Leicester Print Workshop (LPW) is the Midlands centre of excellence for fine art printmaking. We are at the forefront of printmaking practice and we ensure it continues to be a thriving contemporary art form. We nurture talent and support creative practitioners to develop their skills and achieve their creative ambitions. Our large, open access studio is in a RIBA award-winning building, providing specialist facilities for stone and plate lithography, etching, engraving, relief, letterpress, screenprinting, and artist studios. Open to members, it is used by people from around the world and around the corner, and supported by a community of artists to thrive and grow.
LPW is shifting to be more closely aligned with our local context of inner city Leicester and serve a civic agenda to make culture work meaningfully for our constituents and city and as tools for social and cultural change. We are committed to responding to urgent contemporary issues which are rooted in our local context of a culturally diverse, post-industrial East Midlands city and approach these from a multidisciplinary and global perspective.
LPW was first established in 1986 and became a registered charity in 1993. In 2015 it moved to its new RIBA award-winning building situated in Leicester's Cultural Quarter, where alongside the studio space, it benefits from a gallery, shop, education space, framing room and 10 permanent artist studios. Leicester Print Workshop is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation (NPO).
Adult and Youth Education Programme
LPW is committed to expanding and diversifying models of art education through printmaking and to become a substantial centre of alternative education outside of traditional learning establishments. LPW delivers an adult and youth course programme which encourages an expanded notion of printmaking at the intersection of multiple disciplines, for a wide range of abilities and interests.
Public Programme
We have developed meaningful partnerships with a wide range of regional schools, community groups, libraries, art organisations and colleges for our extensive outreach programme, which has diversified and widened our reach and taken printmaking into multiple and diverse community and educational settings.
LPW is seeking additional funding for an ambitious public programme of four major commissions per year, each aligned with broader social movements and local community partnerships, and a programme of events to engage with the research that informs our institution and programme.
Studio Membership
Leicester Print Workshop is home to around 200 artist members. Members pay annual subscriptions to access the fully equipped studio during its opening hours. The studio is staffed by expert technicians and following an induction, membership is open to artists and printmakers of any ability. Following an external membership consultation, our new membership model and pricing policy will apply a principle of solidarity that gives everyone, regardless of financial means, the opportunity to participate in LPW's membership and programme. We will introduce a pay-what-you-can sliding scale based on individual means, ranging from those in receipt of state benefits to those who have a comfortable level of disposable income, and we have introduced free bursary memberships for those in the asylum system and with no recourse to public funds.
