An Exhibition by Print Club
In March 2022 we received funding from the Glasgow Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund through GCVS to pilot a nine month ‘Print for Wellbeing Club’ programme in Glasgow’s Southside. The aim of the project was to provide fully subsidised screen printing education to individuals that we engage with through our wider wellbeing programme, which has been running since 2018, and is an integral part of what we do. A lot of the individuals we meet through our work within the third sector want printing experiences that go beyond the workshops or courses we run with them. ‘Print Club’ would allow participants to work on longer term projects in a group setting with the same professional help from our team.
We decided to host the weekly Print Club at The Deep End, a venue which is part of Govanhill Baths Community Trust. We’ve been running our monthly Screen Printing Taster Sessions at The Deep End for the past year, and it was imperative for us to choose an accessible venue, in a different part of the city to our High Street studio. GBCT has been a wonderful partner to work with for both our Taster Sessions and Print Club, and we massively appreciate their continued support.
Through Print Club we have engaged with both new and existing referrals from Glasgow Disability Alliance, The Marie Trust, Beatroute Arts, South Lanarkshire Lifestyle Centre and more. We’ve had people attend for a few sessions and over a few months: working on personal printing projects using the same professional screen printing tools we have available for members in the studio. It’s been amazing to see participants’ screen printing confidence and ability grow, and for ourselves and club attendees to develop meaningful relationships and a sense of community.
““The sessions have been challenging at times for me due to my disability but I’ve been encouraged and supported by the staff members taking me out of my comfort zone! I’ve really enjoyed learning new skills and having prints to take home at the end of it. Definitely a sense of achievement.””
The work that has been produced at Print Club has been of such a high quality that we felt it was important to give it a public presentation in the form of an exhibition in November. We enlisted the help of studio member Gianpiero Franchi to professionally mount the works, which we then carefully curated for display at The Deep End. It was wonderful to see the works elevated in this gallery setting, and for Club artists and the general public to come together on the opening night. Following the end of the exhibition the mounted pieces were given to the artists for them to keep and display how they wanted - although we had several inquiries asking if works were for sale!
As the initial pilot project comes to an end, we want to once again extend our thanks to GCVS, Govanhill Baths Community Trust, Print Club attendees, support workers, Print Clan staff, and all the partners who have been involved in this project. It has been a hugely beneficial programme for all who were involved, and we hope to be able to continue to run it in the future.
