Not another crossroads!

Print Research Network

Printmaking it seems is at another crossroads, and the signposts are confusing. Whilst there are murmurings of a resurgence in printmaking we are also being asked ‘is printmaking dead?’

The question surely should be; ‘Has printmaking got a future?’ The answer just as surely must be ‘Of course it has!’… and that answer should be shouted loud and clear. However, with some universities in England closing print departments in favour of digital and video suites, and others marginalizing the print departments to be no more than service areas for all students to dip into, printmaking is facing a crisis, at least in higher education.

If there are fewer printmaking degrees to be studied, are there fewer printmakers, and are there less teachers capable of teaching printmaking to the next generation?

It has to be said that there are many fine art degrees and masters courses which have good print departments in the UK, and let’s face it some students will get a better and broader experience at art college than possibly 20 years ago. But the drain of printmaking resources and expertise at higher education must stop, or in 10 to 20 years we will be discussing where we went wrong and going about the business of blame.
Universities such as UWE; Bristol, Anglia Ruskin; Cambridge, Brighton and Bradford are all standing tall, but there are too few places to do a printmaking degree or masters.

Those interested in printmaking are turning to sources outside of universities to learn printmaking and open access print workshops in the UK are going from strength to strength, with more and more people seeing them as an alternative or an add-on to their art education. However the experience of art college, of being in a vibrant educational environment that offers thought and challenges ideas, cannot be experienced just anywhere. The university art department is the true breeding ground of the next generation of printmakers.

We all have a responsibility for the future of printmaking. For printmaking to have a good future those in charge of printmaking departments must put their heads above the parapet and make things happen…(and when have you met a printmaker that cannot talk into the early hours about issues surrounding printmaking?)

The Print Research Network has the potential to bring university lecturers and heads of departments together in a common goal, to take printmaking forward, and to not let the accountants or the short sighted middle management of universities, (intent on advertising to the outside world, at least on the surface, that they are contemporary and modern), erode the foundations of printmaking, take away the core of print activity, and actively allow printmaking to be taken out of the equation to the next generation of artists as a truly modern medium.

I am not talking about rhetoric or research points here, I am talking about action to get printmaking at the top of the agenda again. I am talking about the need for a network of printmaking departments that are outward looking, aiming to work together to get to all those who find it hard to know where to go to learn about screenprinting, etching, relief printing and digital image-making, to show all those choosing fine art that print is modern and part of the armoury of the contemporary artist. I hope that the PRN catalyses printmaking lecturers to have a good look at their department and ask are they pushing the boundaries and offering students the full print experience. Can they do more?

The time is now to act and build a positive philosophy towards printmaking to strengthen our position and extend our knowledge.

‘Philosophically speaking we are right in the centre of fine art where the physical nature of the subject can expand. We are also in a period where anything is possible…where a love of rudimentary materials and basic methods runs alongside a fascination with the computer….’ Tim Mara

Sean Rorke
8 Oct 2007
Lecturer in printmaking, (De Montfort University, Leicester), Development Manager for Hot Bed Press, Salford, printmaking consultant and artists printmaker.