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. Va ...

. 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 c ...

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, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

and

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

. Venues have included

Bury Art Museum Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre, formerly known as Bury Museum and Art Gallery, is a public museum, archives, and art gallery in the town of Bury, Greater Manchester, northern England, owned by Bury Council. Built in 1901, the Museum's buil ...

, Gallery Oldham,

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, 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 ...

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniq ...

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...

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 sc ...

and ceramics. 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 Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known f ...

(architect of

Manchester Town Hall Manchester Town Hall is a Victorian, Neo-gothic municipal building in Manchester, England. It is the ceremonial headquarters of Manchester City Council and houses a number of local government departments. The building faces Albert Square to th ...

), Ford Madox Brown,

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 Käthe Fanny Schuftan (12 January 1899 – 21 February 1958) was a German Jewish artist whose paintings and drawings expressed both human suffering and the aspiration of spirit, in the mid 20th century. Josef Paul Hodin wrote that she "worked in ...

, Norman Adams,

Emmanuel Levy Emmanuel Levy (19001986) was a Manchester painter, teacher and art critic. Career Levy studied art in Manchester, London and Paris. Under Pierre Valette at the Manchester School of Art he was a fellow student of LS Lowry. In the beginning he ...

and Anne Redpath. Past presidents have included the artists

William Knight Keeling William Knight Keeling (1807–1886) was a British (Victorian) artist, an illustrator of Walter Scott's novels and Shakespeare's plays, a founder member and the third President of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. Background and Career ...

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 Annie Louisa Swynnerton, ARA ( Robinson; 26 February 1844 – 24 October 1933) was a British painter best known for her portrait and symbolist works. She studied at Manchester School of Art and at the Académie Julian, before basing herself in ...

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 School of Art

The Academy has close links with art education and currently supports graduate students at Manchester School of Art, now part of Manchester Metropolitan University, by awarding annual prizes and offering the opportunity to show work in Academy exhibitions. A link with Manchester Metropolitan University 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 Margaret Pilkington (25 November 1891 – 2 August 1974) was a British wood-engraver who was active at the beginning of the twentieth century. She was a pupil of Noel Rooke at the Central School of Art and Design and was a member of the Soci ...

was taught by Lucien Pissarro at the Slade, Harry Rutherford studied under Walter Sickert and John McCombs was taught by

Leon Kossoff Leon Kossoff (10 December 1926 – 4 July 2019) was a British figurative painter known for portraits, life drawings and cityscapes of London, England. Early years and education Kossoff was born in Islington, London, and spent most of his early ...

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 and the

Randolph Caldecott Medal The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service ...

). *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