Adopt an Artist

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Adopt an Artist: Running with Scissors

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Adopt an Artist was a pilot partnership project involving art students from Edinburgh College of Art and teaching students from Moray House School of Education. The students were asked to devise activities for young learners in schools inspired by works from the National Galleries of Scotland’s collections.

The use of artists and artworks in the classroom encourages unique approaches to learning and a visual understanding of concepts. It places creativity at the heart of subjects whereby the normal rules are broken and the learner’s imagination is allowed to ‘run away with scissors!’

The project aimed to demonstrate how art can be used successfully and imaginatively across the curriculum, to have an impact on the future of education and embed the role of art and artists in the classroom.

The Task

The Moray House teaching students were asked to ‘Adopt an Artist’ (an art student from Edinburgh College of Art) and plan together to address the needs of the young learners in the classroom, enabling creative learning. This involved creating a set of activities, inspired by art works from the National Gallery of Scotland, to teach the subjects Mathematics, English Language and Art & Design.

Participating Schools:Beeslack Community High

George Heriot’sLeith Academy

North Berwick HighThe Royal High

Queensferry Community High

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Rowena Ashrad, The Dean of Moray House, School of Education, requests that if you do nothing more than skim this book, please read these words from Callum Arthur, one of the PGDE student teachers of Maths:

“I’m a student maths teacher and art is sort of the furthest thing on my mind really when it comes to day-to-day teaching and day-to-day life. Art doesn’t really factor in. And so when this opportunity came up I was thinking, “Wow, this is a really wonderful opportunity to try something different, to really push myself in terms of my teaching practice and in terms of my own mathematical skills. How can I apply this and create something that people will want to look at?” I was working at North Berwick High School with a third year class. It was a great opportunity to play to the strengths of the learners in front of me. Many weren’t very good at mathematics... but so many of them were fantastic at getting involved in practical projects and being creative and really working hands on to build something. So to be able to deliver the mathematics in that way brought out a whole new side to the learners that I was working with and enabled them to show me that actually they’ve got so many skills, so many talents, so many things to offer me that I wasn’t seeing by delivering mathematics in a traditional way. In moving forward from this project as a maths teacher, I’ve seen that I need to try different things. I need to take risks, I need to run with scissors and be creative and imaginative in the way that we deliver mathematics, English and art because kids can do amazing things if we give them that opportunity.”

The Adoptive Process Began

Students met each other at Edinburgh College of Art, where Moray House teaching students delivered presentations in their subject areas (Mathematics, English and Art) and ECA Art students introduced their work in the form of Pecha Kucha presentations. Afterwards the students got into groups.

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Our A

dopted Families

Carol DuffFrancesca Hawker

Hazel PowellClaire Fruish

Lucas Galley-GreenwoodCallum Arthur

Hannah Jayne Deans

Amy BrownAnna GleizerAnna MarksAnya Gleizer

Sophie WardenDaryl McKee

Robyn PaulKaren Spence

Alice ChandlerNed Armstrong

Ed CompsonCaroline Smith

Michelle O‘DonoghueHelen Leigh

Florin Macanu*

Frankie BurrAshley Bradley

Mary HartleyKaty Thomson

Nikolaos Karavellas*Morgan Orr* Olivia Turner*

* Not Pictured

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Jo Mawdsley introduced the students to the Education Department at the National Galleries of Scotland, outlining the different types of learning that takes place there. Students then began to discuss together in their groups, identifying the art works they wanted to work with from the collection.

The National Galleries of Scotland

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A Valuable Lesson

Student teachers planned and delivered lessons in their own subject areas, which offered the art students the opportunity to experience a teaching and learning environment across the curriculum. Teaching through art, the student teachers of Maths demonstrated the unpredictability of form and shape; student teachers of English encouraged creative writing inspired by painting; and student teachers of Art showed the joy of making in a group.

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The following pages detail the artist students, student teachers and schools involved in the project; the subject areas they were working in; the artworks they chose to work with from the National Galleries of Scotland; documentation of the creative diaries they made along the way; and the final display boards they created for the exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland to present the process to the public.

