Factory Friday: DCA Print Studio

As part of our ongoing Factory Friday series, where we delve into the stories behind Scottish manufacturing, we are focusing in on some of the facilities and workshops where you can make work yourself in Scotland.

To kick it off, we've interviewed Annis, who is the Director at Dundee Contemporary Art's (DCA) Print studio, an open access workshop for the production of (primarily) printed work.

How did DCA Print studio get going?

Scotland is unique in the world in having funded print- (and sculpture-) workshops from the 60's and 70's to the present day.  The workshops started as cooperatives, in the main cities of Scotland, to enable art graduates and other artists to carry on working after college.

In Dundee the Printmakers Workshop had several homes before it latterly became housed in the Seagate.  In the 90’s it joined with the local independent cinema (The Steps Theatre) and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in applying for Lottery funding for a new Art Centre.  The result was the amazingly successful Dundee Contemporary Arts.

Thanks to the support we now get from Dundee City Council and Creative Scotland we can offer very low-cost access for everyone to amazing equipment and expertise. 
Printmakers from other countries are always astounded by the resources we have.

We know that you have a lot of people through your doors, is there a typical client who comes in to use the space?

There is a really wide range of people; from complete beginners, who have little or no experience of art and design, to art students, graduates and established artists and expert printmakers. We also work with schools and community groups of all different kinds through DCA Community Education.  

Then there is our editioning programme, where we work with some of the best regarded artists from all over the world as well as Scotland.  We really enjoy that variety and the challenges it poses to our skills and experience.

Over the years you've worked with the likes of David Shrigley and Martin Boyce. Are there any particularly memorable pieces that you've seen produced at the studio?

I have been here quite a long time so there are a lot of them!  I have worked with some brilliant artists to make editions beginning in 2000 with Anya Gallaccio. Working with Martin Boyce on his work for the Venice Biennale would be one highlight, and being able to go to Venice to see the work with him. 

One of my personal favourites was a huge printed installation False Positive, False Negative we made with Jane and Louise Wilson for their DCA show in 2012.

Image from Fourme Fouryou

Another highlight was working with DCA Curator Graham Domke to present an exhibition of the work of Sister Corita Kent and 5 contemporary artists who have been influenced by her. (There will be new rules next week) As a part of that we worked with Ciara Phillips.  

A recent project we worked on, along with the four other print workshops was Below another sky through which we were funded by Creative Scotland to work with artists Julia Dault, Emily Floyd, Robert Orchardson and David Shrigley through a residency programme.  The main benefit was that the artists were funded to spend a good amount of time working with us to produce some really innovative work.

Where can we see some examples of work produced at DCA Print studio out in the world?

We are about to take a fantastic suite of prints we made with Lucy Skaer: Hogarth Reprinted, to VOLTA Art Fair in New York. (2-6 March 2016)  We’ve not been to that venue before so it is very exciting.

Otherwise we exhibit works around DCA - sometimes in the main galleries if the exhibiting artists have chosen to make a print work with us as a gallery piece. We have some of our editions currently in our Print Space, although until last week we had a very varied show by Print Studio users.

We also regularly attend art fairs such as Multiplied (Christies) in London.

What's it like being based in Dundee? What's the creative scene like?

It is really thriving.  Obviously it is a much smaller city than Glasgow or Edinburgh and there is not the same commercial gallery scene, but we have some great artist-led organisations, particularly Generator, and there is always something going on. DCA is responsible for some really exciting exhibitions and there is also the McManus Gallery.

A lot of digital art is happening here and there are two universities (Dundee University and Abertay) producing graduates in all the visual art disciplines so they also have excellent exhibition programmes and activities.

The Dundee Print Collective is an active ingredient of the scene with groups such as Ross Fraser McLean's Blue Sky Photo Club, and Dundee Print regularly producing collaborative projects and exhibitions. One of the DPC’s most recent projects Silk Road was exhibited in Hangzhou, China.

Photograph by Chris Park

We are all really looking forward to the new V&A to open in Dundee, watching Kengo Kuma’s building taking shape is fascinating.

Dundee was recently designated the UK’s first UNESCO City of Design, which is a real endorsement of all the fantastic creative work that goes on across the city.

Thank you very much to Annis for telling us about all the fascinating work that's been going on at DCA Print Studio, you can find out more about the DCA Print Studio on their Make Works listing

If you'd like to read more about printing check out our Guide to Printmaking