Making Your Mark - A Scottish Printmaking Heritage Outreach Project
Making Your Mark Year 1
Making Your Mark aims to introduce new audiences to the wealth of Scottish printmaking heritage, through exhibitions, storytelling, discussion & practical hands on sessions. In partnership with Glasgow Life and with support from The William Grant Foundation, Year 1 of the project aimed to explore ways to use the Archive in engaging activities and raise awareness of the Glasgow Print Studio Archive.
Making Your Mark Exhibition at Partick Library
“Brilliant exhibition in a great space, would be nice to see more of the Print Studio’s incredible output! The additional info supplied is fascinating!” Comment from library visitor.
From March to June 2016, a selection of 13 prints from the Archive were exhibited at Partick Library. Project Artist, Rachel Duckhouse worked with Education Officer, Sarah Stewart and Archive Curator, Kerry Patterson to select works from the Archive. The general theme for the show began as ‘posters’.
The Archive has a collection of posters which were printed on site right from its early years. Some of these were commercial jobs and helped to fund the organisation to enable it to offer facilities to artists. More broadly, the exhibition took the style of posters as a familiar medium for both commercial and personal expression, employing a visual language that is accessible to all.
The activities kicked off with a multi sensory storytelling session in Partick Library by Drama artist, Clare Hume. Inspired by the prints on show, Clare created a magical story,incorporating movement, sound & touch. By creating imaginary characters she brought the works to life and explored the magic of the creative process with a printmaking focus.
“Fantastic way of telling the story and keeping everyone involved.” Comment from parent.
Come See sessions were held by Project Artist, Rachel Duckhouse and Education Officer, Sarah Stewart to give the public an opportunity to hear more about the archive works on show and printmaking processes.
A lovely group of ladies from the Annexe, Connects2 Project in Partick took a closer look at the Making Your Mark exhibition before the practical session began in the local community centre. A group of adults who signed up for our free print workshops also took time out to be inspired by the exhibition.
Local historic events, Glasgow landmarks and the changing development of the telephone exchange system were some of the topics inspired by the posters on show.
“Its marvellous,.. complex and beautiful prints, before this session I was assuming they were paint.” Comment from visitor to Come See Session.
St Peter’s Church Hall in Partick was the venue for our free pop up print workshops. Images, signs and lettering were exposed onto screens as a starting point and the children were asked to design their own posters using the screens provided. Each child produced individual and personalised posters to take home.
Professional printmaker, Rosalind Lawless worked with Rachel to deliver the printing activities and provide technical expertise.
“Thank you so much for a brilliant workshop. The kids loved it!” Comment from parent.
The pop up sessions for adults ran over 3 weeks, the first 2 sessions were held in the local church hall in Partick, and the third concluded in the Learning Zone at Glasgow Print Studio. The group used hand cut stencils to produce 3 & 4 colour screenprints inspired by the idea of Posters.
“Running the workshop over 3 weeks means that you can really learn from your mistakes/successes and use it in the next session”
“Being able to run one of the weeks in GPS was really great and a nice way to round of the workshop”
Comments from participants.
A special 3 week session was scheduled with the Connect2 project in Partick. A Community group for people age 60+ aimed to improve physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Inspired by the activities of the group who meet weekly to knit and natter , the group decided to produce a group poster using hand cut stencils. Each person chose a letter to design and print inspired by the little hand puppets that are knitted and sent to families around the world including Syria, Nepal, Malawi and Tanzania.
Make Your Mark @ GPS
A second group, The Variety Club, from The Annexe community centre signed up for a 2 day workshop taking a closer look at prints from the Archive and responded to them by creating their own small screenprinted edition. Using the professional workshop the group learned from Rosalind & Rachel, how to prepare separations, expose screens and print on the professional Kippax benches.
A sense of achievement was definitely in the air by the end of day two.
“Its all been great. Making a ‘proper’ print. Learning skills from the best teachers. Watching others learning and learning from them too”. Workshop participant
Making Your Mark SHOWCASE Exhibition @Trongate 103
While a key aim of the project was to engage new audiences and strengthen links with local communities by developing opportunities for people to participate and explore creative means of expression through fine art printmaking. It was important to provide an opportunity to showcase the work that was produced throughout the project and invite participants to celebrate and share their new skills and prints in a Showcase exhibition within Trongate 103. Featured on our First Thursday event, we welcomed over 8o% of the participants to the opening night which included an Archive Room : Come See event, which gave visitors a behind the scenes look at the Archive Room.
“Thanks again for last night. They had a great time and are still talking about it today. The whole Making your Mark project has been a great experience for everyone involved, they have loved every moment of it and are well chuffed with their masterpieces. Thanks again, it has all been much appreciated.” Connexe 2 Programme Manager
Project Artist Rachel Duckhouse explains how she felt about her involvement in Making Your Mark
“It was fantastic spending time with the archive, there are so many prints I'd never seen before. It gives a real insight into how GPS has developed over the decades, in terms of visiting artists' and members' work and the technical processes employed.
Sharing all this with the different groups we worked with was a real treat - seeing how differently they responded to the selected works, and helping them produce some really original and unique prints, both in Partick and here in the workshop. I learnt a lot from watching them. Thank you Partick!
Following a focus session in Partick Library at the end of the project , an additional element was suggested. To host an exhibition of the prints that were made during the workshops back into Partick Library. This idea was in our original plan and wonderful that the community involved felt this would be an ideal way to complete the full process. Work is currently underway to arrange a date and install the work within Partick Library. Watch this space for updates. Plans for Year 2 are currently in development .
“Year One of Making Your Mark has exceeded my expectations, made extra special by the people who came along to take part with commitment, enthusiasm and an openness to learning new things. I am excited to see what can be achieved and who we can introduce to printmaking in Year 2.”
Sarah Stewart Education Officer
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