Students' octopus art takes pride of place

Year 11 Waterhead Academy art pupils have brightened up the Royal Oldham Hospital

WATERHEAD Academy pupils have helped to make visiting hospital a brighter experience for patients.

The Year 11 art and graphics students worked with a professional graphic designer to create a piece of art for the Royal Oldham Hospital.

Pupils aged 15 to 16 took part in a series of workshops with artist Rob Vale to create "Cephalopod" - a large octopus mural that took five months to complete.

Mr Vale said: "This has been a fantastic example of a collaborative project between the hospital trust and local academy. The students were really interested in creating something to be shown beyond the walls of the school and worked hard to take their artwork into a different direction through digital means."

A huge series of circular sections cropped from drawings and paintings made up the bulk of the design as well as individual digitally-created tentacles.

The octopus image was designed specifically for the hospital's main corridor as an artwork that would flow down the space, inviting visitors to explore its detail and the hospital beyond.

Waterhead Academy principal James Haseldine said: "I hope visitors to the hospital will enjoy it for years to come and I am delighted that our students are contributing to their community."

The mural formed part of the students' Art GCSE course work for which they were given a brief to produce a project for a "real" client.

Waterhead Academy career lead Neil Wilson said: "I would like to express my thanks to the trust for providing our students with this fantastic opportunity and we look forward to working collaboratively in the future."

Angela Greenwood of Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Oldham Hospital, said: "It has been wonderful to work with teachers Neil Wilson and Julia Duxbury, Rob Vale and the Waterhead Academy students on this project. The project is a great use of art and the students' talents to produce a stunning piece of artwork."