Musselburgh Grammar Art & Design Blog

Recently, all S2 pupils have been taking part in our fantastic ‘Magic Memories’ project.

Pupils have been exploring Homecoming Scotland themes of what Musselburgh and Scotland means to them and their families, and what their Magic Memories are, and turning them into artwork and prose.

The project, which fits in well with a A Curriculum for Excellence, is the fruit of a lot of hard work by pupils, staff and the community. In English, pupils were asked to interview either members of their families or members of the community. In Art & Design, pupils worked with two great textile artists, Saskia Gavin and Alison Mountain. Working with the artists, pupils learnt how to work with felt and they each created a piece based on what Musselburgh mean to them.

With help from both Homecoming Scotland and the Community Council, work from this project has led to an exhibition for the Musselburgh on the Fringes Festival.  The Magic Memories exhibition is free and runs from 29 June to 28 August and the work is displayed in business windows around Musselburgh. The route starts in North High Street and takes in Musselburgh High Street and Newbigging.

For further information and photos (of course!), check out our Magic Memories page under A Curriculum for Excellence.

As part of A Curriculum for Excellence, the Art & Design, RME and English Departments worked together on an Anti-Sectarianism project.

It was a fantastic, innovative project that really brought Departments together and allowed pupils to use their experiences and knowledge across the curriculum. In Art & Design, pupils from 2CA designed Anti-Sectarianism posters, with Hayley Johnston taking first prize. Hayley’s ‘Cut Sectarianism Out of Your Life’ design can now be seen displayed in every classroom in the school. In RME, pupils composed Acrostic poems and in English, puils read ‘Across the Barricades’ and wrote a book report.

A large number of pupils involved then took part in a trip to Ibrox and Parkhead where they had a tour of the grounds and took part in workshops where they found out how both Rangers and Celtic dealt with the issue of Sectarianism.

To end the project, on June 3rd, Kenny Miller the Scotland International football player and former Musselburgh Grammar School pupil, returned to his old school to present awards to the prize-winners. Kenny is only one of three players to ever play for both Rangers, his current club, and Celtic making him an ideal choice to be able to reflect on Sectarian issues in Scotland.

It was a great project to be involved in and one in which we all learned a lot. Thanks to all those who participated, pupils, staff, guests and designer! A list of all the prize winners and photographs can be see on our Competitions and A curriculum for Excellence pages. Large Display boards showing images of the project can be viewed throughout the school.

It may have taken a while to find the photos, but finally here they are!

To set the tone for the new S3 course, the Art & Design Department decided to break with tradition and try something different for the last few weeks of the session! Out went our traditional course and taking ‘A Curriculum for Excellence’ forward, we decided to link with other Departments and put on ‘Mussie Makeover’, a fashion show aimed at highlighting environmental issues.

The theme was to recycle and reinvent - something our new S3 did brilliantly. The purpose was to build skills, build relationships and confidence as well as enjoy putting on a show!

Art & Design, Citizenship, English and Maths all worked together to produce this successful event. Well done everybody - a great day and a fun day!

Thanks to all who contributed - the designers, the models, the photographers, the staff and of course the hostess with the mostest - Mr ‘Mac’Bray (yep, the most ’stylish’ of them all).

Check out the ‘A Curriculm for Excellence’ or ‘S3′ pages for more photos!