Postcards from Scotland - Open Access Print Studio's

Hello!  Have you been wondering where we've been this last four weeks?  While the press's have been on a sabbatical, so have we... to Scotland!

For the last month we've been exploring the land of the kilt, bagpipes and scotch whiskey while making our way up the east coast and back down the west.  During our adventures we came across (and tripped over!) some interesting print related people and places which we thought our Myrtle Street Studio readers might enjoy knowing more about.  We'll begin with the Open Access Print Studio's.

Finding Edinburgh Printmakers (EP) was like locating a small jewel.  Situated in the 'New Town' of Edinburgh, it has an inviting Georgian frontage and once inside, a really cosy atmosphere as you step into the shop and administration area of this pleasantly bright space.  The gallery is located up a flight of stairs to the second level and it isn't until you reach these two rooms and move to the second one at the rear that you come to a large glass window which affords you a wonderful view out into the rear of the building where the print studio itself is located.  The day that we visited we were treated to a pleasant surprise with the viewing of 'An Informed Energy: Lithography and Tamarind Prints' from the well known and respected Tamarind Institute of Lithography in New Mexico, USA.  The best part though, was being able to see the print studio from such a great vantage point and the printmakers as they went about their business - nice to see the studio getting such good use!  The studio has facilities for all printmaking processes (including stone lithography, screenprinting, digital and photo-etching options) and runs regular courses.

While in Dundee we visited the Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) which houses two contemporary art gallery spaces, an arthouse cinema complex, print studio and shop.  The DCA was initiated by the Dundee City Council partially in response to the need for an exhibition and further workspace for the local college's art and design students and to newly house an existing gallery space along with the Dundee Printmaker's Workshop.  With this fantastic foresight the fairly recently designed, semi-industrial style of this building still manages to have a nice human scale with clean lines when you get inside.  And again, the best part about the space is the open nature of it which affords you great views (through glass) to the expansive print studio on the same level beyond while you sit in the cafe.  Unfortunately the print studio was closed on the day we were in but the DCA workshops are a refreshing mix of overlap between contemporary film, photography, digital and print media with the more traditional print processes and bookbinding (check out the fish printing workshop!).  One of the exhibitions on show in the DCA Editions area of the gallery included a nice surprise with the some printed works of a favourite art group (Chicks on Speed) displayed.  We felt the mix of moviegoers, art enthusiasts, working artists and the lunch-time office cafe set to be a great way to create more flow-through for the print studio and shop which are both well appointed and staffed and that the whole place reflected how mixed-use spaces can really benefit all involved.

Our last major open-access print studio was located in Glasgow at the Glasgow Print Studio (GPS), an artist led and partially state arts/local council funded print body.  This print studio was by far the largest of the three we visited in terms of space (and works on display), located in Trongate 103, a newly refurbished building complex which houses glasgow's modern art scene including multiple contemporary art studio's, galleries, a theatre and a cafe to boot!  The Print Studio shop was very busy and appeared to be doing quite well.  There are two galleries of which the smaller one is located on the ground floor and was showing the works of Marion MacPhee (who's monotypes were superb) while on the second floor we took in the exhibition - After ‘Growth and Form’ by Sam Ainsley and Roger Wilson which we mostly enjoyed as the exhibition showed not only the paper based printwork of these two, but the acrylic canvas work and mixed digital overlapped with print work executed by the artists - a well rounded viewing of their processes on the common theme of bio-mathematics in relation to D’Arcy Thompson’s book 'On Growth and Form'.  We were unable to gain access to the third level where the print studio is located but the GPS does offer a very comprehensive workshop, further training and outreach program along with a well catered for traditional printing studio (excluding lithography) and excellent digital facilities.

Overall, we felt that the access studio's we saw while in Scotland were very well catered for and appreciated by the communities and council's in which they were situated.  Being a mixed-use facility, having a shop and viewing access to the studio's (in two of three cases) made for a really active and well used space at each facility and (as could be seen) encouraged sales of work for the participating printmakers.  The quality of work was very high and while traditional approaches were quite well represented, the very strong push into crossing these boundaries with digital, new media, photographic and mixed media was a very welcome sight and we hope this active embracing of new technologies and interdisciplinary approaches to printmaking continues back home also!

If you are interested, next week we'll delve into some of the printmakers active around Scotland too!