◀ Back

Art — Teesworks & Reclaimed Spaces

Spring 2 (6 weeks) · Made by Matt · madebymatt.uk · 3D sculpture · 2026–27

Unit enquiry

Can a structure built from card, wire and plaster argue for something that should exist on a real Teesside site?

Where this sits

Autumn 2 and Spring 1 were surface and teaching. This term the work stands up. Frames, voids, patinated surfaces, then a site and a proposal — the first unit of the year where pupils argue for a piece of public art rather than only make one.

Kit: card · scissors · wire and cutters · glue gun · Mod Roc · acrylic · sponges · sand · masking tape · camera. Card slot construction needs no glue at all — it is the zero-kit route and it stands perfectly well.
Three tools need the bench cards before Week 1. Scalpel, glue gun, wire cutters and Mod Roc all appear this term. Print the cards from the House Standard & Studio Safety sheet. Tools counted out and counted back in; nobody leaves until a missing one is found.

Contextual anchors

Teesworks and Dorman Long are contested locally. Keep the unit on the art and the place rather than the politics, and expect some pupils to have family who worked those sites. Handled with care that is a strength, not a risk.

Week by week

Week 1: Armature & Frame participation · all levels

Enquiry: What makes a structure stand up — and still let you change your mind?

Diagnostic: too weak collapses; too rigid cannot change; right stands and stays alterable. Triangles cannot deform.

Week 2: Scale & Negative Space participation

Enquiry: Can the gaps do as much work as the material?

Diagnostic: solid block, all void, or right — read the silhouette against a window.

Week 3: Surface & Patination creating

Enquiry: How do you make new card look like eighty years of weather?

Diagnostic: Mod Roc too wet slumps, too dry cracks and will not bond. Rust is never uniform.

Week 4: Contextual Study — Kapoor, Whiteread, Barlow artist AND organisation

Enquiry: Which sculptor changes what I do next?

Artist Decision Matrix week. Research only counts when it changes something.

Week 5: Site Integration creating · audience

Enquiry: Can I make people believe it is already there?

Diagnostic: camera at the sculpture’s eye level, not yours; match the light.

Week 6: Proposal, Pitch & Review presenting · leading

Enquiry: Why this, why there, and what does it ask people to notice?

Three pitch channels of equal weight: spoken, mounted board with a recorded walk-through, or written proposal.

Award mapping — one unit, three jobs

This unit runs in all three rooms with the same materials and the same diagnostics. What differs is the award part it evidences. Every week sheet carries the mapping across all three levels, and the Evidence Locator sorts it at claim time.

No GCSE assessment objectives anywhere. This provision runs Trinity Arts Award only. Never map a sheet to AO1–AO4 and never use GCSE grade bands. Tiers are Supported / Standard / Stretch.
No hours threshold, ever. Trinity’s guided-learning figures are guidance only. The adviser audits parts, not attendance. Every week carries a recovery route evidencing the same part — not a lower route.

What a trained adviser still needs to provide separately

A trained Arts Award adviser must audit the complete personal arts log against current requirements before confirming any claim. The centre is registered and the adviser is trained at Explore, Bronze and Silver.

Artsmark is whole-setting development, not an individual pupil award. Nothing here is Artsmark evidence unless the setting is actually on an Artsmark journey. Partnership activity is logged separately in the staff Arts Partnership Log.

Add locally approved, credited Teesside reference images before teaching. Artist and organisation choices are deliberately left open so they can be approved locally.