The Project in Practice

p.12 Beeslack Community High Schoolp.16 George Heriot’s Schoolp.20 Leith Academy

p.22 North Berwick High Schoolp.28 The Royal High Schoolp.32 Queensferry Community High School

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Beeslack Community High School

Moray House Student: Caroline SmithECA Students: Ned Armstrong & Ed Compson Supervising Teacher: Jacqueline TeasdaleSubject: Art and DesignYear Group: S1NGS Artwork: Poets’ Pub by Alexander Moffat

We worked with an S1 class at Beeslack Community High over 4 consecutive lessons to develop visual responses to the painting Poets’ Pub by Alexander Moffat.

The students began discussing the painting before selecting a section to recreate. They were encouraged to respond to colour and shape, whilst learning about scale and proportion. The class then worked in small groups, using their imagination to respond to pieces by the poets in the painting. Although challenging, they all produced unique illustrations inspired by the poems.

The class responded well to the visiting artists and appeared to benefit from the learning experience. This process was positive for all involved and will certainly encourage similar projects in the future.

- Caroline Smith, Ned Armstrong & Ed Compson

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Moray House Student: Karen SpenceECA Students: Robyn Paul & Alice ChandlerSupervising Teacher: Jacqueline TeasdaleSubject: EnglishYear Group: S2NGS Artwork: Tidal Series by The Boyle Family

Whilst looking at poetry within the English curriculum, we focused on haikus, short three lined poems, often derived from nature. To introduce the project, we showed a work by the Boyle Family named Tidal Series that embraces place, site and nature. The artists wrote their own haikus from this artwork to help the students visualize how their poems may become artwork also.

From this inspiration, the students wrote their own haikus, with nature as the focal point, similarly to that of the Boyle Family. Using origami, line drawing and some other forms of construction (sometimes involving elements from nature itself!) we brought the poems to life. Paper birds, butterflies, drawings of the weather and plants now decorate the English corridors of Beeslack High, each decorated with the student’s own haiku poetry.

- Karen Spence, Robyn Paul & Alice Chandler

Beeslack Community High School

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Moray House Student: Amy BrownECA Student: Anna GleizerSupervising Teacher: Monique MassieSubject: EnglishYear Group: S2NGS Artwork: The Kiss by Auguste Rodin and Francesca da Rimini by William Dyce

We began with a question: How can we meaningfully incorporate art into Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet?

We came together in George Heriot’s school from different backgrounds: Anna Marks and Anya Gleizer were artists from Edinburgh College of Art, Amy Brown – a student teacher and Monique Massie – the class teacher. We were faced with the challenge of bringing Romeo and Juliet, a 16th century tragedy, into the modern age ensuring that the students were aware of the contemporary relevance of the play.

Using art to build a hands-on metaphor enabled the children to understand that a shadow or a silhouette, obscures details but presents instead an iconic outline – the image of a pair of star-crossed lovers: Romeo and Juliet. The children’s art, created collaboratively through shadow, light, and silhouette demonstrates this concept.

- Amy Brown & Anna Gleizer

George Heriot’s School

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Moray House Student: Sophie WardenECA Student: Daryl McKeeSupervising Teacher: Carole McGirrSubject: Art & DesignYear Group: S1NGS Artwork: Matchead by David Mach

Taking inspiration from David Mach’s choice of materials (matchsticks), we created tonal drawings of African animals made up solely of circles. We used smaller circles for darker areas and larger circles for lighter areas of tone.

We then explored texture, setting up different stations using different materials including raffia plaiting, paper beading, mixed media surfaces and paper sculpture.

We drew our milk bottles from observation as the base of our masks. Then we designed our masks by applying the different techniques we had learnt to our drawing.

We collaged over our milk bottles with tissue paper and used paper pulp to add structure. We then decorated our masks using the objects we had created during the technique workshops.

- Sophie Warden & Daryl McKee

George Heriot’s School

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Leith Academy

Moray House Student: Michelle O‘Donoghue ECA Students: Helen Leigh & Florin MocanuSupervising Teacher: William MackaySubject: Mathematics Year Group: S1NGS Artwork: Edinburgh (from Sailsbury Crags) by William Crozier

It was a cold spring Tuesday morning when our journey at Leith Academy began. Maths and Art were soon to be acquainted. The students were ready and waiting for their class to begin, sitting curiously in their seats thinking; how are we ever going to have an art lesson in maths?

As the crayons & jigsaw pieces were handed out some cheered and some groaned. There was an element of mystery throughout the project, ‘is it an Elephant?’ One student asked as ideas rumoured around the classroom as to what it would be.

Panic and excitement set in on the last day to complete the jigsaw and unveil the masterpiece! Everything was coloured and soon the whole class gathered to discover what their team work had led to produce.

