What happens when artists are given time, space, and the right conditions to really make work?
Making Space: Community Printmaking in Burnley is a six-month artist development project creating exactly that: a shared printmaking studio where artists can experiment, learn from one another, and build momentum in their practice, right here in Burnley.
This project is about slowing down, staying local, and making work properly.
Why This Project Exists
Burnley produces talented artists. What it doesn’t yet have is enough space for them to keep going once education ends.
After college or university, access to workshops, specialist equipment and peer networks often disappears overnight. Printmaking presses, darkrooms and safe chemical facilities are impossible for most artists to have at home, and short-term workshops rarely offer enough depth to support real development.
Making Space responds directly to that gap. It’s not a course, a competition or a one-off workshop. It is a period of supported making, designed to help artists develop confidence, skills and direction at a crucial point in their careers.
A Shared Studio as a Creative Engine
At the heart of the project is a shared printmaking space: not just a workshop, but a place of exchange.
Eight emerging and mid-career artists will work alongside one another over six months, using printmaking as both a technical process and a way of thinking through ideas, materials and sustainable approaches to making. Time spent in the studio will be unhurried and purposeful, allowing artists to experiment, take risks, and follow ideas that might otherwise be sidelined.
Working collectively matters. Conversations happen naturally at the press. Techniques are shared, and confidence builds through seeing others work through challenges. This project treats peer learning as a core creative resource, not an add-on.
What Artists Will Gain
Artists taking part in Making Space will receive:
- Sustained access to shared printmaking facilities
- Paid time to develop their practice
- Technical support and facilitation
- Materials to enable experimentation
- Opportunities for peer learning and professional reflection
Just as importantly, they will gain time, which is something many artists rarely have once work, caring responsibilities and financial pressures take hold.
By aligning the project with the school term and focusing on daytime access, the programme is designed to be realistic and inclusive, particularly for artists with young families or insecure working patterns.
Environmentally Responsible Making
Printmaking has a reputation for being resource-heavy. This project actively challenges that.
Making Space foregrounds environmentally responsible processes, encouraging artists to explore non-toxic methods, material reuse and more sustainable ways of working. Sustainability is not treated as a constraint, but as a creative framework that shapes how work is made and why it matters.
Looking Ahead
Making Space: Community Printmaking in Burnley is both a standalone project and a test of a longer-term vision. The learning gathered through this programme – what artists need, what works, and what supports sustained practice – will directly inform the future development of Community Studios as an artist-led resource in Burnley.
This is about proving that ambitious, high-quality artistic practice doesn’t have to happen elsewhere. With the right support, it can happen here.
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