The Manchester Academy of Fine Arts (''MAFA'') was founded in 1859 by artists eager to promote

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

and

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

. It was originally based in the building on Mosley Street which is now

Manchester Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three ...

where annual exhibitions and classes were held.

Exhibitions and workshops

The Academy holds member exhibitions, talks and workshops at venues across

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

and North West England. Venues have included Bury Art Museum,

Gallery Oldham Gallery Oldham is a free-to-view public museum and art gallery in the Cultural Quarter of central Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. Design Designed by architects Pringle Richards Sharratt, Gallery Oldham was completed in its original for ...

Salford Museum and Art Gallery Salford Museum and Art Gallery, in Peel Park, Salford, Greater Manchester, opened to the public in November 1850 as the Royal Museum and Public Library. The gallery and museum are devoted to the history of Salford and Victorian art and architect ...

, Atkinson Art Gallery,

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Iris ...

, Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery and

Dean Clough Dean Clough in Halifax, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England, is a group of large factory buildings built in the 1840s–60s for Crossley's Carpets, becoming one of the world's largest carpet factories (half a mile long with of floorspace) ...

Membership

There is currently an elected membership (full and associate members) of over one hundred artists working in a variety of disciplines including

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, printmaking, drawing,

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

and

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

. Members have played a significant role in the

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

art scene for over a century, including the design of several of its buildings and public works.

Past members

Past members of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts have included Alfred Waterhouse (architect of Manchester Town Hall),

Ford Madox Brown Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his most notable painti ...

LS Lowry Laurence Stephen Lowry ( ; 1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Lancashire (where he lived and worked for more than 40 years) as well as Salford and its vicinit ...

, Käthe Schuftan, Norman Adams, Emmanuel Levy and

Anne Redpath Anne Redpath (1895–1965) was a Scottish artist whose vivid domestic still lifes are among her best-known works. Life Redpath's father was a tweed designer in the Scottish Borders. She saw a connection between his use of colour and her own. ...

. Past presidents have included the artists William Knight Keeling and

Robert Crozier Robert Crozier (October 13, 1827October 2, 1895) was an attorney, judge and politician from Kansas. A Republican, he was most notable for his service as Chief Justice of the Kansas Supreme Court (1864–1867) and United States Senator from Kan ...

."History of Mafa: Past Presidents"
, ''Manchester Academy of Fine Arts'' website, accessed 11 November 2009 Annie Swynnerton and Emma Magnus were some of the first pioneering women to be elected in 1884. The work of John Cassidy, the first sculptor member, can be seen in

Manchester city centre Manchester City Centre is the central business district of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England situated within the confines of Great Ancoats Street, A6042 Trinity Way, and A57(M) Mancunian Way which collectively form an inner ring road. ...

Manchester School of Art

The Academy has close links with art education and currently supports graduate students at

Manchester School of Art Manchester School of Art in Manchester, England, was established in 1838 as the Manchester School of Design. It is the second oldest art school in the United Kingdom after the Royal College of Art which was founded the year before. It is now par ...

, now part of

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...

, by awarding annual prizes and offering the opportunity to show work in Academy exhibitions. A link with

has existed since the Academy's foundation: past and present members have taught and studied there. Some have studied elsewhere under recognised artists: Margaret Pilkington was taught by

Lucien Pissarro Lucien Pissarro (20 February 1863 – 10 July 1944) was a landscape painter, printmaker, wood engraver and designer and printer of fine books. His landscape paintings employ techniques of Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism, but he also exhi ...

at the

Slade Slade are an English rock band formed in Wolverhampton in 1966. They rose to prominence during the glam rock era in the early 1970s, achieving 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The ''British Hit Singles ...

Harry Rutherford Harry Rutherford (19031985) was a British painter who is regarded as one of the most important painters of the "Northern School", a group led by L. S. Lowry which depicted the post-industrial changes around North West England. He was the first ...

studied under

Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...

and John McCombs was taught by Leon Kossoff at St Martin's School of Art.

Presidents

External links

References

*Dewsbury, Sheila, ''The Story So Far: The Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, 1859–2003''. *Davies, Peter (1989), ''A Northern School'', Bristol: Redcliffe Press. *Davies, Peter (2015), ''A Northern School Revisited'', Clark Art Ltd. *Wyke, Terry (2004), ''Public Sculpture in Greater Manchester'', Liverpool University Press. *Manchester Academt of Fine Arts, Archive. *Marks, Diana F. (2006), ''Children's Book Award Handbook'', Libraries Unlimited (Chapter 6 on

Randolph Caldecott Randolph Caldecott (; 22 March 1846 – 12 February 1886) was a British artist and illustrator, born in Chester. The Caldecott Medal was named in his honour. He exercised his art chiefly in book illustrations. His abilities as an artist were pro ...

and the Randolph Caldecott Medal). *Nairne, Sandy and Howgate, Sarah (15 March 2006), ''The Portrait Now'', Yale University Press. *Thomson, Susan W. (2007), ''Manchester's Victorian Art Scene and its Unrecognised Artists'', Manchester Art Press. *Buckman, David (17 September 2003), "Tom Titherington: Obituary", ''The Independent''. {{authority control F Culture in Manchester Arts organisations based in the United Kingdom 1859 establishments in England Arts organizations established in 1859 Organizations established in 1859 Organisations based in Manchester Organisations based in Greater Manchester Clubs and societies in Greater Manchester