- Michelle O‘Donoghue,Helen Leigh & Florin Macanu

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North Berwick High School

Moray House Student: Hannah Jayne DeansECA Students: Hazel Powell & Francesca HawkerSupervising Teacher: Sheila CalderSubject: Art and DesignYear Group: S1NGS Artwork: The Spider by Alexander Calder

Students at North Berwick have been investigating the varied and exciting ways that artists have responded to their environment. We have been involved in lots of critical discussions and activities exploring both the traditional methods of making artwork as well as other more unconventional methods, and these have been challenging our pre-conceptions of what constitutes “art”.

Students have concluded their journey by making artworks out of wire, inspired by the wire sculptural work of Alexander Calder and a trip to the beach. They have been developing their sculptural skills to make some fantastic sculptural fish; these have also been enriched with texture and details using close observations of fish and small objects collected at the beach.

- Hannah Jayne Deans, Hazel Powell & Francesca Hawker

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“Who is this man?” Miss Fruish asked our class, S2 pupils at North Berwick High School.

Normally we have English lessons run by Mr Fell, but we had a nice surprise when Miss Fruish and Mr Galley-Greenwood said we would create artwork for the National Art Gallery.

We were shown a portrait but not told who the man was. Some thought he was advertising Irn-Bru, whereas others said he was telling civilians to join the army. From our ideas, we created collage propaganda posters.

In the end it was revealed the painting was Henry Raeburn’s ‘Colonel Alastair Ranaldson Macdonell of Glengarry’. The project made us understand propaganda and its uses around the world.

- Hannah Dalrymple & Amy Dempster, S2

Moray House Student: Claire FruishECA Student: Lucas Galley-GreenwoodSupervising Teacher: Mr FellSubject: EnglishYear Group: S2 NGS Artwork: Colonel Alastair Ranaldson Macdonell of Glengarry by Sir Henry Raeburn

North Berwick High School

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Moray House Student: Callum ArthurECA Student: Carol DuffSupervising Teacher: Amer HabibSubject: Mathematics Year Group: S3NGS Artwork: 1.7.68 by John Hoyland

The first challenge was to find an artwork that would provide a stimulating and exciting starting point for a series of lessons through which pattern and 3-D nets were to be studied.

The painting by John Hoyland is deceptively simple: regular shapes and restricted colours, so the second challenge arose from the use of those forms and colour in an investigation into different permutations of pattern. Additionally the students were asked to consider the function of scale.

The final challenge presented itself when the students were asked to create a 3-D structure using a design from their investigations.

The resulting sculptural pieces show that an artwork can successfully engage in mathematical knowledge, understanding and problem solving.

- Callum Arthur & Carol Duff

North Berwick High School

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Moray House Students: Katy ThomsonECA Student: Olivia Turner & Mary HartleySupervising Teacher: Lois Combe & Julie HowieSubject: Art and DesignYear Group: S2NGS Artwork: The Wave by Gustav Courbet

Our project began by introducing the students to The Wave by Gustav Courbet. We chose to contrast his approach with the work of Richard Long and Michael Craig-Martin and discussed the different ways in which artists respond to the theme of nature. Over the weeks we have been on a journey to explore a variety of techniques responding to the natural environment. The students have made natural pigments, gathered research from the environment around the school, experimented with mixed media techniques, made weavings and described textures using mono printed marks. The students concertina books document this journey.

At times the project has proved challenging as a result of my inexperience as a student teacher but brought bountiful rewards by exposing the students to another perspective, one that broadens the student’s ideas of art beyond their experience of the subject in the classroom and introduces them to the perspectives of artists in the wider world.

- Katy Thomson, Olivia Turner & Mary Hartley

The Royal High School

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Moray House Student: Morgan OrrECA Student: Nikolaos KaravellasSupervising Teacher: Helen McHarrieSubject: EnglishYear Group: S2 NGS Artwork: A View of Venice by Bernardo Bellotto

Our class had recently studied The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. A trip to the National Gallery of Scotland was organised so pupils could visualise the setting of Venice from the paintings.

In class pupils worked in three groups to produce a leaflet of information about our trip; a graphic novel based on Shakespeare’s play and a cover for the class’ collection of creative writing pieces.

Each task required pupils to tell a story using images, while exploring a range of writing styles. Pupils worked enthusiastically throughout the project and learned a range of valuable skills.

