This year we are celebrating 25 years – a huge milestone for a small organisation!
In 2025, through a number of special activities and events, we will celebrate and showcase the creativity and energy of our members and the visiting artists who have contributed to the amazing printmaking that has taken place at 19a Clarence Street over the years.
We will also be offering our usual exciting and varied Workshop Programme, exhibiting members’ work and leading MiniPrint Cymru | Wales alongside the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art in 2025/26.
We look forward to a fantastic year ahead and we warmly welcome everyone to take part in an activity or event and share in our celebrations.
Artist Book Project | A members’ only opportunity initiated and led by members. The book is exhibited in the Exhibition at Oriel Q Gallery, Narberth.
We have had a number of group projects in the past and they have all been successful in setting up a platform for shared printmaking experience, often in quite challenging ways.
The Artist Book project has probably been one of our most challenging and productive very largely due to the level of support and encouragement from our Open Access supervisors, Yvonne Hills and Louise Hughes who have volunteered many hours of open access supervision. It has also been a great sharing of expertise and getting to know other members. It has also been good to see the workshop so busy.
It also allowed us to produce more technical support information for general use in the studio as we shared results from producing 25 prints with a range of processes.
The book project involved 23 member artists producing an image in black and white around the theme of Swansea. There were several meetings where we discussed the themes and the best printmaking techniques to use. It was great to see some first time printers taking part.
It was interesting to see all the different approaches taken to the theme. Not everyone lives and works in Swansea so there is a very varied input.
Having decided on the final images, each artist had the task of printing a copy of their print for every member of the group. This meant editioning the prints to have 25 identical copies printed on specially commissioned paper – a daunting task for even very experienced printmakers. The book is bound on a concertina format and ‘expands’ to a length of 4 metres on display.
Each artist has a complete set of prints to take away in the form of a book. This also involved working with Carole King on two bookbinding workshops.
A copy of the book i snow on display in Oriel Q Narbeth as part of our 25 Year Celebrations
Exhibition at Oriel Q, Narberth | 16 May – 5 July 2025.
We are delighted to have been invited to exhibit work at this highly regarded venue. We are showcasing work by invited artists and members and sharing the story of what we do @SPW.
Exhibition Private View | Saturday 17 May, 4 pm to 7 pm.
Members Group Print Days | 16 July 2025 FULLY BOOKED | 12 October 2025
Our Group Print Days are something very special and only available to our Members. Sarah Hopkins will be leading the collaborative print day; the theme is “Shorelines”. Always great fun! Previous Group Print Days can be viewed here.
MinersImprint at Queen Street Gallery, Neath | 1–29 March 2025. Another chance to see this exhibition of prints created through a collaboration between SPW and Swansea University to celebrate the South Wales Miner’s Library 50th anniversary. Prints by Paul Peter Piech and artwork by Hilary Powell, produced by the Josef Herman Art Foundation Cymru are also featured.
MiniPrint Cymru | Wales | A Wales-wide, collaborative initiative created to raise the profile of printmaking in Wales. Alongside artists across Wales, SPW members and the wider artist community in Swansea and south Wales are invited to submit small-scale prints for an exhibition. SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS ARE MIDNIGHT ON 28 JULY 2025.
As a volunteer-led, not-for-profit organisation without core funding, the support of our volunteers and members has been key to our journey to where we are now.
Since the very beginning, SPW has been very community-focused – not just the printmaking community but the wider creative and local community. We encourage everyone to make prints!
In About Us and our Archives you can find out how SPW began, its ethos and all the fantastic projects that we have delivered over the years including our other milestone anniversary – 15 Years People and Printmaking.
