in the staff room, in which she drew our attention to the bothy-like qualities of the quiet room! Charlotte recently finished building a boat with her boyfriend. and they are now sailing around the west coast putting on exhibitions. Perhaps she is now bringing the musty atmosphere of the EA staff room to the west?

The highlight of the year for me was the Washington and New York trip. The terrific stamina of the members of this group was matched by an unrelenting positive approach while they visited the many galleries, theatres, monuments and skyscrapers. Even the several unplanned subway stations and the long search for a non-existent river taxi couldn’t dampen their spirits. The sketchbooks that they returned with were jam-packed not only with beautiful observations, but lifelong memories.

Richard Murphy, who is in the process of leaving his own inimitable mark on the Edinburgh Academy campus, very kindly agreed to open the end-of-year exhibition. He made several interesting observations during his speech. The one I enjoyed the most was the connection between ‘ambition’ and ‘creativity’. This year has seen many ambitious pieces of work and plenty of creativity. The moderator’s comments which adjoined our best ever AS results, second-best Alevel results and second-best GCSE results congratulated the breadth and individuality of the work on view. She admired the ambitious scale of the work and wrote of how much they were looking forward to what will be achieved by those who will be returning the following year. This has been a fantastic year, and it has defi nitely left behind it several lifelong ‘Traces’. Let us now look forward to seeing what can be achieved and created in ‘Utopia’.
D. L. Prosser

Theme for 2008 - 9: Utopia