Our Big Move

Leicester Print Workshop has a great opportunity to create a new arts flagship, a thriving centre for printmaking, in the heart of Leicester.

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Untitled, 2016, cmyk screen print adhered on MDF board, 19(h) x 13 (w) cm

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Love these variations from Sumiko.

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Next blog...

Not much likely to happen on this blog any more, so please check our the new LPW blog for all printmaking news & opportunities:

Printmaking Central

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Our new studio made the front page of Architects Journal website! Thanks to Takero Shimazaki and t-sa Architecture, and to Anton Gorlenko for the beautiful photographs.

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Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who supported Our Big Move.  We have been the fortunate recipients of a huge amount of help, support and good will over the past two years.  And following a very happy series of launch events and our first month of functioning as a wonderful new printmaking studio and a few more print sales we are happy to announce that we got there!  We raised all the money we needed and we were able to deliver the project within budget.  

We will close for Christmas on Thursday 17 December at 4pm and will open in 2016 (our 30th birthday year) at 10am on Tuesday 5 January.   From January we will open 5 days a week and if you want to know more about going on a course, becoming a member or if you want to see what exhibitions we have on, please visit our website or call in and see us.

Happy Christmas and thank you for your support.

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Since our last post we’re delighted to say, we have launched!  We held our Lift Off Launch party supported by Everards on Tuesday 3 November and followed that up with Our Big Open Weekend on 7 & 8 November where we sold prints, showed people round the building, held printmaking activities to celebrate Diwali, demonstrated printmaking by screen printing our Rugby World Cup poster and litho printing an exhibition poster.  The builders are snagging, we’re having some follow up works done as we get used to the site and make a few tweaks and our final pieces of equipment are on order or being made.  We’re open for business but we’ll be spending the weeks up until Christmas finishing everything off.  

Thanks again to everyone who has supported Our Big Move over the past year or so and to everyone who came to join our launch events.  

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Our Big Launch Weekend, this weekend, features a Print Bazaar, where many of the prints will be on sale for £25, helping us to raise funds. You can also buy mugs, tea towels, our love Leicester posters and you can make Light Up Lanterns, take home a Rugby World Cup poster, watch a lithograph being made and pick up our brand new programme.

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We made great progress at our big volunteering weekend (ii) with cleaning, painting, carpentry, cleaning, gardening and more cleaning.  We are less than two weeks away from our big launch weekend on 7th and 8th November and there is still lots to do. Thank you to all the volunteers who came on Saturday and Sunday and all those who are booked to come in this week.  We’re getting there! 

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Our Big Move Time Lapse Film

Time lapse film showing Our Big Move to 50. St. George Street

3 minutes of film showing 6 months of building work.  It stops at the stage we were at a couple of weeks ago, there’s a lot more been happening since then! Only two weeks until we open....

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We’re working flat out to get our new building ready for opening in November and we need a few more volunteers on our volunteering weekend on 24 and 25 October to help us with painting, carpentry, gardening, cleaning, weeding, moving, unpacking - all sorts of things.  We need a handful more people so if you can help for a day or even both days, please email the address on the poster.  Thank you so much and thank you to everyone who has already been helping on this epic journey!

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The presses have been dismantled and are en route to St. George Street, we're packing up our offices today and the removal men arrive tomorrow ... it's all happening but we have just £2,452 left to raise to meet our target. Can you help? http://www.leicesterprintworkshop.com/ourbigask

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Today was day two of our volunteering weekend.  Upstairs the studios walls are up and some are awaiting cladding. Downstairs the kitchen and all our utility rooms are painted. Everyone was fed and watered.  We have a great team of volunteers and friends and we’re grateful to you all.  Lots more to do over the next few weeks.

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Today was the first of our big volunteering days.  We had about 20 people helping out with painting, sweeping, carrying, woodworking and making lunch and tea.  Home made biscuits and cake, lovely fresh sandwiches and numerous cups of tea kept us going.  By the end of tomorrow we will have built the structure for our upstairs studios and painted the kitchen and all the utility rooms and store rooms.  On Monday after the builders pack up for the day a team of volunteers will be going in to paint some of the floor upstairs and then in two weeks time, when the builders have left site, there’ll be cleaning, painting, tidying, unpacking, gardening and much more to do.  We’re heading for the final furlong!  Thank you very much to everyone who helped out, we had a great time with you all.

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It’s just a month until we open our new doors for our LAUNCH WEEKEND on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th November. Read more about it here! We hope to see you there.

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Thank you to all those who have donated to support our big move.  This week we received over £1200 from kind supporters including a generous anonymous donation it means we are less than £2500 away from achieving our fundraising target.  Here are some photos of the studio at St Stephens Road that we are now packing up, taken on our last open day, 24 September.  We are spending October sorting, packing, moving, painting, cleaning, constructing, organising and generally getting ready for our first open access day on 4 November and our first open weekend on 7 & 8 November. 

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Our St. Stephens Road Studio is now closed and we are beginning to pack up ready for Our Big Move. We've now got just £3,652 left to reach our target, meaning we can can very nearly invest in improved printmaking equipment for our new Studio. Our Big Ask: can you help? All donations will be very graciously received!

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Today saw another site visit. This week the architects and builders talked about the balustrades on the voids that link upstairs and downstairs, the windows and plumbing, amongst other things.  There were plenty of Brown & Shaw builders on site as well as their contractors, all working hard to get the site finished by mid October.  More information about us and using the studio can be found on our website.