- Morgan Orr & Nikolaos Karavellas

The Royal High School

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Moray House Student: Ashley BradleyECA Student: Frankie BurrSupervising Teacher: Gillian NessSubject: Mathematics Year Group: S2 NGS Artwork: Spirals by Louise Bourgeois

We looked at circles and their properties within the maths curriculum.  There are a vast number of works involving circles in the NGS collection but we were drawn to the endless circular shapes in the current ARTIST ROOMS exhibition, A Woman Without Secrets - Louise Bourgeois. We structured a three week plan around this exhibition, finally choosing Spirals as our inspiration.

The pupils learnt about circumference, diameter and radius, made drawing machines (homemade pair of compasses) and found circles within spirals. Staying with Bourgeois’ colour pallet of red, black and blue they made drawings using Biros, string, found objects and themselves.  They calculated the size of all the circles they found within the spirals then made them from wire, mapping their position in the final piece. The circles were then attached to create this abstract piece.

- Ashley Bradley & Frankie Burr

South Queensferry High School

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Adopt and Artist: Running with Scissors exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland

Running with ScissorsExhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland showcasing the Adopt an Artist project, 21 March to 30 May, 2014

The exhibition at the National Galleries is the endpoint of this particularly innovative pilot partnership project which brought together PGDE Secondary student teachers of Maths, English and Art; artists from ECA and school teachers in local secondary schools in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

Working in partnership arrangements with their adopted artists, student teachers and school staff used the extensive and inspiring collection available in the National Galleries to create inspiring and creative teaching for learners in different subject areas in the secondary school. The project has been about taking risks – running with scissors in fact – in secondary education to improve engagement and understanding through the medium of art. Young people have developed their understanding through art by, for instance, making graphic novels in English; sculptures which look at understanding shape and nets in 3D maths and in art, the young learners were introduced to practicing artists and were inspired by their work.

Tutors in Moray House have been staggered by the creativity and commitment which student teachers have demonstrated in their planning and teaching. Student teachers have taught each other and learned from each other. Learners in schools have had the opportunity to participate in and learn in different ways and with artists from outside the usual communities of schools.

This project has demonstrated that working in partnership provides the opportunity for the co-production of knowledge between student teachers, artists and young people. Working through Art and with Artists has been about satisfying and developing the curious and the creative. As Bergman said, ‘The Arts communicate and speak to us in ways that teach literacy and enhance our lives. We must continue to find a place for arts programs and partnerships not only for what it teaches students about art, but for what it teaches us about the world we live in.’

- Lynee Pratt, Head of Programme, PGDE Secondary

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List of artworks

p.12 Poet’s Pub by Alexander Moffatt. Scottish National Portrait Gallery

p.14 Tidal Series by The Boyle Family © Boyle Family. All rights reserved, DACS 2014

p.16 Francesca da Rimini by William Dyce. On long term loan to the Scottish National Gallery

p.18 Matchead by David Mach © DAVID MACH

p.20 Edinburgh (from Salisbury Crags) by William Crozier. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

p.22 The Spider by Alexander Calder © 2014 Calder Foundation. New York / DACS London

p.24 Colonel Alastair Ranaldson Macdonell of Glengarry by Sir Henry Raeburn. Scottish National Portrait Gallery

p.26 1.7.68 by John Hoyland © Estate of John Hoyland. All rights reserved, DACS 2014

p.28 The Wave by Gustave Courbet. Scottish National Gallery

p.30 View of Venice by Bernardo Bellotto. Scottish National Gallery

p.32 Spirals by Louise Bourgeois. ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland Lent by Artist Rooms Foundation 2013

The University of Edinburgh Collaborating staff:

Amanda Gizzi, Art & Design Education Moray House School of Education

Susan Mowatt, School of Art, Edinburgh College of Art

Lynne Pratt, English Language Moray House, School of Education

Tom McIntyre, Mathematics Moray House,School of Education

Joanna Mawdsley, Education, National Galleries of Scotland

Jane Coombs, George Heriot’s School

Support: Ciara McDermot, Moray House School of Education

Thanks to schools involved and support from Management teams and in particular department staff.

Photography on covers and on pages 13, 15, 19, 21, 25, 27, 29 (upper 2), 30, 31, 33, 34 & 37: Tom Nolan

Publication Design: Siân Robinson Davies

AAA Logo Design: Andy McGregor

ISBN: 9781904443599

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